What translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses?

I am trying to find out what english translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses to read.

Apparently the two translations that come up often is by Martin Charles (WW norton) or David Raeburn (Penguin)

Besides the obvious differences with one being in blank verse and the other in hexameter verse. Is their any of the two that stands out?

I will be reading it for my own enjoyment and to easier be able to spot the references in Shakespeare. It is not part of an official in a study.

The few pages I could read at Amazon didnt sway me to one or the other.

So which translation do you prefer and why?

It would seem that the two translations you note "come up" the most because they are the most recent versions being offered... the Raeburn also being the version offered by Penguin... one of the standard publishers for "classic" lit. I can't speak to either. I will note, however, that there are two older excellent translations: that of Allen Mandelbaum and that of Rolfe Humphries. I would certainly greatly recommend either. Both are especially well-known for other translations of classic lit (Mandelbaum for his Divine Comedy, Homer and Virgil and Humphries especially for wonderful version of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura).

I'm currently reading the Charles Martin translation, and loving it! It's lively and elegant, and captures the spirit of what is I gather a rather naughty original. This translation is a very enjoyable read, nothing stuffy about it. I'm reading Ovid for purely for pleasure, and I couldn't ask for more than this in a translation.

I have no basis of comparison other than the version I found online, at Project Gutenberg, an 1899 translation by one Henry T. Riley. It claims to be a "literal" translation but it is in fact-- appallingly-- a "Christianized" version. A deliberate corruption of the text that actually mentions God (singular, capital G) in the very first line! It is obtrusively footnoted to inform the reader that alas, those poor pagans meant well, they had an inkling of the "true" Mosaic story of the Creation, but they got it wrong. Fortunately for you, gentle reader, Henry T. Riley, M.A. came along to "correct" Ovid's errors!

I own a prose translation done by Frank Justus Miller. A note on the translation found within the book writes: "This edition...uses Frank Justus Miller's 1916 prose translation..., which is still the most admirably direct and accurate available." This edition was published in 2005 by Barnes & Noble as a part of the B&N Classics series.

Buy the Rolfe Humphries translation. I've sampled about a dozen different versions and it's one of my favorite books.

Now I have done my work. It will endure,
I trust, beyond Jove's anger, fire and sword,
Beyond Time's hunger. The day will come, I know,
So let it come, that day which has no power
Save over my body, to end my span of life
Whatever it may be. Still, part of me,
The better part, immortal, will be borne
Above the stars; my name will be remembered
Wherever Roman power rules conquered lands,
I shall be read, and through the centuries,
If prophecies of bards are ever truthful,
I shall be living, always.

I like A. D. Melville's translation. Good, natural blank verse, faithful to the original, and has the endorsement of university classics courses.

Opening lines for you:

Of bodies changed to other forms I tell;
You Gods, who have yourselves wrought every change,
Inspire my enterprise and lead my lay
In one continuous song from nature's first
Remote beginnings to our modern times.

The only other one I'm really familiar with is Ted Hughes's, which I don't like half as much:

Now I am ready to tell how bodies are changed
Into different bodies.
I summon the supernatural beings
Who first contrived
The transmogrifications
In the stuff of life.
You did it for your own amusement.
Descend again, be pleased to reanimate
This revival of those marvels.
Reveal, now, exactly
How they were performed
From the beginning
Up to this moment.

Not Penguin Classics 1955 translated by Mary M Innes
See:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...highlight=ovid

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by patrickbeverley

Of bodies changed to other forms I tell;
You Gods, who have yourselves wrought every change,
Inspire my enterprise and lead my lay
In one continuous song from nature's first
Remote beginnings to our modern times.

---

That Melville translation really sticks in my craw. It sounds like he's updated ancient Roman poetry to a sixteenth century English idiom. It doesn't have the feel of ancient Latin with the added draw back that it doesn't even sound like 16th century English. Here's how Marlowe translated Book one of Ovid's Amores.

We which were Ovids five books, now are three,
For these before the rest preferreth he:
If reading five thou plainst of tediousnesse,
Two tane away, thy labor will be lesse:
With Muse upreard I meant to sing of armes,
Choosing a subject fit for feirse alarmes:
Both verses were alike till Love (men say)
Began to smile and tooke one foote away.

That Melville translation above feels all wrong. It's like he's reaching for something. I like the idea of translating just about anything into blank verse, but we've had developments since Shakespeare's time, Milton and Wordsworth for example; so modern blank verse doesn't sound that way anymore. If Melville isn't going to give a modern translation in a modern style, then what's the point of updating at all? Why not just take an older translation.

The Dryden translation is dated and doesn't sound any more like Ovid but it's still better than Melville's if you want to go that route.

Of bodies chang'd to various forms, I sing:
Ye Gods, from whom these miracles did spring,
Inspire my numbers with coelestial heat;
'Till I my long laborious work compleat:
And add perpetual tenour to my rhimes,
Deduc'd from Nature's birth, to Caesar's times.

The Humphries translation may not be perfect but it has the asset of at least sounding something like Ovid.

Just to throw it out there, my Miller translation starts as follows:

My mind is bent to tell of bodies changed into new forms. O gods, for you yourselves have wrought the changes, breathe on these my undertakings, and bring down my song in unbroken strains from the world's beginning even unto the present time.

Mary M Innes begins her 1955 translation:

My purpose is to tell of bodies which have been transformed into shapes of a different kind. You heavenly powers, since you were responsible for those changes, as for all else, look favourably on my attempts, and spin an unbroken thread of verse, from the earliest beginnings of the world, down to my own times.

I read the Garth translation. I think that Book the 12th and 13th are by far my favourite. If you are into the Trojan War, those two books are definitely for you. It adds new insights into the madness of Ajax, the cunning of Odysseus (or Ulysses, whichever you prefer), and introduced me to the thrilling battles of the Centaurs. I thought it was very exciting. I'm also a sucker for violence and gore. There is a lot of violence and gore in "Metamorphoses".

I love the end of book 12 where the son of Hercules asks Nestor why he omitted Hercules' deeds from his story and Nestor explains that Hercules murdered his brothers, sacked his town, burned his fields, killed the men and sold the women into slavery. He can't deny the greatness of Hercules, but he can deny him kleos, and in this way be revenged upon him.

One thing I love about Ovid is how human his characters feel, more so than his ancient competitors Virgil, and Homer. Euripedes does character very well too, but you never get humor and warmth from him the way you will from Ovid. You don't get that again, in western literature, until Chaucer.

Another source: Check if you library has 'The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation,' which apparently evaluates available translations.

I have been reading Mandelbaum’s translation while keeping an eye on my old Italian translation by Mario Ramos (The Mondadori editions has Latin test as well). While I’m enjoying Mandelbaum’s prose I was a bit taken aback by the fact the it seems to me that he has ‘jumped’ a verse, 295 in Latin it says ‘hic summa Pisces deprendit in ulmo’ usually rendered in English as ‘or casting his line in the top of an elm tree’. Have you noticed any other omissions?
Maybe it is just my translation but I will continue to keep an eye on Mandelbaum.

I read the one by Horace Gregory. It is very readable and accessible.

I just bought one by Stanley Lombardo. I strongly recommend it.