Did I ruin my life?

Why wouldn't you read the superior Chapman or pope translation for your second go?

>reading the same book multiple times
the twists wont be exciting anymore

Pope is where it's at y'all.

Some comparisons drawn from the Illiad.

>Chapman
And as the floods of troubled air to pitchy storms increase
That after thunder sweeps the fields, and ravish up the seas,
Encount’ring with abhorréd roars, when the engrosséd waves
Boil into foam, and endlessly one after other raves;
So rank’d and guarded th’ Ilians march’d; some now, more now, and then
More upon more, in shining steel; now captains, then their men.

>Pope
As when from gloomy clouds a whirlwind springs,
That bears Jove’s thunder on its dreadful wings,
Wide o’er the blasted fields the tempest sweeps;
Then, gather’d, settles on the hoary deeps;
The afflicted deeps tumultuous mix and roar;
The waves behind impel the waves before,
Wide rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the shore:
Thus rank on rank, the thick battalions throng,
Chief urged on chief, and man drove man along.

>Lattimore
Down the Trojans came like a squall of brawling gale-winds
blasting down with the Father’s thunder, loosed on earth
and a superhuman uproar bursts as they pound the heavy seas,
the giant breakers seething, battle lines of them roaring,
shoulders rearing, exploding foam, waves in the vanguard,
waves rolling in from the rear. So on the Trojans came,
waves in the vanguard, waves from the rear, closing.

>Fagles
The Trojans attacked like a blast of a sudden squall
that swoops down to earth with lightning and thunder, churning
the dark sea into a fury, and countless waves
surge and toss on its surface, high-arched and white-capped,
and crash down onto the seashore in endless ranks:
just so did the Trojans charge in their ranks, each battalion
packed close together.

I can't speak for Palmer's translation but I found Reiu's recently revised prose translation from Penguin to an enjoyable.introduction to the story.

I say this as somebody who has yet to read a verse translation, which will no longer be the case once I pick one. A chore in itself, given the many on offer.

>Pope

Literally the worst translation. Pope could write some pretty poems but he was no Homer. Homer is a man's man. Pope is like some sort of effete hipster.

Mfw people actually like Pope's "translation"

>prose translation
BROOOOOOO

>pope iambic pentameter with aa rhyme
jesus christ why would he do this

I think I like the Chapman one best.

Pope's flows a lot better than Chapman. Chapman has such long lines the effect of the rhyme is basically lost. I think these two focused more on the auditory, or performance aspect of the Epic.

Fagles and Lattimore are both great, and I think provide a better reading experience. . Lattimore interweaves the imagery of a stormy sea with the trojan attack, while Fagles seems indulge in a reverie before bringing the reader back to war. The effect for both is brilliant, I'm not sure which I like more.

It's not supposed to fucking rhyme

>written in couplets
>not supposed to rhyme

ayy

>Chapman and Pope rhymed the verses
Oh god, no.

Different user. It really isn't supposed to. How the verses are spoken originally in Greek has no hint of any rhymes, and rhymes produce specific effects in the reader that weren't intended by the Greek writers of antiquity.

The only reason rhymes are included in some translations, especially older ones, is because of the the English Romantic idea that the best written word has to rhyme, so naturally in the Greek epics they had to fit in rhymes somehow.

Holy fucking shit Lattimore sounds roughly 10 trillion times better than the others, especially Pope's """"""""""'translation""""""""" lmao

I've read The Odyssey more times than I can count in all my 30 years - but never once in prose. If I wanted to read it in prose which translation would you say is best?

I know, I know, prose translation is a rape of the original yaddyadyada just humor me

Butler

nice comparison work

This. Samuel Butler's prose version is unbeatable.

Is Cowper cool for the Iliad?

>Pope
>translation