Ich will noch mal auf Homer-Übersetzungen eingehen, da haben sich im Laufe der Zeit durchaus einige Größen daran versucht, Giacomo Casanova, Thomas Hobbes, Alexander Pope. Pope verfasste sie in reimenden Couplets sehr holprig, und böse Zungen behaupteten, dass er sich Ghostwriter suchte, die Schüttelreime verfassten.
Ich stelle mal einen Vergleich von englischen Übersetzungen ein.
Ich habe auch einen Fehler gemacht, die Odyssee Übersetzung ist natürlich nicht von D. H. Lawrence, dem Autor von Lady Chatterly, sondern von Thomas E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia 1935. Dann kann man sich ein Bild machen:
Robert Fitzgerald:
Sing in me, Muse and through
me tell the story of that man
skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer harried for years
on end
after he plundered the stronghold
on the pride height of Troy
he saw the towns
and learned about the mind
of many distant men
and weathered many biter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea,
while he fought only to save his life
and bring his shipmates home
but not by will or valor
could he save them
for the own recklessness
destroyed them all-
children and fools, they killed
and feasted on
the cattle of Lord Helios, the Sun
and he who moves all day
through heaven
took from their eyes
and the dawn of return.
T. E. Lawrence
Divine Possey
daughter of Zeus
Sustain for me
the song of the various minded man,
Who after he had plundered
the innermost citadel of Holy Troy
Was made to stray grievously
About the coast of man
the sport of their customs
good or bad
while his heart
Through all seafaring
Ached in an agony to
redeem himself
and bring his company safe
home.
Vain hope for them!
For his fellows he strove
in vain
Their own witlessness cast
them away
The fools,
To destroy for meat
The oxen of the most exalted sun
For the sun god blotted out
the day of their return
Emily Wilson
Tell me about a complicated man, Muse
tell me how he wandered and was lost
when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy
and were he went and who he met, the pain
he suffered in the storms of sea, an how
he worked to save his live
and bring his men
back home
He failed to keep him save,
poor fools,
they ate the sun god´s cattle,
and the god
kept them from home. Now
goddess, child of Zeus,
tell the story for our modern times
Find the beginning.
