Translation

Translation is an art, not a science. In trying to re-create the tone, the idea, and the effect of the original, translators often come up with very different solutions. Consider the following three versions of the chorus's final speech from The Bacchae, as presented in the Cambridge Rindge and Latin, Harvard/Radcliffe, and ART productions, respectively.

The gods have many shapes.
The gods bring many things
to their accomplishment.
And what was most expected
has not been accomplished.
But god has found his way
for what no man expected.
So ends the play.

-- William Arrowsmith (1959)

Many forms are
there of the
divine.
Many things the
gods accomplish
unexpectedly.
What we waited
for does not
come to pass, while
for what remained
undreamed the god
finds ways.
Just such
doing was this
doing.

-- C.K. Williams (1990)

One way or another, God shows up.
You never know.
Look what happened here.
Things we hoped for that never arrived,
things we thought we would never consider --
God brings us face to face with it all.
The hard thing, though,
is knowing what to do.
Just look what happened here.

-- Paul Schmidt (1997)