In the discipline of translation, writers can convey meaning even at the level of a single word. If the reader does go there, I hope that it will be a productive journey to unpick potential assumptions about race and ethnicity in the ancient world and not project whiteness back onto this poem.” “It’s great if the reader can be reminded not to think of a goddess as necessarily white,” Wilson told the virtual audience. Greenwood asked Wilson about her depiction of Demeter - the Greek goddess of the harvest and agriculture - in Book 5 of the “Odyssey.” Wilson’s translation describes Demeter with “cornrows in her hair.” The virtual reading was followed by a discussion with Emily Greenwood, professor of classics and African American studies. The poetic rhythm sets Wilson’s translation apart from many others - there is a tendency among other scholars to translate metrical verse into English that is not metrical, Wilson explained. Wilson is known for her lyrical language and poetic sensibility in her translation of the “Odyssey,” which, along with her in-progress “Iliad,” use iambic pentameter. As our culture changes, we can see different things in looking at these very alien cultures in ancient Greece and ancient Rome.” “There are some ways of looking that are visible in one culture that aren’t going to be visible in another culture.

“Some retellings are newer than others, will be more fresh than others,” Wilson said. In an interview with the News, Wilson expounded on the value of new translations. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2019 and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2020, and she is currently a judge for the 2020 Booker Prize. Wilson, who is also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was celebrated for her vivid and lyrical 2017 translation of the “Odyssey.” Although there are over 60 translations of the “Odyssey,” Wilson was the first woman to translate the epic poem into English. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library hosts the Mark Strand Memorial Reading Series and invites accomplished American poets to read their work. On Wednesday, translator Emily Wilson GRD ’01 delivered the 2020 edition of the Mark Strand Memorial Reading, where she read from her in-progress translations of Homer’s “Iliad” and Sophocles’ “Oedipus Tyrannus” on a Zoom webinar.

The odyssey emily wilson