十 (ten) 人 (men)
十 (ten) 色 (colors).
Was Odysseus (Ulysses) a hero or a villain? Shall we believe Homer or Virgil? Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I suppose, and certainly different strokes for different folks seem to make our world all the more colorful.
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Me, I am partial to Homer's Odyssey. (Wasn't it the reason I went to Ithaca?) Which translation? Well, if everyone had one voice, it would be 十人一色 (ten people one color), but fortunately, even translations tend to be 十人十色.
George Chapman's version
The man, O Muse, informe, that many a way
Wound with his wisedome to his wished stay;
That wanderd wondrous farre when He the towne
Of sacred Troy had sackt and shiverd downe.
Alexander Pope's version
The Man, for wisdom’s various arts renown’d,
Long exercis’d in woes, O Muse! resound.
Who, when his arms had wrought the destin’d fall
Of sacred Troy, and raz’d her heav’n-built wall. . . .
Robert Fitzgerald's version
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.
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