Robert Fagles, Translator of Homer and Virgil, Passed Away.

NY Times announces the death of Robert Fagles, a renowned translator of Greek and Latin masters. He gave us great English versions for The Iliad (in 1990), The Odyssey (in 1996) and for The Aeneid (in 2006).

He also translated from Aeschylus and Sophocles, but rendering Homer and Virgil in English was his most important achievement.

Actually he was the only one succeeding in offering English versions for all three great epics of Greek-Roman Antiquity.

The success of his versions is based on the fact that Robert Fagles was not looking for an exact literal translation. He possessed the genius to express the spirit of the original in his own narrative energy and verve (NY Times).

Here is a fine example offered by NY Times: a small excerpt from The Odyssey in four English renderings.

Robert Fagles (1996)

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

Robert Fitzgerald (1961)

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.

Alexander Pope (1726)

The Man, for wisdom’s various arts renown’d,
Long exercis’d in woes, O Muse! resound.
Who, when his arms had wrought the destin’d fall
Of sacred Troy, and raz’d her heav’n-built wall. . . .

George Chapman (1616)

The man, O Muse, informe, that many a way
Wound with his wisedome to his wished stay;
That wanderd wondrous farre when He the towne
Of sacred Troy had sackt and shiverd downe.


I would add another example, the beginning of The Iliad, as rendered by Fagles and by Pope:

Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many styurdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.

and:

The Wrath of Peleus' Son, the direful Spring
Of all the Grecian Woes, O Goddess, sing!
That Wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy Reign
The Souls of mighty Chiefs untimely slain;
Whose Limbs unbury'd on the naked Shore [5]
Devouring Dogs and hungry Vultures tore.
Since Great Achilles and Atrides strove,
Such was the Sov'reign Doom, and such the Will of Jove.

Said Robert Fagles, in a sense, all translations are unfinished, one thing I have learned is that no one will have the final say, that each generation needs its own translation (W Post).

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(Here are these excerpts from The Odyssey and The Iliad in the Romanian version of George Murnu)

O, muza canta-mi mie pe barbatul
Viteaz si iscusit, care-ntr-o vreme,
Cand el cu maiestria lui facuse
Pustiu din ziduri sfinte de la Troia.
(fragment din Odiseea, versiunea George Murnu)


Canta, zeita, minia ce-aprinse pe-Ahil Peleianul,
Patima cruda ce-aheilor mii de omoruri aduse,
Suflete multe viteze trimise pe lumea cealalta,
Trupul facandu-le hrana la caini si la feluri de pasari.
(fragment din Iliada, versiunea George Murnu)

(A Life in Books)