The Odyssey

What an incredible translation of the book. Translation is always tricky. Translations of Homer err on the extremes of either woodenness or flowery-ness. This one excels in plain-ness and clarity which, according to Wilson's INCREDIBLE introduction in the book, is ACTUALLY how Homer's Greek would've been experienced in the ground by his audience. So while this isn't as “poetic” as other translations, it is beautiful in how it captures Homer's timelessness and expression of the transcending human condition–aspects I never really “got” before reading this particular translation.

Additionally, this being the first major translation by a woman, I must admit that there is a dimension this adds. There is a tenderness and restraint in certain moments (and it's incredibly effective), and Penelope has been brought to the fore in her strength, intelligence, and cunning in a way I never noticed before–in a way that seems plainly closer to Homer's intention towards her as a character. Indeed, Wilson's translation brings dimension and subtlety to all the major women characters who are usually flattened out as mere roadblocks or temptresses to Odysseus. In fact, Odysseus and the men have their flaws and weaknesses shown as just that–flaws and ways of being that ought to be interrogated and lamented rather than wholesale celebrated and admired as archetypes of strength of masculinity.

Lastly, a note. Having studied translation in a couple of languages, I ought to stress for those that haven't: me saying that certain aspects are “brought out” or “emphasized” in this translation does not at all mean that she has veered from the text, added things in, ignored other things, or has had an “agenda” driving her work. This is not a “Feminist” reading of The Odyssey. Wilson speaks for herself quite capably in her Translator's Note on how her own experience as a woman might affect her translation, and I encourage you to read that. Suffice it to say that her experience as a woman in academia has actually led her to have a GREATER fidelity and care to the text tjan most male translators, who approach their task more as an act of submitting the Greek text to English forms and language rather than immersing the text with its own integrity to see it as it emerges on its own–an approach I feel suffused Wilson's work here. It is remarkable and fantastic and deserves to be read.

In fact, in my humble opinion, it deserves to be the new dominant text used in high schools and undergraduate institutions; not simply because a woman did this work, but because she has produced the greatest example I know of balancing both absolute faithfulness to the text with a stunning colloquial clarity that goes down so smoothly and easily, you inevitably will forget to stop and marvel at how difficult a task that is with ancient texts. She makes this Promethian task look so easy; which, after all, is what women have been having to do for millennia.