“Translators replace every word and syllable of the original text with entirely different ones, and also move it to an entirely different cultural context. What might it mean to perform this impossible task responsibly?”

Dr. Emiiy Wilson of the University of Pennsylvania visited Trinity’s campus on March 28 2019 and gave a talk on her translation of Homer’s Odyssey, which was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2017. She spoke to us about how she approached the pleasures and challenges of translating the eighth-century BCE Greek epic poem and revealed that her next project is a translation of the other epic poem attributed to Homer, the Iliad!

Dr. Martha Risser of Trinity’s department of Classical Studies organized an Odyssey reading group that met several times in the months of February and March to read parts of Wilson’s translation. Dr. Vincent Tomasso (Classical Studies), Dr. Chloe Wheatley (English), Dr. Meredith Safran (Classical Studies), Dr. Lucy Fenriss (English), and Mark Hughes took turns reading from the translation.

Thank you, Dr. Wilson, for delivering such a stimulating talk and for your wonderful translation! We look forward to your future projects.