Odyssey Book 1 – English Translation
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skillful in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after plundering Troy’s holy mound.
He saw lands and learned of distant men,
and weathered many bitter nights and days
in his heart at sea, while fighting only
to save his life and bring his companions home.
But not by will nor valor could he save them;
their own recklessness destroyed them,
foolish children, for they killed and feasted on
the cattle of celestial Helios,
who denied them their desire to return.
Of these adventures, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
tell us for our benefit, lift the great song again.
Begin when all the rest had escaped death
in battle or at sea and had returned home long ago,
while he alone still hungered
for home and wife. Lady Calypso
clung to him in her sea-hollowed caves,
a nymph, immortal and most beautiful,
who craved him as her own.
And when long years and seasons
wheeling brought around that point of time
ordained for him to make his passage home,
trials and dangers, even then, accompanied him
even in Ithaca, close to those he loved.
Yet all the gods had pitied Lord Odysseus,
all but Poseidon, raging cold and rough
against the brave king till he came ashore
at last on his own land…
