Regarding "sheath", I think it would have sounded much more conventional if used as a verb. I would trust Lombardo's translation to be accurate and in the spirit of the original. I would pick Lombardo over either of the other two because it is far easier to read and less cluttered with what seems like a attempt to be poetic in a kind of 19th century way. Thank you for putting up theses comparisons.
Variations of Virgil ( New York Sun, article with two excerpts from the Fagles translation) "Prancing in arms" seems unintentionally funny (is Pyrrhus camping it up?), and "sheath," which might suggest a sheath dress or, alas, a condom (British slang), seems like a very oddly chosen word. (Here, as in his translations of Homer, Lombardo sets off epic similes with italics.) Fagles' translation is striking in its over-the-top alliteration but sometimes bewildering in its diction. "Venomous and swollen" stands out as choice phrasing. "Writhes into the light" has an eerie beauty but seems at odds with the sudden movement of "sprang." Lombardo's Pyrrhus is more a warrior who's ready for his close-up, basking in the spotlight and puffing up with pride. Robert Fagles, 2006A few details that strike me: Fitzgerald's "sprang" instantly makes Pyrrhus a figure of frightening energy. Its triple tongue flickering through its fangs. To glisten sleek in its newfound youth, its backĬoiling, its proud chest rearing high to the sun,
Swollen to bursting, fed full on poisonousĪnd now it springs into light, sloughing its old Springs Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, prancing inĪflash in his shimmering brazen sheath like aīuried the whole winter long under frozen turf, There at the very edge of the front gates Toward the sun, flicking his three-forked His breast and slides his lubricious coils His old skin, glistening with youth, he puffs Pyrrhus stood in his glory, haloed in bronze, Renewed and glossy, rolling slippery coils,įramed by the portal to the entrance court
On vile grass fed, his old skin cast away, Sprang Pyrrhus, all in bronze and glittering,īy a cold winter, writhes into the light, (Virgil spares his reader the details of Priam's beheading.) In this simile, Pyrrhus is a figure of sinister phallic force: Just at the outer doors of the vestibule Pyrrhus is soon seen breaking down doors, hunting down the Trojan warrior Politës, and killing the Trojan king Priam at his own altar. In this passage, Aeneas offers an extended (epic) simile to characterize the Greek warrior Pyrrhus (Achilles' son, also known as Neoptolemus). The Trojan hero Aeneas is recounting the fall of Troy to Dido, queen of Carthage. Here's a passage from the Aeneid in three translations.