Your point is taken. When I first read the Aeneid it was in Latin, but we also read and English version alongside for comparison and so forth. We used the Penguin Classics version and as students of Latin, some of the students found that version to be insufficient; I imagine this was of course in comparison to the Latin itself.
The "best translation" is something that I consider very subjective and I think that the key to teaching the epic in translation would have to be oral reading, in the manner of a Roman "lector." This I think will demand a listening and close reading of the text which the instructor could direct accordingly.
I have sympathy for the students that find trouble with the Aeneid, I thought it made horrible reading in translation and think that all who read it must first read it in its latin so that they will not have any aversion to reading it again or to the memory of having read it once for class.
I hope the teachers in the forum dealing with the matter find successful methods.
a humble student send his regards,
runako taylor
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