An old adage among translators goes that every generation should have its own version of a classic text to speak to that era’s cultural style. It’s a curious suggestion, since we don’t try to “update” canonical American or English novels. But revisiting an old book in the light of a changed world and through the eyes of a translator who draws on the wisdom of predecessors can be an exciting event. Recent retranslations like Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf and Emily Wilson’s The Iliad have stirred new interest in the classics; re-editions of twentieth-century works have revived excitement for authors of fading renown, like Clarice Lispector or Natalia Ginzburg, casting light simultaneously on issues around canonicity. The tricky thing about lauding a new translation, though, is that this usually involves putting the previous versions on trial—or, to put it in even more cynical terms, condemning them to obsolescence.
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