Good Translations

I recently read the Hollanders' translation of the Inferno and it was stupendous! It has the Italian lined up with the English and being fairly proficient in Italian, I read both. The English seriously rivaled the Italian for beauty and eloquence while remaining thouroughly Dante. I reccommend without reservation

I just finished Fagles' translation of The Illiad and it was brilliant. Very readable, very poetic, highly reccommended

Hello KatieWallace! Thanks for posting this information on translations (I've seem the Bad thread too). My enjoyment of a book seems to be quite strongly conditioned by the translation, so I like to know how others found particular renditions, especially those who know both languages. I am looking to get hold of a more recent translation of Dante's Inferno in particular.

I look forward to more posts!

It takes a very good translation to hold up to being published next to the original. My Latin is bad and my Greek even worse, but I really like having bilingual editions because I can use the translation to help me read bits and pieces of the original while reading mostly the translation. I have several Latin or Greek/German editions of things that I would otherwise not have been able to look at the original of.

While it is a bit old, I adore the Symonds translation of Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire. The now-archaic phraseology and decadent sensuality are captured perfectly, at once radical and medieval.