Classics’ elitism should be lost in translation

I am very glad to see Emma Gee raise this issue. Few will be aware of this, but the vast majority of Greek and Latin literature does not exist in any modern language. This means that it is inaccessible to nearly everyone. One need merely think of the 300 volumes of the Patrologia Graeca and Latina. Then there is languages like classical Armenian, Syriac, Christian Arabic - all full of material which might be of use, and very little of which exists in English. A well-intentioned billionaire could solve this relatively easily, simply by creating an institute and employing a few dozen academics to do nothing but translate. But surely we, the taxpayer, already do this: we pay for all these colleges. We need to change the structure of research funding such that creating the first English translation of some text is itself worth funding. We don't need the 2999th version of the Iliad or Odyssey; we do need the very first version of most ancient texts.

Greek and Latin literature is our common heritage. Relegating it to some academic elite is nonsense.

I have to say that, from a personal viewpoint, what attracted me to the classics was the majestic language of Homer in translation. It exuded a loftiness that somehow lifted me into another dimension. The classics do require work to engage with, but that is part of the thrill of the journey. We place far too much emphasis, these days on accessibility. However, much of this emphasis is not for reasons of establishing equality and justice, but for propping up a consumerist society, whose sensibilities are manufactured by a corporate elite. Elitism itself is a word that has been subverted to imply anything that falls outside the realm of bourgeois consumerism. Rather than dumbing down a literary text through translation, it would be better to devote time and resources raising students' thinking, so that they can embrace a deeper sensibility.

Wish I could hear it.

1.Translation is not dumbing down. Is any language 'dumber' than another? We don't make any text 'dumber' by rendering it intelligently in another language. 2. Re 'consumerism', translations are not consumer articles. Publishing a verse translation (for instance) is very difficult, firstly because verse publication is more competitive than academic publishing, and secondly and more importantly because of a lack of funding (good presses struggle for funding from the Arts Council and elsewhere). There is no necessary equation between translation and commodification - in fact the reverse. 3. Translations are not always intended for student audiences - students are already a highly privileged group who have the means to embrace whatever sensibilities they want. Most people have literally no other access to the material - the vast majority of people attend schools with no tradition of the Classics, no conceivable rationale for teaching them, and no money to do so. Readers who might pick a pamphlet off a shelf in a bookshop, or off a table in a doctor's surgery, but have never been exposed to either Classics or poetry, who don't have a university degree, also have a right to Plato or Lucretius. if it's a way into the languages for them, so much the better. But that's not the point.

Roger Pearse, with characteristic modesty, does not mention his magnificent website, which has links to a vast number of editions and translations, most of which are open access. But the answer is surely to teach Greek and Latin. Some of us can recall when Oxbridge required this, and grammar and direct grant schools taught it, now Anglolexia prevails. I have never met a mathematician who regretted having to learn Latin, and Edith Hall's present employer has a fine record of teaching Latin in schools across London. To pretend that translations are anything more than a crutch is to insult those authors who wrote in Greek, Latin, Arabic or Sanskrit. But HMG and most vicechancellors enjoy cutting language departments, in the name of progress and UK imperialism.