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Your copy of Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf arrives from Amazon and you actually want to read it.
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Hey! I majored in English. You know you majored in English when you realize after graduation that you are among the least employable of all the college graduates.
(I went back to school and got my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing -- the most employable major)
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You know you majored in English when you turn up your nose at Seamus Heaney for ruining Beowulf.
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Many people love Seamus Heaney. His translation is very readable and poetic. However, it is my opinion that his translation is not the most faithful to the original. Don't let my snobbery ruin Heaney for you, though. Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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My main reaction to Heaney's translation was that it didn't sound like Beowulf, it sounded like his other poetry. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Exactly! And I haven't even read any of his other poetry! But I got the distinct impression that it wasn't Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney as much as it was Seamus Heaney's Beowulf. When you've got five or six translations in front of you, and one of them is Heaney's, you quickly realize that one of these things is not like the other.
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I have a secret confession: I've never read the whole thing. But I've read some in Old English, so I think that makes up for it.
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JB - No worries about spoiling it for me with snobbery! I enjoyed it quite a bit, mostly for the readability. The other translations that I had been looking at (on the internets, which I realize is not the best source for such things, necessarily) were pretty thick.
Do you have a recommendation? I'd love to check out other translations - and the thought of finding a better one is alluring.
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: I've only read one translation of it.
I did read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in Old English in high school, though.
*coughMiddleEnglishcough*
Old English is pretty unreadable unless you've studied it. You can muddle your way through Middle English, though. But as far as I can tell, it hasn't been published yet.
Lime: The best I know of is by Ruth Lehmann. However, I haven't read very much of it. I also want to check out Tolkien's, even though it's not a complete verse translation.
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I told Mr. Opera the other day that if I only had English classes left I'd have finished my degree by now. I have 20some credits left to take of anything *but* English and nothing sounds nearly as fun.
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JB: I tried to find snippets of Tolkien's translation, but I wasn't successful. I'd like to read his as well, though I'm a slight bit put off by it not being a complete verse translation.
Ruth Lehmann? Awesome. It's on my list.
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I read The Tain a few years back. Is that the Thomas Kinsella version? I enjoyed it quite a bit - though I wish I could get the rest of the Fenian Cycle.
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quote:Many people love Seamus Heaney. His translation is very readable and poetic. However, it is my opinion that his translation is not the most faithful to the original.
I haven't read Heaney's Beowulf, so I can't really comment on it in particular, but I'm curious to know what you mean when you say "faithful to the original".
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Jeniwren knows this only because her mother has just such a degree. Mom followed this up with an only slightly more unemployable degree: an MFA in Illustration.
When she decided that it was time to go back to school again (she was still unemployed and couldn't get a job), I fought hard for her to *please* get a degree in accounting. Which she did. Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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It has little of the rhythm and tone of the translations I am more accustomed to (which I was always told reflected the rhythm and tone of the original).
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It's not a very literal translation in many places. I think Heaney takes a lot of liberties with the meaning in order to maintain his particular feel, which I feel was more Heaney than Beowulf.
Like I said, the other five translations I was looking at could all be very similar, but then Heaney's would be off doing its own thing. I simply got the feeling that he was more interested in his own poetry than in the Anglo-Saxons who wrote it.
One of the most noticeable places where the literalness suffers is in compound words. The Anglo-Saxons loved compounds, just like the Germans do today, and he really kills the Old English flavor by not keeping many compounds.
I'll see if I can find any more concrete examples when I get home.
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I majored in biology and minored in English and my job offers were in English. Teaching jobs, that is.
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I must not be a godd English major. Reading a translation of Beowulf would not be my idea of leisure reading.
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quote:Originally posted by mackillian: Jonathon, what's your take on the first word? (Hwaet) as for meaning?
I would use "lo" or "behold." "So" sounds way too casual. "So, this one time, me and the Spear-Danes, we heard about this one dude called Beowulf."
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But I've read some in Old English, so I think that makes up for it.
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I enjoyed it quite a bit, mostly for the readability. The other translations that I had been looking at (on the internets, which I realize is not the best source for such things, necessarily) were pretty thick.![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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