Emily Wilson

speaker

468 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 1 Aug

Emily Wilson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

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Fresh Air · ‘Odyssey’ translator Emily Wilson: Nolan should've hired a screenwriter · 29 Jul 2026 podcast

betraying something that's essential also to the experience of the original, which is its pacing.

And the rapidity, the propulsive quality of, please tell me more, tell me more, keep going, is very much part of the experience of Homer in Greek.

And I felt was diluted by the verbose quality of quite a lot of existing translations.

So in the book, I discuss at great length the challenges of translating what's called the proem of the Odyssey, which is the first few lines of the poem.

So maybe we can focus on that.

Sure.

Andra moi ennepe musa, polutropon, hos mala pola plankthe, epetroies hieron toliethrone perse.

Polon d'antropon di dynastia kainon egno, pola doken ponto pathanalgea hon katathumo, arunumenos hen tepsuken kainoston hetairon.

Alut hos hetauruseuruseto, hiemenos per,

Autoi gar sveteresina tasthalia sinolonto, ne pioi, hoi katabu superionos he elioio estion, autar hotoisin aveleta nostimon emar.

Tun hamathen getha a, thugater dios, epe cae hemin.

I love to perform.

I mean, I want to try to channel the experience of being a rhapsode.

And of course, there's overlap between being the kind of archaic Greek poetry performer who would learn bits of Homer by heart and perform them and being a translator that I'm trying to channel the experience of the original and then convey it for new audiences or listeners.

Yeah.

So I'll read the Robert Fagel's translation in free verse because that was, I think, is still a very popular translation.

So I think it's worth continuing to talk about because it's a translation that many people read.

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns, driven time and again off course once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.

Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.

But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove.

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