{"id":2250,"date":"2019-12-08T12:54:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T12:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2019-12-08T14:35:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T14:35:49","slug":"greek-lyric-poetry-by-m-l-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/?p=2250","title":{"rendered":"Greek Lyric Poetry by M L West"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an interesting experience coming to M. L. West\u2019s Greek Lyric Poetry<\/em> after reading Stanley Lombardo\u2019s and Anne Carson\u2019s Sappho translations. With Lombardo and Carson, in any of the longer fragments and even in short phrases you find yourself reading English words that immediately strike home as living poetry. To be sure, something similar can happen in short snatches in West\u2019s translations, as in these lines addressed to a bridegroom:<\/p>\n

How handsome you are with your gentle eyes
\nand your lovely face all radiant with desire.<\/p>\n

West was of course an extremely distinguished classicist, and I can\u2019t judge the relative accuracy of his, Lombardo\u2019s and Carson\u2019s translations. It may be that his are in a sense the most faithful. The kind of sense I have in mind can be seen in his introduction, where he writes:<\/p>\n

Another necessity sometimes forced upon the translator is the use of words or expressions that have an old-fashioned air, simply because they correspond better than any current idiom to the Greek concept. This arises particularly in moral and ethical contexts.<\/p>\n

He suggests that \u201crighteousness\u201d corresponds better to the concept of dik<\/em>?<\/em> than the standard translation as \u201cjustice\u201d does, and goes on<\/p>\n

Again, the early Greek poets very often contrast the \u2018good\u2019 man (agathos<\/em> or esthlos<\/em>) with the \u2018bad\u2019 man (kakos<\/em> or deilos<\/em>). In English, \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018bad\u2019\u00a0 applied to persons refer simply to moral character, unless further qualification is added (as in \u2018a good man in a crisis\u2019). But in early Greek the terms refer predominantly to social status, inherited wealth, breeding, or the lack of these, often with the assumption that moral worth is their natural concomitant. In many cases agathos<\/em> is best represented by a phrase such as \u2018man of quality\u2019, \u2018man of class\u2019, or \u2018man of worth\u2019, and kakos<\/em> by \u2018rogue\u2019, \u2018rapscallion\u2019, \u2018bum\u2019, \u2018man of low degree\u2019 or the like.<\/p>\n

The explanatory part of that statement seems true, illuminating and valuable in an introduction but the conclusion West draws in that final sentence already suggests, before we read them, how ludicrously ineffective as poetry the language of some of his translations will be. Reading them, I found myself feeling that he\u2019d begun to approach English itself like an archaic dead language, an assemblage of dictionary definitions straddling centuries of usage. After all, the concepts he represents by his archaic phrases haven\u2019t simply died from the modern mind, they just require more indirect expression and harder work than he gives them. The truth, I think, is that words like \u201crapscallion\u201d simply don\u2019t jar his sense of living English. Look at this translation of Xenophanes:<\/p>\n

But if at running someone won a victory
\n…..<\/span>or in pentathlon at Olympia
\nby Pises\u2019 stream and Zeus\u2019 precinct, or again
\n…..<\/span>in wrestling, or the boxer\u2019s painful art,
\nor that demanding trial they call pankration,
\n…..<\/span>he\u2019d be more glamorous in the city\u2019s eyes;
\nhe\u2019d get a front seat at competitive events,
\n…..<\/span>and meals provided from the public purse
\nby vote of the city, and a prize to keep for aye \u2013
\n…..<\/span>e\u2019en if he won with steeds.<\/p>\n

“For aye”, “e’en”! As for the dogged hammering of the rhythm, I\u2019ve no way of judging whether that\u2019s a fair representation of Xenophanes\u2019 own style. If it is, I think it\u2019s an unkindness to represent it without improvement.<\/p>\n

In the end, we have to decide what we want verse translations to be for. I think one that fails to take fire as poetry is pointless \u2013 much better a prose translation that renders dictionary meanings as precisely as possible and gives context by detailed cultural and linguistic notes. At the end of his introduction West says,<\/p>\n

It has been an enjoyable task. I do not delude myself that all parts of the end product are likely to give equal pleasure to the reader. But if I have succeeded in opening any eyes, ears, or hearts to some portion of the manifold beauty, wisdom and wit that shines from these precious remnants of a brilliant culture of long ago, I shall be well content.<\/p>\n

His own love of Greek culture shines out movingly there. As a scholar, he seems to have made an impressive contribution to spreading knowledge and understanding of it. I\u2019m glad to have read his book for the information it contains. However, opening the reader\u2019s ears and heart through poetry is work for poets and the true delight of his book is in the all too rare moments when he himself seems to become one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an interesting experience coming to M. L. West\u2019s Greek Lyric Poetry after reading Stanley Lombardo\u2019s and Anne Carson\u2019s Sappho translations. With Lombardo and Carson, in any of the longer fragments and even in short phrases you find yourself reading English words that immediately strike home as living poetry. To be sure, something similar can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-greek-lyric-poetry","tag-greek-lyric-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions\/2253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}