Sophocles' Ajax A modern translation Dennis Daly

Sophocles' Ajax

A modern translation

Dennis Daly

Wilderness House Press 2012

ISBN 978-0-9827115-6-9

“Athena! How happy I am to hear

your voice. The voice which of all

the gods is dearest to me.”

In the year 1980, restoration of the Sistine Chapel was

painstakingly begun. The general and not so general

public was dismayed by the clarity, the bright simple

colors that appeared from underneath the patina. We, as

an audience, to the masters paintings, fresco, thought

the build-up of dirt and dust that lay on the surface of

the fresco, was intentional and that the artist Michelangelo,

intended the effect that was being viewed. Perhaps, one

might view it as a natural intention and that would then

result in the decline of the pigment originally painted.
Personally, I reveled in the clean, unearthed images

in wonderful coral and blue pigments.

Daly's translation is indeed modern, not contemporary, but

modern in relating an ancient story/play that was meant

to be read and heard by a then modern audience. We being

the modern audience can now read what was then modern:

“Odysseus

… “I am on the trail

Of Ajax, possessor of the seven-fold

Shield. I've been following him for hours.

Last night he carried out an incredible

Attack against us. Or at least we think

It was he. The facts at this point are still

Not very clear. I have offered to track down

The perpetrator of the deed and discover

His motive. This much we know: our Trojan spoils,

All of our cattle and sheep, were found

Butchered this morning...”

After the controversy of the restoration of the Sistine

ceiling was lain aside, tourists once again gazed at a

masterpiece, in the knowledge, that what was being

seen, was indeed, the original Michelangelo.

Can we ever know, truly, if  Sophocles meant what

any translation tries to translate? My criteria for any

given translation is, is that the story or the play I'm

reading, is relate-able to my present or past circumstances

or experiences or to my cultural experiences. The trans-

lation needs to relate to the culture at hand, otherwise it

become lost in translation:

“Odysseus

I know of none greater. He is

My enemy and I hate him, yet I

Pity him also for his helplessness

In the face of misfortune and the shame,

The awful shame he will feel. For this touches

My condition as well. Are we-all living

Beings-mere phantoms, a moment's shadow?”

Daly has cleared away all the debris that so often falls onto

translations, that has fallen onto so many ancient plays. In

the introduction to Ajax, Daly writes.... “In Ajax, madness

leads to shame and shame leads to self-knowledge and

nobility...”  We come to a better understanding of

Sophocles, and his intentions in Ajax, because of the translation.

An account of nobility after a long traverse into madness,

the characters emerge clean, refreshed in understanding

the human directives as well as the feminine, higher voice,

Athena, that the characters participate with. The readers will

revel in the clear language and hear their own voices:

“Teucer

...O brother, let me

Lift you off this accursed weapon

Which boasts even now of your stolen breathe.

Did you guess that Hector, although gone

Before you, would be the parent of this deed?

How strange the fortune of these two men!

With the same girdle that Ajax had given him,

Hector was dragged to death under the wheels

Of Achilles' chariot. And this hateful sword

On which Ajax fell and died was a gift

From Hector. Only a Fury could have forged

This blade! Only the grim artisan

Of Hades contrived that girdle! These things

Like all others which torment men's lives...”

We the reader are in view of a great masterpiece, un-

covered, after many long years in obscurity, uncovered

after being buried beneath scholarship and rhetoric,

we the general populace, now get the gift of being

able to participate in this passionate work of art:

“Chorus

The matter of life a man may see

And from it learn a wisdom.

But who has sight enough

To envision the future

Or perceive his own fate?”

Irene Koronas

Poetry Editor: Wilderness House Literary Review

Reviewer: Ibbetson Street Press