Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare.[1]
Translation of the Iliad[edit]
Pope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. In 1713, he announced his plans to publish a translation of the Iliad. The work would be available by subscription, with one volume appearing every year over the course of six years. Pope secured a revolutionary deal with the publisher Bernard Lintot, which brought him two hundred guineas (£210) a volume, equivalent to about £27,900 in 2016,[20] a vast sum at the time.
His translation of the Iliad appeared between 1715 and 1720. It was acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal" (although the classical scholar Richard Bentley wrote: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer.").英國名家亞歷山大．蒲柏翻譯荷馬史詩《伊利亞特》，劍橋古典文學專家理查．本特利讀了說，真是一部漂亮的詩歌，卻不該說是荷馬的作品："It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer"，多洩氣！----董橋：一紙平安
Translation of the Odyssey[edit]
Encouraged by the success of the Iliad, Pope translated the Odyssey. The translation appeared in 1726, but this time, confronted with the arduousness of the task, he enlisted the help of William Broome and Elijah Fenton. Pope attempted to conceal the extent of the collaboration (he himself translated only twelve books, Broome eight and Fenton four),[21] but the secret leaked out. It did some damage to Pope's reputation for a time, but not to his profits.[22]
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