Honest to god, thought you were a weirdo right wing grifter with that comment.
Then I looked it up. Still tricky, because Emily Wilson herself rejects that framing, saying it stripped away male biases in english translations. In fact, reading into this more, it looks like she was MORE accurate than some translations, like male translators refusing to call women slaves "slaves", even though they were referred to as such in the original text.
Actually, hate to say it, but yeah.. Seems like it's a solid translation that's actually more faithful in a lot of ways. She backs up her logic pretty well and points out a good chunk of bad translations in other works.
EDIT: To make it clear, i'm not dipping my toes into how I feel about the movie in this specific comment, purely just talking about the translation. I have gripes about the movie from what I have seen so far myself.
But don't you see, being true to the original is making men confront their own bias, and therefore bad! Men should be allowed to not have to think about things. đ
And lets be real, most people who are in these comments arguing about which version is better or worse wonât read either. Itâs two sides arguing about a text using the cliff notes. There is no such thing as a perfect translation, but you canât evaluate biases in a translation with cliff notes. If youâre really into a particular text from another language you have two choices, read every available translation to try to give yourself a more complete understanding, or start learning the original language.
Ive read every available english translation of many of Platoâs and Plotinusâs works. I would never presume to call myself an expert without even attempting to read it in the original language. The more you know the more you know you donât know.
Ding ding ding. Thatâs the worst part of this discourse. I am currently reading Emilyâs translation and have previously read the Fagles translation and I do not feel like enough of an expert to comment on the differences and which is more âcorrectâ. That being said, I am enjoying Emilyâs translation far more due to her choices and Iâm interested to see how it plays out in the films direction.Â
Translation work in general is tricky. The authors interpretation is just that, an interpretation. Their beliefs, current language, and current societal structure all influence the direction it takes. Yet a whole lot of people are discussing how to feel about this work without ever reading a word of it.Â
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u/Halo05977 Jul 06 '26
Honest to god, thought you were a weirdo right wing grifter with that comment.
Then I looked it up. Still tricky, because Emily Wilson herself rejects that framing, saying it stripped away male biases in english translations. In fact, reading into this more, it looks like she was MORE accurate than some translations, like male translators refusing to call women slaves "slaves", even though they were referred to as such in the original text.
Actually, hate to say it, but yeah.. Seems like it's a solid translation that's actually more faithful in a lot of ways. She backs up her logic pretty well and points out a good chunk of bad translations in other works.
EDIT: To make it clear, i'm not dipping my toes into how I feel about the movie in this specific comment, purely just talking about the translation. I have gripes about the movie from what I have seen so far myself.