“Soon Dawn appeared and touched the sky with roses.”
— From Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2017, Page 220).
Dr. Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey is the first published English translation of Homer’s epic by a woman. She is also the first author to receive a fan letter from me.
Dear Dr. WIlson,
I have never written a fan letter before and likely won’t again. Also, I am not a translator. I am simply a reader.
My first adult experience with The Odyssey was the Fagles edition. Since then I have read translations by Lattimore and Fitzgerald but preferred Fagles for my studies because of its accessibility. No longer. My go-to edition of The Odyssey is now your translation.
I found your translation to be so concise and muscular, giving the poem the heft that it deserves and a jaunty vitality that oozes from the pages. It was simply a joy to read and I wanted you to know that.
Thank you for bringing your translation into the world of literature. We are the better for it.
And she replied!
Dear Andrew Peterson,
I am so grateful to you for this marvelous message. Thank you! You cheered me up enormously. How kind of you to write.
All best wishes,
Emily
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You can purchase your copy of The Odyssey here.
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