AlexPGP's Corner

How shall I translate thee? Let me count the ways...

Just kidding.

I ran across the following in the Hays translation (2002) of Meditations, by Aurelius:

VI.6. The best revenge is not to be like that.

And since I have two other translations handy, I could not resist a comparison. First, from the venerable translation by George Long (1862):

VI.6. The best way of avenging thyself is not be become like the wrong-doer.

And finally, from the translation by the Hicks brothers (2002), published under the title The Emperor's Handbook:

VI.6. The best revenge is not to do as they do.

As my knowledge of Greek barely extends to asking for another glass of ouzo, I will certainly not presume to suggest which of these three is the "better" translation, as all three state the same basic idea.

My gut tells me that the Long translation, stodgy as it is, tries the hardest to follow the thought patterns embedded in the original Greek, come hell or high water. Consider the following, from that translation:

VI.8. The ruling principle is that which rouses and turns itself, and while it makes itself such as it is and such as it wills to be, it also makes everything which happens appear to itself to be such as it wills.

I don't know about you, citizen, but it took me a couple of passes through this text to conclude that it sounds like some kind of riddle you'd expect in a tale of sword and sorcery. Compare that to the same "meditation" in, say, the Hays translation:

VI.8. The mind is that which is roused and directed by itself. In makes of itself what it chooses. It makes what it chooses of its own experience.

I will refrain from saying this is "better," but it sure as blazes is more comprehensible, at least to this citizen of the twenty-first century.

Cheers...