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Traduttore traditore: Is It Possible to Translate Ancient Greek Texts?

Publication date: 05.11.2013

Przekładaniec, Issues in English, Special Issue 2013 – Selection from the Archives, pp. 15-27

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864ePC.13.034.1451

Authors

Włodzimierz Lengauer
University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland
All publications →

Translators

Jan Rybicki Orcid

Titles

Traduttore traditore: Is It Possible to Translate Ancient Greek Texts?

Abstract

The culture of Ancient Greek literature is very different from our modern one. As its medium, the Ancient Greek language is incomprehensible outside the general context of Greek civilisation. Any translation of an Ancient Greek text is to some extent false, or at least artifi cial, and it cannot express the special character of the reality of the original. Selected translations of passages from Homer, Herodotus and Aeschines illustrate the incompatibility of the ancient and modern styles of narration. The study of the language of literature in relation to the reality it represents is advocated as a possible solution to this problem. Readers are also recommended to make the effort to study the ancient originals instead of reading the texts in translations, which can never be fl awless.

References

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Information

Information: Przekładaniec, Issues in English, Special Issue 2013 – Selection from the Archives, pp. 15-27

Article type: Original article

Authors

University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Translators

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2504-9372

Jan Rybicki
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2504-9372 Orcid
Contact with author
All publications →

Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Poland

Published at: 05.11.2013

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Włodzimierz Lengauer (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

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Publication languages:

English

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