These are my modern English translations of excerpts from Beowulf, the first great work of English literature and unrivaled until latecomers like Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton showed up!
Wow! That’s a coincidence. Raffel also did a translation of Indonesian poetry (that I liked). But it featured a poem that got under my spiritual skin. I ultimately discovered that the Indonesian poet had translated “Sept. 1, 1939,” by the incomparable W.H. Auden and that Raffel had translated back into (free verse) English, apparently without recognizing the source. I don’t own that book anymore, but here is the title: https://www.amazon.com/Development-Modern-Indonesian-Poetry-Burton/dp/0873950240.
A lot better than Burton Raffel’s translation — which was once the popular one in high school’s. My Old English professor at Notre Dame knew Raffel and stated definitively that he didn’t know the language.
Actually, it was Burton Raffel who persuaded me to become a translator. I found his translation of "Wulf and Eadwacer" and it seemed to me that the ancient poem was much better than his translation. It occurred to me to study the poem and translate it myself. I thought my results were better, and kept on translating. My translations of "Wulf" and translation notes, including a word-by-word prose paraphrase, can be read here:
A good treatment of “Wulf and Eadwacer.” I always assumed that the contrast was between a good old supermasculine Norse pagan and a Christian obsessed with a pleasant afterlife. But I confess I never had more than a cursory understanding of the poem.
"Wulf" is famously ambiguous and I discuss various interpretations of the poem in my translation notes. My personal interpretation is that Wulf was meant to be sacrificed to the gods, but ran away, and his son was sacrificed in his place, except that it turned out that the real father was the rapist Eadwacer, quite possibly a priest ("heaven-watcher").
That would make for a great movie, with my translation set to music heading the soundtrack! ;-)
Wow! That’s a coincidence. Raffel also did a translation of Indonesian poetry (that I liked). But it featured a poem that got under my spiritual skin. I ultimately discovered that the Indonesian poet had translated “Sept. 1, 1939,” by the incomparable W.H. Auden and that Raffel had translated back into (free verse) English, apparently without recognizing the source. I don’t own that book anymore, but here is the title: https://www.amazon.com/Development-Modern-Indonesian-Poetry-Burton/dp/0873950240.
That is very amusing. It would be difficult not to recognize that famous poem, unless one hadn't read it.
Wow
Fact really is stranger than fiction!
A lot better than Burton Raffel’s translation — which was once the popular one in high school’s. My Old English professor at Notre Dame knew Raffel and stated definitively that he didn’t know the language.
Actually, it was Burton Raffel who persuaded me to become a translator. I found his translation of "Wulf and Eadwacer" and it seemed to me that the ancient poem was much better than his translation. It occurred to me to study the poem and translate it myself. I thought my results were better, and kept on translating. My translations of "Wulf" and translation notes, including a word-by-word prose paraphrase, can be read here:
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Wulf%20and%20Eadwacer%20Translation.htm
Raging foes and flawed heroes… does it end? Poor, lonely Grendel…
Yes, poor Grendel had to have something to snack on at night!
Monsters get hungry - and lonely
Yes, and think of all the animals human beings have snacked on.
Exactly
A good treatment of “Wulf and Eadwacer.” I always assumed that the contrast was between a good old supermasculine Norse pagan and a Christian obsessed with a pleasant afterlife. But I confess I never had more than a cursory understanding of the poem.
"Wulf" is famously ambiguous and I discuss various interpretations of the poem in my translation notes. My personal interpretation is that Wulf was meant to be sacrificed to the gods, but ran away, and his son was sacrificed in his place, except that it turned out that the real father was the rapist Eadwacer, quite possibly a priest ("heaven-watcher").
That would make for a great movie, with my translation set to music heading the soundtrack! ;-)