Why my version of the Apology?
There are several good translations of the Apology available, as well as all the other works of Plato, but what exactly is a translation? Is an adequate translation even possible? During my career I have translated texts, conversation and dialogue, from and to: Russian, German, French, English, and several other European languages. In school I have studied Latin, Greek, French, German, Polish and Russian, and been required to be at least familiar with many others. As a teenager I avoided the Beetles mania by studying Opera in Italian, French, German and Russian -- oh yes, and English. From this experience, I conclude that we both understand one another fairly well, while at the same time we never quite understand one another perfectly.
Theoretically, there is an indeterminacy in translation that can not be resolved. As a translator, you can find yourself in the position of feeling you understand the one party, and understand the other, and even understand how adequately the two parties understand each other. In this there is a somewhat variable need for accuracy. If what is needed is a particular size adapter in order to refuel a jet plane, the size needs to be exactly right, even if one has to be made in the machine shop to suit. Here the accuracy can be measured by the aircraft being successfully refueled.
In very different circumstances the accuracy required may be quite different.
Take the example of a group of concerned mothers delivering a box of toiletries for a foreign sports team. The mothers noted that the foreign children have significantly more body odor than American children. Their experience told them this was due to a lack of money for toiletries, so they got together and donated what they could to help. Here I was, faced with the task of presenting this "gift" to the coach of the foreign team. The American mothers had no idea that the foreign team thought showers were unhealthy and that the strong body odor represented health. If I succeeded in communicating the American mothers' intentions exactly, the gift would have been interpreted as an insult. So, here, it seemed the "best" or most responsible translation was to present the toiletries as a token gift of American items the foreigners were welcome to try to see if they would enjoy them. Both parties enjoyed the exchange, neither being the wiser.
So circumstances affect the way a translation should be considered good or bad. What are the circumstances associated with a translation of Plato's Apology? Who is the audience -- or who are the readers? I have had mixed results assigning the work to students to read. Some find it very easy to follow. Others not. Much of the reason for the difficulty with those that have it, is the strange use of words on the part of the translator. Our language is an evolving, living thing. What may work for one generation is lost ten or fifteen generations later. Reading an old English translation may not be much easier than reading the original Greek. So, one reason a new version makes sense is to update the vocabulary of the English version.
Another reason I find this task interesting, and one of the main reasons for my attempting it, is discovering a wide range of interpretations associated with the significant points being made in the work.
For example: According to the Jowett translation, Socrates says the point the God is making is that:
"He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing."
What are we too make of this? In the original it is,
"houtos humôn, ô anthrôpoi, sophôtatos estin, hostis hôsper Sôkratês egnôken hoti oudenos axios esti têi alêtheiai pros sophian." (PP)
This is translated by Loeb as,
"This one of you, O human beings, is wisest, who, like Socrates, recognizes that he is in truth of no account in respect to wisdom."
My version (so far) is: "The wise know their own wisdom is worth no more than anyone's."
What is the point of this line? As the point that the God is making, it seems to be a proscription for those who would be truly wise. The person who would really be wise should not think so highly of their own wisdom that they forget how easy it is to be wrong, to make mistakes, or to find pearls even among those that might otherwise be considered stupid. So how should we wrap this up in a nice expression?
We could update this by saying something like, "The person is wise, O humans, who like Socrates, understands their wisdom makes them no smarter than anyone else." But this would not be true. It is clearly a benefit that a person understand that their own wisdom is fallible and the person that knows this is better off in some way than others. We all know exactly how this works since we have all met those that think so highly of themselves that they do not see how silly they are to the rest of us. So knowing this is a value. This does not mean that this wisdom "is in truth worth nothing," or that a person is "in truth of no account in respect to wisdom." This conflicts with the very point Socrates makes that he is truly worth something to the community because of his skill and they are hurting themselves more than they are injuring him, by killing him. So I think it should be phrased so that wisdom is a value, but the stress is on the possibility of finding such valuable insights from everyone.
I also wonder about the interpretation that having this wisdom means a person knows they know nothing. That conflicts with the view that Socrates found many who knew a great many things. What does he actually mean by "wisdom"? The words "sophôtatos" and "sophian" are references to valuable skills. Socrates quest takes him to lots of different kinds of skilled people. In his dialogue with them he finds that they do know things, but that they fail to realize being experts in one thing do not make them experts in the virtues, which is his main concern. Their weakness is not that they know nothing, but that they have been misled by their successes to think too highly of themselves as human beings, and too little of others. Socrates has a skill (wisdom) too. He is good at teaching those who think this way that they are just as fallible as everyone else. This is not the kind of skill that makes friends of everyone. Not everyone who learns this wisdom from an encounter with Socrates takes the lesson well. There are those that find it among the best lessons they could learn. But it is clear that among those who feel their status is associated with their success in front of their peers, losing face to Socrates in a public dialogue results in too much humiliation for those with most at stake, to take the lesson well.
I also think it is a moot point to wonder about translating "anthrôpoi" as "human" or "man". We know who we are talking about (not apes or dolphins). Shorter is better. We also know we are concerned with Socrates as the example being considered. There may be some dramatic effect in leaving " who like Socrates" in, but who sits in an easy chair to read their school textbooks anymore? This has to be a quick read! I have not attempted to make my version a one for one correspondence with the original.
Speaking of which, this explanation of why I decided to work on my own version is already getting too long itself.
Original page from the Perseus Project associated with the above text:
[23a] pollai men apechtheiai moi gegonasi kai hoiai chalepôtatai kai barutatai, hôste pollas diabolas ap' autôn gegonenai, onoma de touto legesthai, sophos einai: oiontai gar me hekastote hoi parontes tauta auton einai sophon ha an allon exelenxô. to de kinduneuei, ô andres, tôi onti ho theos sophos einai, kai en tôi chrêsmôi toutôi touto legein, hoti hê anthrôpinê sophia oligou tinos axia estin kai oudenos. kai phainetai touton legein ton Sôkratê, proskechrêsthai de
[23b] tôi emôi onomati, eme paradeigma poioumenos, hôsper an <ei> eipoi hoti "houtos humôn, ô anthrôpoi, sophôtatos estin, hostis hôsper Sôkratês egnôken hoti oudenos axios esti têi alêtheiai pros sophian." taut' oun egô men eti kai nun periiôn zêtô kai ereunô kata ton theon kai tôn astôn kai xenôn an tina oiômai sophon einai: kai epeidan moi mê dokêi, tôi theôi boêthôn endeiknumai hoti ouk esti sophos. kai hupo tautês tês ascholias oute ti tôn tês poleôs praxai moi scholê gegonen axion logou oute tôn oikeiôn, all' en
[23c] peniai muriai eimi dia tên tou theou latreian. pros de toutois hoi neoi moi epakolouthountes--hois malista scholê estin, hoi tôn plousiôtatôn--automatoi, chairousin akouontes exetazomenôn tôn anthrôpôn, kai autoi pollakis eme mimountai, eita epicheirousin allous exetazein: kapeita oimai heuriskousi pollên aphthonian oiomenôn men eidenai ti anthrôpôn, eidotôn de oliga ê ouden. enteuthen oun hoi hup' autôn exetazomenoi emoi orgizontai, ouch hautois,
Crane, Gregory R. (ed.) The Perseus Project, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu December 1998.
Note also that the quote from the Loeb version is the English version used by the Perseus Project.