Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. A Group Translation ed. by William Levitan and Stanley Lombardo (review)

IF 0.5 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Domenico Accorinti
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Rouse for the Loeb Classical Library (1940), here is an interesting experiment in translating <strong>[End Page 282]</strong> the <em>Dionysiaca</em>, the longest known poem surviving from antiquity (about 21,000 lines in forty-eight books) written by the Egyptian Nonnus of Panopolis (fifth century <small>ce</small>), a towering figure of Greek Late Antiquity, also known as the author of a hexameter <em>Paraphrase of St John's Gospel</em> (about 3,600 lines in twenty-one books). <em>Tales of Dionysus</em>, the first English verse translation of Nonnus's epic poem, is the product of a multi-faceted group work that brings together forty-two translators from different and varied backgrounds (classicists, scholars of English literature, academics from other fields, and poets). All of them, starting from their own experiences, have tried to give a manifold voice to the complex polyphony of the <em>Dionysiaca</em>. The Nonnian dedication (Ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσομεν, compare <em>Dion</em>. 1.15 ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσω) to the memory of Douglass Parker (1927–2011) is a fitting tribute to an eccentric classicist who had planned a complete translation of Nonnus's poem, as he stated in an interview (1981–1982) with Laura Drake (\"My perpetual, 'I'llnever-finish-it-but' project is a translation of the <em>Dionysiaca</em> of Nonnos\", see <em>Didaskalia</em> 9 [2012] 15, https://www.didaskalia.net/issues/9/15/). All that remains of his project is the translation of books 1 and 2 (up to line 162), originally published in <em>Arion</em> (https://www.bu.edu/arion/files/2016/09/Nonnos.pdf) and here re-edited (the translation of B. 2 has been completed by William Levitan) in its dazzling impact, such as Roman alternating with italics, boldface combined with increased fonts, and even Gothic characters for some German words in the translation of <em>Dion</em>. 2.11–13a (66).</p> <p>It is well known that a group translation project runs the perilous risk of falling into inconsistency, even though the stylistic variety in the translation may be welcome, as Thelma Jurgrau writes in her foreword to <em>Story of My Life: The Autobiography of George Sand. A Group Translation</em> (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991) 2–4. However, even if stylistic consistency is not among the aims of this group translation, <em>Tales of Dionysus</em>, which contains a pleasant introduction by Gordon Braden (1–17), the author of the recent volume <em>Petrarchan Love and the English Renaissance</em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), exposes itself to two preliminary criticisms.</p> <p>First, about one-third of the forty-two translators have no knowledge of ancient Greek and approached the <em>Dionysiaca</em> through Rouse's translation to produce their own version of Nonnus's poem. Second, this translation does not follow the Greek text of the most recent critical edition, that of Francis Vian et al., 19 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1976–2006). One cannot therefore consider this translation in the same way as those versions that aim to render the source text more or less faithfully on the basis of an authoritative critical text. For, as the editors write in their preface, \"We have two aims in mind for this book. The first is to allow readers of English greater access to one of the most extraordinary poems of the Greek literary tradition […]. The second is to offer a sense of the wide spectrum of possibilities open to the contemporary practice of classical translation\" (xiii).</p> <p>From this perspective, the appendix \"On Translating Nonnus\" toward the end of the volume (725–52) proves indispensable for understanding the stylistic choices made by the different translators. For example, Catherine Anderson (B. 17), \"a poet and not a scholar of <strong>[End Page 283]</strong> ancient Greek,\" adds \"a few lines not found in the original, ones I thought were implied by the verse […] These narrations were offset in italics, implying a quiet...</p> </p>","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Late Antiquity","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2024.a926292","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:

  • Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. A Group Translation ed. by William Levitan and Stanley Lombardo
  • Domenico Accorinti
Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. A Group Translation Edited by William Levitan and Stanley Lombardo Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022. Pp. xviii + 798. ISBN 978-0-472-03896-1

More than eighty years after the English prose translation by W. H. D. Rouse for the Loeb Classical Library (1940), here is an interesting experiment in translating [End Page 282] the Dionysiaca, the longest known poem surviving from antiquity (about 21,000 lines in forty-eight books) written by the Egyptian Nonnus of Panopolis (fifth century ce), a towering figure of Greek Late Antiquity, also known as the author of a hexameter Paraphrase of St John's Gospel (about 3,600 lines in twenty-one books). Tales of Dionysus, the first English verse translation of Nonnus's epic poem, is the product of a multi-faceted group work that brings together forty-two translators from different and varied backgrounds (classicists, scholars of English literature, academics from other fields, and poets). All of them, starting from their own experiences, have tried to give a manifold voice to the complex polyphony of the Dionysiaca. The Nonnian dedication (Ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσομεν, compare Dion. 1.15 ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσω) to the memory of Douglass Parker (1927–2011) is a fitting tribute to an eccentric classicist who had planned a complete translation of Nonnus's poem, as he stated in an interview (1981–1982) with Laura Drake ("My perpetual, 'I'llnever-finish-it-but' project is a translation of the Dionysiaca of Nonnos", see Didaskalia 9 [2012] 15, https://www.didaskalia.net/issues/9/15/). All that remains of his project is the translation of books 1 and 2 (up to line 162), originally published in Arion (https://www.bu.edu/arion/files/2016/09/Nonnos.pdf) and here re-edited (the translation of B. 2 has been completed by William Levitan) in its dazzling impact, such as Roman alternating with italics, boldface combined with increased fonts, and even Gothic characters for some German words in the translation of Dion. 2.11–13a (66).

It is well known that a group translation project runs the perilous risk of falling into inconsistency, even though the stylistic variety in the translation may be welcome, as Thelma Jurgrau writes in her foreword to Story of My Life: The Autobiography of George Sand. A Group Translation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991) 2–4. However, even if stylistic consistency is not among the aims of this group translation, Tales of Dionysus, which contains a pleasant introduction by Gordon Braden (1–17), the author of the recent volume Petrarchan Love and the English Renaissance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), exposes itself to two preliminary criticisms.

First, about one-third of the forty-two translators have no knowledge of ancient Greek and approached the Dionysiaca through Rouse's translation to produce their own version of Nonnus's poem. Second, this translation does not follow the Greek text of the most recent critical edition, that of Francis Vian et al., 19 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1976–2006). One cannot therefore consider this translation in the same way as those versions that aim to render the source text more or less faithfully on the basis of an authoritative critical text. For, as the editors write in their preface, "We have two aims in mind for this book. The first is to allow readers of English greater access to one of the most extraordinary poems of the Greek literary tradition […]. The second is to offer a sense of the wide spectrum of possibilities open to the contemporary practice of classical translation" (xiii).

From this perspective, the appendix "On Translating Nonnus" toward the end of the volume (725–52) proves indispensable for understanding the stylistic choices made by the different translators. For example, Catherine Anderson (B. 17), "a poet and not a scholar of [End Page 283] ancient Greek," adds "a few lines not found in the original, ones I thought were implied by the verse […] These narrations were offset in italics, implying a quiet...

狄俄尼索斯的故事帕诺波利斯的诺努斯的《狄俄尼索斯传》。William Levitan 和 Stanley Lombardo 编著的《群译本》(评论)
以下是内容的简要摘录,以代替摘要:评论者: 狄俄尼索斯的故事:帕诺波利斯的诺努斯的《狄俄尼索斯传》。William Levitan 和 Stanley Lombardo 编辑的合译本 Domenico Accorinti 《狄俄尼索斯的故事》:帕诺波利斯的诺努斯的狄俄尼索斯传说。William Levitan 和 Stanley Lombardo 编辑的合译本,安娜堡:密歇根大学出版社,2022 年。第 xviii + 798 页。ISBN 978-0-472-03896-1 在 W. H. D. Rouse 为 Loeb Classification 出版社翻译英文散文版本八十多年后。Rouse 为 Loeb Classical Library 翻译的英文散文译本(1940 年)之后的八十多年,这里是翻译 [尾页 282]《狄俄尼索斯传》的一次有趣的尝试,这是现存古代最长的诗歌(约 21,000 行,共 48 册),作者是埃及人 Nonnus of Panopolis(公元前五世纪),他是希腊晚期的一位杰出人物,也是《圣约翰福音》六韵诗 Paraphrase 的作者(约 3,600 行,共 21 册)。狄俄尼索斯的故事》是诺努斯史诗的第一个英文诗篇译本,是一个多元集体工作的产物,汇集了来自不同背景(古典学家、英国文学学者、其他领域的学者和诗人)的 42 位译者。他们都从自己的经历出发,试图为《狄奥尼西亚卡》复杂的复调音乐发出多方面的声音。Nonnian dedication (Ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσομεν, compare Dion. 1.15 ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσω)是对道格拉斯-帕克(Douglass Parker,1927-2011 年)的纪念、正如他在与劳拉-德雷克(Laura Drake)的一次访谈(1981-1982 年)中所说("我的永久性、'我永远不会完成它--但是'的项目是翻译诺诺斯的《狄奥尼西亚卡》",见 Didaskalia 9 [2012] 15,https://www.didaskalia.net/issues/9/15/)。他的项目只剩下第 1 卷和第 2 卷(至第 162 行)的翻译,最初发表于 Arion (https://www.bu.edu/arion/files/2016/09/Nonnos.pdf),在此重新编辑(B. 2 的翻译已由威廉-列维坦完成),其令人眼花缭乱的效果,如罗马字与斜体交替使用,黑体与加大字体相结合,甚至在 Dion 的翻译中一些德语单词使用哥特式字符。2.11-13a (66).Thelma Jurgrau 在《我一生的故事》前言中写道,众所周知,集体翻译项目有陷入前后不一致的危险,尽管翻译中的文体变化可能会受到欢迎:乔治-桑自传》的前言中写道。群译》(奥尔巴尼:纽约州立大学出版社,1991 年)2-4 序言中写道。然而,即使文体一致性并不是该群译的目的之一,《狄俄尼索斯的故事》(Tales of Dionysus)(其中包含最近出版的《彼特拉克式的爱情与英国文艺复兴》(牛津:牛津大学出版社,2022 年)一书的作者戈登-布莱登 (Gordon Braden) (1-17) 所作的令人愉快的导言)也面临着两个初步的批评。首先,42 位译者中约有三分之一不懂古希腊语,他们通过劳斯的译本来阅读《狄奥尼西亚卡》,从而产生了自己的诺努斯诗歌版本。其次,该译本并没有遵循最新的批判性版本,即 Francis Vian 等人的 19 卷本(巴黎:Les Belles Lettres 出版社,1976-2006 年)中的希腊文文本。因此,我们不能将此译本与那些旨在根据权威的批判性文本或多或少地忠实呈现源文本的版本等同看待。因为,正如编者在序言中写道:"我们为本书设定了两个目标。第一,让英语读者有更多机会了解希腊文学传统中最杰出的诗歌之一[......]。其次是让读者了解当代古典翻译实践的广泛可能性"(xiii)。从这个角度来看,卷末的附录 "论诺努斯的翻译"(725-52)对于理解不同译者的文体选择是不可或缺的。例如,凯瑟琳-安德森(Catherine Anderson,B.17),"一个诗人,而不是古希腊 [第 283 页完] 学家",补充了 "几句原文中没有的,我认为是诗句所暗示的[......]这些叙述用斜体抵消,暗示了一种安静......"。
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Journal of Late Antiquity
Journal of Late Antiquity HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
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