Contractions

Homer, Odyssey, tr. Daniel Mendelsohn (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2025), p. 58 (from "A Note on the Translation"): On the other hand, there are times when I do relax the diction. I have no qualms about using contractions, for example, to soften a line, or to give a sense of intimacy between characters in dialogue....To Father Zeus, by contrast, I never give contractions. Mendelsohn's translation of 13.140 (p. 271; Zeus speaking to Poseidon): Come, come, Shaker of Earth, Mighty One—look what you've said! What is "you've" if not a contraction of "you have"? By putting this contraction into the mouth of Zeus, Mendelsohn violates his own rule.