(no subject)

[badstar]

I love the Orphic Hymns...but the only widely-available translation by Thomas Taylor sucks because he made them rhyme.

Someone here: http://www.sibyllineorder.org/sacred_texts/oh_index.htm
Translated most of them, but left out several as "translator's perogative", and went all Maiden-Mother-Crone in commentary...and some other stuff...Semele as pre-Hellenic Mother Moon goddess? Rhea=Niobe??? Oh, and actually changed meanings in some of them. Plus, she's got some bizarre spellings.

Hmmm...I've half a mind to rework Taylor's version so they don't rhyme...unless someone knows of another version that's easily available?

Comments

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I understand your annoyance with changed meanings and persons, but if I might ask, what's your objection to rhyming?

[resident-geek.livejournal.com]

Speaking from a Classics point of view, I can say that rhymed meter is a very modern phenomenon in verse--the great poets who wrote these hymns (and other authors of classical poetry) actually strove to avoid what they considered vulgar and distasteful tricks, preferring to make the best choice of words (to both the ear and the mind) in a set meter express the intended sentiments. A set rhyme scheme in the hands of a lazy poet leads to droll verse, and even Dryden and Wordsworth found themselves stretching into contortions to put into rhymed verse otherwise stately, majestic Greek and Latin.

As for a good English rendering of this, check out Richmond Lattimore's Greek lyric translations. (His rendering of the Iliad and Odyssey fits the traditional dactylic hexameter in many places, but doesn't sacrifice poetic structure for it.)

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Rhyme in a lot of poetry, and couplets in particular, grate on my nerves. I couldn't tell you why. Just does. And in the case of translation, it's just so forced, they weren't meant to be that way.

[resident-geek.livejournal.com]

I like your answer better. Wish I could be that succinct. :)

[luciaofthegrove.livejournal.com]

well if they are decent translations I could probably ignore that side commentary that she made lol. Though it would be an effort since that tends to ruin my enjoyment of whatever I am reading and instantly makes me suspicious of the translation (unless someone else who knew the language agreed that it was a good translation to lay my mind to rest).

As a general rule of thumb though I tend to avoid anything with those sort of comments like the plague if possible.