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Originally Posted by sun surfer
[*]Lombardo - Verse, 1990. Lively and colloquial version, short lines, visceral. More "cutting edge" and a style the current generation can relate to and less concerned with a straightforward translation. Sometimes uses modern slang which may be jarring to some.
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Lombardo made an audio recording of the Iliad, available on Amazon & Audible. It is, IMHO, wonderfully done, and I urge anyone who wants to have a great listening experience to get it. You can follow along in your ebook version, if you wish.
He also put up a snippet of one section which he reads in ancient Greek.
http://www.wiredforbooks.org/iliad/
This review says it well - this book is for listeners:
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89 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have translation, February 28, 2002
By Graham Henderson - See all my reviews
This review is from: Iliad (Paperback)
I think I must have read every major translation of the Iliad by now. They all have something to recommend them. There are some to which I will never return. I think I would rate Robert Fagles translation as the best. All of which will afford some context when I say that Lombardo is a must read. Enough glowing things have been said here by other reviewers, so I will refrain from commenting over much on the translation per se.
What I will say is this. I SAW Book I of Lombardo's translation enacted on the stage in New York about a year and a half ago. If EVER one needed a reminder that the first auditors of this tale were listeners and not readers and that the Iliad was composed first and foremost FOR listeners, actually seeing Book I brought to life was it. It was magnificent. I had read Lombardo in preparation for the play. I LOVED it -- the immediacy of it, the currency, the urgency, the sheer page turning pace into which he rendered the Iliad. But actually seeing it? It is something I shall never forget. The audience was actually laughing outloud at certain points -- and we forget, don't we, that there is much humour in the Iliad? That laughter brought a sense of community. And it was actually possible, closing your eyes, to imagine yourself transported back in time, listening to a retelling of the Iliad -- so very, very long ago.
Traditionalists will no doubt have MAJOR problems with Lombardo. I consider myself to be reasonably traditional, but I fairly EMBRACED this translation. But I can imagine many will, like my father, run with horror from lines like:
"Now get this straight. I swear a formal oath:
.......
When every last Greek desperately misses Achilles,
Your remorse won't do any good then,
When Hector the man-killer swats you down like flies.
And you will eat your heart out
Because you failed to honour the best Greek of all."
Or:
"I've never seen men like those, and never will,
........
The strongest men who ever lived on earth, the strongest,
And they fought with the strongest, with wild things
From the mountains, and beat the daylihts out of them.
I was their companion......"
But I LOVED it -- I found my heart pounding and my blood racing at points. Buy this book and settle down in your favorite chair for a great read -- oh, and buckle your seat-belt.