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The Iliad of Homer
Faithfully translated
into unrhymed English metre
F. W. Newman
London, 1856
[Sample from the Opening of
the Poem]
THE ILIAD
BOOK I
Of Peleus’ son, Achilles,
sing, oh
goddess, the resentment
Accursed, which with countless pangs Achaia’s
army wounded,
And forward flung to Aïdes full
many a gallant spirit
Of heroes, and their very selves did
toss to dogs that ravin,
And unto every fowl, (for so would
Jove’s device be compass’d); 5
From that first day when feud arose implacable,
and parted
The son of Atreus, prince of
men and
Achileus the godlike.
Which
of the gods entangled you in wrathfulness of
quarrel?
Jove and Latona’s son it
was, who,
with the king embitter’d,
Sent mid the army sore disease till
troop on troop would
perish: 10
Because-that Atrues’ royal son disdainfully
rejected
Chryses, Apollo’s worshipper, who,
to release his daughter,
Unto the sharp Achaian galleys came
with boundless ransom,
The ensign bearing in his hands of
arrowy Apollo
Upon his golden sceptre wreath’d, and sued
to all the Achaians, 15
And most of all, to Atreus’ sons, twin
marshals of the people:—
“Children
of Atreus! And the rest of
dapper-greav’d Achaians!
Oh! unto you, may all the gods, who
hold Olympian dwellings,
Grant Priam’s city for a spoil, and
happy voyage homeward:
But my dear child yield up to me, and
take my proffer’d
ransom, 20
In homage to the son of Jove, Apollo
the far-darting.”
Then
all Achaia’s other folk murmur’d assent well-omen’d,
To pity and revere the priest and
take the brilliant ransom;
But Agamemnon, Atreus’
son delight
in mercy found not,
But sent him off with contumely and
words of stern
monition: 25
“Beware,
old sire! lest here beside Achaia’s
hollow galleys,
Or now I catch thee
lingering or
afterwards returning;
Lest, that thy sceptre save thee not nor yet they sacred
ensign.
But her I
never will release: sooner
shall age o’ertake her,
Far distant from her land of birth within
our house at
Argos; 30
For there shall she the shuttle ply and
at my bed attend me.
But come! my temper fret not; else lest
safe they journey homeward.”
The
old man quail’d before the word, and
hastily obey’d him.
Speechless he went along the strand of the much brawling water:
Then many a pray’r in
loneliness he
pour’d with aged
bosom 35
To prince Apollo, whom to bear, bright-hair’d Latona travail’d:
“Lord
of the silver arrows, hear! Who
overshelt’rest Chrysa,
Who bravely reign’st in Tenedos and
in the heav’nly Killa;
If ever pleasant
offerings to
thee, O god of Sminthus!
I hanged o’er the temple
walls, or
burn’d upon thy
altar 40
The fatten’d limbs of bulls and goats; this for me accomplish!
Cause by thy bolts the Danaï dearly
to pay my sorrows.”
So
uttere’d he the word of pray’r;
and bright Apollo heard him.
Review Comment
Newman’s translation is surely one of the oddest ever attempted by
any English writer. For some reason, as
he explains in the introduction to his translation, Newman concluded that “the
English metre fitted to translate Homer’s hexameter must be a long line composed
of two short ones, having each either three or four beats”
(vi) and that “a series of trials showed that it was best to compose the line
of four beats added to three” (vii). His argument for the
necessity of this odd (and decidedly unfamiliar) verse form is not very
convincing. In the same introduction, Newman
comments “I ought to be quaint; I ought not to be grotesque” (x). Clearly
he had some trouble sorting out the difference. Of
interest to students of English is the fact that this translation is one of the
main inspirations for Matthew Arnold’s essays on translating Homer. Of
Newman’s translation Arnold remarked: “Mr. Newman joins to a bad rhythm so bad
a diction that it is difficult to distinguish exactly whether in any given
passage it is his words or his measure which produces a total impression of
such an unpleasant kind” (qu. in Young 129).
Newman wrote a long answer to Arnold’s scathing criticism. The
text is accessible here: Response.
To access the full text of the Newman translation, please use the
following link: Newman
Iliad.
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