Here is a classic in-progress translation struggle. I am working on "Oedipus Tyrannos". Creon says he is not, or not yet, τοσοῦτον ἠπατημένος as to want anything other than good things that benefit him.
These two lines are, I'm finding, really tough to get into an idiomatic but viably-serious-verse-drama-register iambic pentameter couplet. Specifically, do I want him to say, "I'm not kidding myself"? Or is that too slangy? Or, "I'm not yet so deluded", or is that too stiff?
To what extent is Creon suggesting that this kind of delusion is normal, or abnormal? That's not clear, and it makes a big difference to the rhetoric here. Are most people, in Creon's eyes, idiots who want useless things like the pomp of the Presidency? Or is it unusual?
"I'm not so blinded" is kind of nice, but not usable because it introduces a metaphor that matters too much in this play to add in when it's not there.
I probably have to use delusion or deluded, but I haven't worked out quite how yet. I have spent most of the morning on this problem and I am not done.
The second line is just as tough, because the multiple negatives sound really awkward in English every way I've tried so far.
I think I'll keep deluded. Getting there. But I wanted to post about the struggle, because I know my comparative threads juxtaposing bits of printed translations risk presenting the work as if it sprang from the head of Zeus fully-formed, and it very often doesn't.
I also, all the time, wrestle with this: in C5 BCE serious drama, metrical verse is normal. In 2018 US or UK serious drama, regular metrical verse is v. weird & elevated. So I'm already wearing wedges. How much extra height can my style take? There's no preordained answer.
NB: it's cool that many people have opinions, but I'm not really asking for votes. You can't create a coherent literary text by popular vote on a single word choice on twitter... My goal was just to open up a tiny bit of process to non-translators. Feel free to comment anyhow!
