Description

n this new translation of the Odyssey, Norbert Albertson has succeeded in crafting a vivid and thoughtful English version of Homer's great work. Both true to the original and resonant in the present day, it is a masterful work of story-telling for readers of our time. Translator's note: The Greek Odyssey is one of the supreme achievements of the human mind and spirit. This book is not that Odyssey, but a translation, which-like all other translations of the Odyssey-like any translation of any work of literature-is a re-creation in a different language of some of the qualities of the original work. So at the very beginning, a translator must ask himself: "Which qualities of this work can I hope to -re-create?" If you look at a number of translations of the Odyssey, you soon see that each translator has answered that question in his own way, a way that differs-and usually differs greatly-from that of all the others. In On Translating Homer, Matthew Arnold, the great Victorian poet and critic, famously says that the qualities of Homer are four: he is rapid; he is plain and direct in thought and expression; he is plain and direct in substance; and he is noble. In this translation I have aimed at the first three, hoping (and partly believing) that, if I succeeded to some degree in those first three, the fourth would take care of itself.