tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470942948194520385.post955183872645358445..comments2023-02-14T06:57:41.001+00:00Comments on PHILIP WOMACK: Books of the Year, Day One: ClassicsPHILIP WOMACKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04568326890433679833noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470942948194520385.post-85014360574446466542011-12-28T13:16:49.850+00:002011-12-28T13:16:49.850+00:00Thank you for that. I was aware, I think, that Mit...Thank you for that. I was aware, I think, that Mitchell had no Greek; I think you are right in that it should be called a "version", and I have amended accordingly.PHILIP WOMACKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04568326890433679833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4470942948194520385.post-63743397681431209832011-12-28T11:26:43.878+00:002011-12-28T11:26:43.878+00:00There is nice irony in the statement that Stephen ...There is nice irony in the statement that Stephen Mitchell's "translation" of the Iliad "retained the grandeur of the original."<br /><br />According to Mitchell's own drafts, he poached at least part of his Iliad from a venerable, published translation, then disguised the plagiarized lines with phrases plucked from other published translations.<br /><br />The drafts appeared in a piece Mitchell wrote for the Wall Street Journal, "Found in Translation," November 12, 2011, p. C-3, and online at:<br />http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204190704577024470798695892.html?KEYWORDS=stephen+mitchell.<br /><br />There, Mitchell disclosed three sequential drafts leading to lines 50-55 of Book 1 of his Iliad (lines 49-53 of the original Greek).<br /><br />Mitchell's first draft was copied from the prose version of A.T. Murray (Wyatt rev., Harvard, Loeb Ed., 1999), page 16.<br /> <br />Murray has:<br /><br />"Then he sat down apart from the ships and let fly an arrow; <br />terrible was the twang of the silver bow. <br />The mules he attacked first and the swift dogs, <br />but then on the men themselves he let fly <br />his stinging arrows, and struck; <br />and ever did the pyres of the dead burn thick."<br /><br />Compare Mitchell's first draft (parentheticals his):<br /><br />"Then he sat down apart from (opposite) / the ships and shot (let fly) an arrow,<br />and terrible was the twang from the silver bow.<br />First he attacked the mules and the swift dogs,<br />then he shot his sharp (piercing) arrows on / the men themselves,<br />and forever the pyres of the dead kept / burning thick (close together)."<br /> <br />The indebtedness of this draft to Murray is too heavy to be accounted for by the normal probability of coincidence between two independently achieved translations.<br /><br />In his second and final drafts, Mitchell disguised his plagiarized first draft by incorporating minor changes, many found in the translations by Robert Fagles, Samuel Butler, Richmond Lattimore and E.V. Rieu. More details are at:<br />http://www.a-zworld.ca/blog/translations/the-benefits-of-archaic-translations/#comment-10816.<br /><br />Based on Mitchell's drafts, it is doubtful that his Iliad may accurately be called a translation, rather than a "version" or "reinterpretation."HerbertJordanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11582545711253788276noreply@blogger.com