poetry

I'm not sure how well Seamus Heaney translated Beowulf into English, but he sure made it easy to read. I've tried to read Beowulf many times in my life, and each time I hit a brick wall because the dumb author throws some archaic word at me. You shouldn't have to be an Anglo-Saxon language student to enjoy literature. The English poem is done in the alliterative style, which is okay, although I prefer rhyming poems. But I guess Beowulf wasn't meant to rhyme and neither are translated works. It's nice to have the brief synopsis footnotes at the side of the pages because it quickly tells you what happened, sparing you from reading the passage umpteen dozen times to understand it. You'll get the basic idea pretty easily, but you won't understand all aspects of the storyline the first time around. I wish there were more breaks in the text. I had a heck of a time finding a place to stop, so as a result I finished this book very fast. Professors, complain all you want, I like this book because you can READ it without running to a dictionary or calling your professor on the phone every other line. Highly recommended.

Beowulf has long dazzled modern readers with the mystic world it paints with heavy strokes of action and emotion. But rising above the rest of translations that have at least enabled us to read through the story, Irish poet Seamus Heaney further extends the power of words to allow readers to reach out into the heart of this Anglo-Saxon epic. The known tale of a Geat noble begins with Beowulf's first fight against the man-eating brute Grendel whose hatred for mankind reflects the Anglo-Saxon society's call for companionship. After our hero Beowulf is decorated with praises and gold for his triumph over Grendel in the famous Heroet Hall of Denmark, he is confronted by Grendel's vindictive mother who is to fumble again at Beowulf's feet. Fifty years hence, Beowulf, now the ruler of Geats, fights his last battle against an aroused fire dragon to save his people. The sacrifice he makes with his own life captures the essence of his supreme heroism and sets him apart from the ordinary men.

As the first English speaking hero, Beowulf is suggested to be a "man alien in a hostile world, engaged in a struggle which he cannot win..." by the novelists and critic J.R.R. Tolkien. Thus, through the analysis of Heaney, readers are able to catch a refreshed sense of danger and excitement of a forgotten world between the lines of an epic whose fame has daunted students who therefore overlook the "mythic potency" of the original poetry (as suggested by Heaney himself). The bilingual edition itself offers a shortcut for readers between two worlds whose connection is established by Heaney's overpowering pen. Thanks to Heaney's masterful technique to weave the beauty of language with the phenomenon of storytelling, Beowulf's individuality is further stressed as he is to be better understood in the "hostile" world that has abused the wonders of his story with other sketchy translations.

Do recommend the poetry section before the prose. It only enhances the pleasure.

Seamus Heaney's Beowulf is the best translation of a classic work into a modern language that I have seen in years, it may yet be my personal favorite translation of all time (best to let the thrill of the reading wear off before that judgement is made, however). I have done a bit of translation work from modern languages other than English, and am fully aware of how difficult it is to translate a line of prose from one living language to another, while acomplishing the two tasks that are the goal of every translator; 1- convey the meaning of the words, 2-convey the aesthetic "feel" of the words. These two goals are very often in serious conflict with one another- and when one adds in the element of the subject being poetry it makes it even harder, because you have to mediate the first two goals, and then add another; fit it all into a lyrical framework.

Much of the time, translators simply drop the poetry, and represent the story as prose (the Rieus version of the Iliad does this)and this is a choice I usually respect. Trying to force a story into an alien rhyme scheme makes them, very often, unbearably cheesy (viz. most versions of the Aeneid); whereas the Rieus' Iliad is a rollicking good time.

Nevertheless, the loss of lyricism is indeed a loss; especially when the sounds of the words when spoken are particularly beautiful, or the lyrical framework particularly appropriate for conveying the mood of a story. Ironically, the better the poet is in the original language the more difficult it becomes for her voice to survive the translator's work.

And this is why (back to the orginal topic) Heaney's work is so jaw-dropping. The story works as faithful translation, beautiful writing, and poetry as well. It is entirely comprehensible, faithful to the original text, and yet has the distinct ring of an authentic saxon "voice." I would give my right arm to have half the ability with translating modern languages that Heaney has brought to bear on this translation of the classic saxon epic.