ABSTRACT
Why discuss the translation of classical prose? Poetry – in which straightforward denotative meaning is vastly complicated by the crucial importance of form and linguistic nuance – clearly makes daunting demands on the translator. But prose is generally assumed to be simply the vehicle that conveys the meaning of the sentences, and the prose translator’s skill is widely thought to reside in the relatively simple task of restating that meaning in another language. The mark of success for a prose translation is generally felt to be a kind of double transparency, in which neither the translator not the words on the page draw attention to themselves, and the reader is free to focus on ‘what is said’.
