Emily Wilson vs. Daniel Mendelsohn: which Odyssey translation should you read?

Tell me about a complicated man. Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, and where he went, and who he met, the pain he suffered in the storms at sea, and how he worked to save his life and bring his men back home. He failed to keep them safe; poor fools, they ate the Sun God’s cattle, and the god kept them from home. Now goddess, child of Zeus, tell the old story for our modern times. Find the beginning.

Tell me the tale of a man, Muse, who had so many roundabout ways To wander, driven off course, after sacking Troy’s hallowed keep; Many the peoples whose cities he saw and whose ways of thinking he learned, Many the toils he suffered at sea, anguish in his heart As he struggled to safeguard his life and the homecoming of his companions. But he did not save his companions even so, though he longed to, For their heedlessness destroyed them, theirs and nobody else’s— Fools that they were, like children, who devoured the sun-god Hyperion’s Cattle, and so he took from them the day of their homecoming. Goddess, start where you will; daughter of Zeus, share the tale with us too.

‘Cyclops, you asked my name. I will reveal it; then you must give the gift you promised me, of hospitality. My name is Noman. My family and friends all call me Noman.’ He answered with no pity in his heart, ‘I will eat Noman last; first I will eat the other men. That is my gift to you.’ Then he collapsed, fell on his back, and lay there, his massive neck askew. All-conquering sleep took him. In drunken heaviness, he spewed wine from his throat, and chunks of human flesh.

‘Cyclops, you’ve been asking me for my famous name and now I shall tell you—and then you’ll give me the guest-gift you’d promised me. No-One is my name. No-One is what people call me, My mother and my father and all of my comrades, too.’ My words. And there came right away this reply from his pitiless heart: ‘I’ll eat No-One last of all, after the rest of his comrades. First I’ll eat the others—that will be your guest-gift!’ He teetered and fell down, flat on his back, and then Lay there, his massive neck bent at an angle. Then sleep, Which subdues all, seized him. Wine ran out of his gullet— Morsels of human meat, too. Loaded with wine, he kept belching.

At that, her heart and body suddenly relaxed. She recognized the tokens he had shown her. She burst out crying and ran straight towards him and threw her arms around him, kissed his face, and said, “Do not be angry at me now, Odysseus! In every other way you are a very understanding man. The gods have made us suffer: they refused to let us stay together and enjoy our youth until we reached the edge of age together.

Right then and there, her knees and her heart gave way When she recognized the sure signs Odysseus had clearly described. Bursting into tears, she ran up to him, throwing her arms Around Odysseus’s neck and kissing his head as she said: “Don’t be vexed with me, Odysseus, since in all other things You were always so sensible. But the gods have given us sorrow— The gods who begrudged us the chance to remain at each other’s side While enjoying the days of our youth and then reaching the threshold of age.