An Introduction Comprised of an Account of the Motives & the Methods of Translations,¹

for the Works Contained Herein.

It is within this space that I hope to establish briefly some of my reasoning for my methods of translation in works already presently formalised and future endeavours in Ancient Greek. Express knowledge of methodology is necessary, otherwise one might never fully be able to appreciate and judge the author's work be his or her own standards, thus forcing the definition of success into relativism. If my work were performed in modern, syntactically-driven language, such explanations as these would not be necessary. But the very quality that allows Ancient Greek to be so beautiful also proves somewhat problematic in translating it into English. Certain elements of narrative force are, lamentably, lost in the process, structures simplified, and idiomatic expressions rendered benign. One thing that must be kept in mind is that my translations are a reaction to many editions published as of late which feel it within their power to add semantic content to passages that is not present in the text itself. While one can argue that every translation is an interpretation, and I certainly do not deny that fact, a balance must be struck between faithful rendering and desired conceptualisation.

It is for this reason that my style has developed somewhat differently than what most people will expect from the popular translations available today from Penguin or Oxford, both of which are designed for readable from individuals that have no knowledge in Ancient Greek and are thus expecting acceptable English. But, as I have already stated, this can distort or lose meaning. Therefore, I have chosen to select a line between perfect English and absolute rendering of the Greek. Take for example the following, one of the most famous choral odes in Sophocles and perhaps in all of Greek tragedy, Ant. 332-334.

πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ κοὐδὲν
ἀνθρώπου δεινότερον πέλει.

Rendered as close to the Greek as possible:

Many things terribly-wonderous nothing
than man so terribly-wonderous is.

A translation by David Grene & Richard Lattimore does a fairly faithful job of rendering the two lines, but already some odd variations are present:

Many are the wonders, none
is more wonderful than what is man...

A less faithful translation, rendered by E. F. Watling shows even more drift in meaning, given just the space of two lines:

Wonders are many on earth, and the greatest of these
Is man...

Finally, my translation:

(Of) the many awesome² things, nothing
is more awesome than man,...

There are admittedly many more considerations being taken into account by the translators such as the flow of the language and the structure of verse but by using such famous lines proves to be a fairly productive litmus test, as variations in such famous lines are a best case scenario. When the Greek becomes somewhat less unclear, translations between various published editions can be so different that they are simply incomparable.

As I believe it to be the job of the translator to express the language as accurately as possible while still maintaining coherence, I have generally adopted the following policies:

1. Translations should remain as close to the clausal structure and word order of the Greek as English will allow. This includes the occasional transposing of normal English syntax to better fit the Greek, so long as it is understood. Semantically heavy words, nouns and verbs, are moved the least distance if can be helped.
2. Participles are preserved whenever possible, although many times, due to the length of some Greek prose, they must be made finite and thus either temporal or casual in nature. I do not take practice in breaking up Greek sentences (that is, reliance on a finite verb) into multiple smaller English sentences as many translators do unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
3. I desire to render the semantic content of every word as closely as possible to its English equivalent. This can mean, at times, producing English compounds which are not recognised words.
4. Treatment of particles is done on a case by case basis. If there is a strong narrative force which appears relevant to the content of the passage, then it will be rendered as a traditionally accepted phrase, otherwise, the particle may be dropped to preserve flow.

It is to concepts which I most strongly adhere, and they are points which one must keep in mind while reading my work. Every translator has different priorities and many are very successful in different aspects of emphasis. But as a student of the ancient world, or even a casual devotee, it is necessary always to keep in mind the bias of the translator and their focus when reading ancient works translated into a modern language.

Footnotes

¹ Liddell & Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon and Smyth’s Greek Grammar are the two major source books which I rely upon for solving questions of meaning; both proven standards of the field.

² Awesome is being used in the sense of inspiring of awe, and not as current slang might dictate. The issue here, of course, is rendering the word into English, as the Greek means both inspiring of fear and wonder, so using merely one is not enough to convey the full force, indicating a glaring oversight in the popular translations listed.

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