Emily Wilson on Translations and Language | Conversations with Tyler
Executive Summary
Emily Wilson talks with Tyler Cowen about Homer, word choice, poetic form and the repeated revisions behind a literary translation. These notes cover selected literary and translation passages, not the full interview. Ancient and modern political debate, Stoic biography, immortality and AI-translation speculation are omitted. Interpretations of Homer remain Wilson's readings. Projects described as underway in 2019 are not presented as current work. Release date follows the official March 27, 2019 episode; the YouTube copy was uploaded later. Full official transcript: https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/emily-wilson/ . Topic labels are untimed.
Key Takeaways
A heroic character need not be wholly admirable
Wilson describes Odysseus as complicated, with impressive survival and storytelling abilities alongside serious failures. Her literary reading separates unusual capability from moral approval. The point is not to turn a character into one stable lesson.
Parallel narratives make alternatives visible
She sees the Odyssey as interested in different versions of journeys, households and recognition. Contrast matters as much as ranking. A repeated pattern can reveal changes in circumstance rather than merely repeat the same story.
Home is more than a location
Wilson chose the word home to signal a central concept in the Greek text. She discusses a living space, a community and who can decide who enters it. The translation makes a familiar English word available for a more searching reading.
A new source requires a new encounter
When beginning the Iliad after the Odyssey, she found the mood different enough to reconsider form and style. Similar language did not make it the same job. The recollection describes work in progress at the time, not the present status of her translation.
Revision includes dictionaries and the speaking voice
Wilson repeatedly reads the original, looks up connotations, drafts by hand and reads her English aloud. She changes what does not sound right. Meaning and spoken effect both enter the revision process.
An editor can check the target language
Her editor did not know Greek but compared translations and asked whether the sentence worked in English. Wilson then revised again, including passages the editor had not flagged. Source knowledge and fluent English reading contribute different checks.
A translator needs poetry in both languages
Her advice to an aspiring translator is to read English poetry as well as ancient Greek. She does not prescribe one compulsory canon. Knowledge of the target language's literary possibilities helps prevent the translator from becoming too narrowly specialized.
The Conversation Breakdown
A complicated hero
⏱ Untimed topicWilson reads Odysseus through both his capabilities and his failures. The notes avoid reducing him to an exemplary leader or a single moral category.
Patterns of journey and home
⏱ Untimed topicParallel stories and the loaded word home supply ways to read the Odyssey. Her interpretation attends to contrast and recognition.
Different poems, different forms
⏱ Untimed topicThe mood of the Iliad made Wilson rethink choices used for the Odyssey. The account is explicitly a historical description of her process.
The repeated revision loop
⏱ Untimed topicDictionaries, handwritten drafts, aloud reading and an editor's English judgment all play a role. No single pass ends the work.
Reading for the translator
⏱ Untimed topicEnglish poetry expands what a translator can do in the target language. Wilson's examples of different translations show how a word choice can shift a sentence's meaning.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
Source-specific form
Do not assume a method that suited one source automatically suits another, even in the same language.
Aloud revision
Test the sound and movement of a translated sentence in addition to its literal sense.
Complementary checks
Use source expertise and target-language fluency as different forms of review.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓Compare two translations of one short passage and identify a word choice that changes the reading.
- ✓Read a translated draft aloud and mark what sounds wrong before revising.
- ✓Ask a fluent reader whether a sentence works without requiring them to know the source language.
- ✓Read poetry in the language you translate into as well as the language you translate from.
Notable Quotes
“I go through multiple stages of revisions.”
“I read my drafts out loud to myself before I read them out loud to anyone else.”
“She should read things that interest her, that she loves.”
The One Thing to Remember
Translation involves choices of words, sound and form that can change how a reader understands the same source sentence.