Thursday, September 03, 2026
Contractions
Homer, Odyssey, tr. Daniel Mendelsohn (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2025), p. 58 (from "A Note on the Translation"):
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On the other hand, there are times when I do relax the diction. I have no qualms about using contractions, for example, to soften a line, or to give a sense of intimacy between characters in dialogue....To Father Zeus, by contrast, I never give contractions.Mendelsohn's translation of 13.140 (p. 271; Zeus speaking to Poseidon):
Come, come, Shaker of Earth, Mighty One—look what you've said!What is "you've" if not a contraction of "you have"? By putting this contraction into the mouth of Zeus, Mendelsohn violates his own rule.
