Colonel T.E. Lawrence was one of the most flamboyant figures of his era, known throughout the Western world as Lawrence of Arabia. Glory-seeking yet self-effacing, this soldier, archaeologist, spy, and scholar was a war hero whom Winston Churchill called "one of the greatest men of our time." Less well known were his abilities as historian and author, which won him the admiration of such writers as Ezra Pound, W.H. Auden, and Robert Graves.
While stationed on a desolate R.A.F. outpost on the fringes of the Karachi desert in India, Lawrence began his acclaimed translation of The Odyssey. He devoted himself to the project for four years, and during that time he came to feel that he was uniquely suited to the task. "I have hunted wild boars and watched wild lions," he wrote. "Built boats and killed many men. So I have odd knowledges that qualify me to understand The Odyssey, and odd experiences that interpret it to me." Relying on an innate sense of language and truly gifted abilities at translation, Lawrence transformed Homer's Odyssey into mellifluous prose. The result was an overnight bestseller. The New York Herald Tribune hailed it "perhaps the most interesting translation of the world's most interesting book," and The New York Times called it "ruggedly and roughly masculine" and added that it "gives a vividness to the story beyond any other text familiar to us."
Lawrence breathes new life into the adventures of Odysseus, smoothing the reader's path through a fantastic array of monsters, temptresses, gods, and goddesses. For a generation of readers accustomed to verse translations of Homer, this bold and vivid prose version is well worth rediscovery.
While stationed on a desolate R.A.F. outpost on the fringes of the Karachi desert in India, Lawrence began his acclaimed translation of The Odyssey. He devoted himself to the project for four years, and during that time he came to feel that he was uniquely suited to the task. "I have hunted wild boars and watched wild lions," he wrote. "Built boats and killed many men. So I have odd knowledges that qualify me to understand The Odyssey, and odd experiences that interpret it to me." Relying on an innate sense of language and truly gifted abilities at translation, Lawrence transformed Homer's Odyssey into mellifluous prose. The result was an overnight bestseller. The New York Herald Tribune hailed it "perhaps the most interesting translation of the world's most interesting book," and The New York Times called it "ruggedly and roughly masculine" and added that it "gives a vividness to the story beyond any other text familiar to us."
Lawrence breathes new life into the adventures of Odysseus, smoothing the reader's path through a fantastic array of monsters, temptresses, gods, and goddesses. For a generation of readers accustomed to verse translations of Homer, this bold and vivid prose version is well worth rediscovery.
T·E·勞倫斯上校是他那個時代最耀眼的人物之一，在西方世界被譽為「阿拉伯的勞倫斯」。這位集軍人、考古學家、間諜和學者於一身的人物，既追求榮耀又謙遜低調，是一位戰爭英雄，溫斯頓·邱吉爾稱他為「我們這個時代最偉大的人物之一」。然而，他作為歷史學家和作家的才能卻鮮為人知，這為他贏得了埃茲拉·龐德、W·H·奧登和羅伯特·格雷夫斯等作家的讚賞。
駐紮在印度卡拉奇沙漠邊緣一個荒涼的英國皇家空軍哨所期間，勞倫斯開始了他那部備受讚譽的《奧德賽》的翻譯工作。他全心投入這項工作長達四年，在此期間，他逐漸意識到自己非常適合這項任務。 「我曾獵殺過野豬，也曾觀察過野獅，」他寫道。 「我造過船，殺過許多人。因此，我擁有一些奇特的知識，使我能夠理解《奧德賽》，也擁有一些奇特的經歷，使我能夠解讀它。」勞倫斯憑藉與生俱來的語言天賦和卓越的翻譯才能，將荷馬的《奧德賽》翻譯成了優美流暢的散文。這部譯作一夕之間成為暢銷書。 《紐約先驅論壇報》稱讚它是“或許是世界上最有趣的書最有趣的譯本”，《紐約時報》則稱其“粗獷而充滿陽剛之氣”，並補充道，它“賦予了故事一種超越我們所知任何其他文本的生動感”。
勞倫斯為奧德修斯的冒險注入了新的活力，引領讀者穿越一個奇幻的世界，其中充滿了怪物、妖豔的女子、神祇和女神。對於習慣閱讀荷馬史詩譯本的一代讀者來說，這部大膽而生動的散文譯本非常值得重新發現。
The meaning of TEMPTRESS is a woman who tempts or entices.
temptress is a woman who tries to charm or seduce men. She often lures people into bad choices or moral danger. [1, 2]
smooth means to make a surface flat, even, or free from lumps, bumps, and rough spots. It also describes rubbing a soft substance onto a surface or making a situation free from problems and arguments. [1, 2, 3]
沒有留言:
張貼留言