Robert Fagles Antigone
From Author to Reader, and back Again:
Transmittance of Interpretation and Intention in Translation
Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, although written long ago in a linguistic form foreign to the modern English speaker, finds new and relatable life by the whims and wits of Robert Fagles and Anne Carson’s translations, Antigone and Antigo nick respectively. After reading either translation and recognizing the great variation between them, the expedient question to ask encroaches as “Which is the more accurate version of the Grecian tale, or which adheres more wholesomely to the intentions and meanings of the original author?” However, this becomes glaringly evident not to be the correct, nor even significantly relevant question one should ask when …show more content…
Bend or break. The same when a main is sailing: haul your sheets too taut, never give an inch, you’ll capsize … Oh give way, relax your anger (96).
Whereas Carson’s version instead attempts to break new ground in the field of translation. The very same instance in Carson’s version instead recounts riding a bicycle and condenses the assumed original into, “Trees bend ships loosen the rigging no single human being has perfect knowledge” (26). Both translators are attempting to “recast the language in a new age,” but Carson’s intention aligns more so than Fagles with the “goal of rendering these works in [her] own idioms” (Galvin, 2010). Take for example the first page of Antigo nick, as Antigone speaks to Ismene she
Transmittance of Interpretation and Intention in Translation
Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, although written long ago in a linguistic form foreign to the modern English speaker, finds new and relatable life by the whims and wits of Robert Fagles and Anne Carson’s translations, Antigone and Antigo nick respectively. After reading either translation and recognizing the great variation between them, the expedient question to ask encroaches as “Which is the more accurate version of the Grecian tale, or which adheres more wholesomely to the intentions and meanings of the original author?” However, this becomes glaringly evident not to be the correct, nor even significantly relevant question one should ask when …show more content…
Bend or break. The same when a main is sailing: haul your sheets too taut, never give an inch, you’ll capsize … Oh give way, relax your anger (96).
Whereas Carson’s version instead attempts to break new ground in the field of translation. The very same instance in Carson’s version instead recounts riding a bicycle and condenses the assumed original into, “Trees bend ships loosen the rigging no single human being has perfect knowledge” (26). Both translators are attempting to “recast the language in a new age,” but Carson’s intention aligns more so than Fagles with the “goal of rendering these works in [her] own idioms” (Galvin, 2010). Take for example the first page of Antigo nick, as Antigone speaks to Ismene she