Seamus Heaney
Anyone here read his translation of the epic poem
sharebump
share
MovieChat Forums > Beowulf (2007) Discussion > Seamus Heaney
No, but I'm starting it shortly.
Before Mozart, all ambition turns to despair. - Charles Gounod
Heaney's translation is a good choice. Although some criticize Heaney's modernizations, his translation works as a fine poem in its own right, as I prefer a verse translation to do. He gives us a sense of the dignity and craftsmanship of Old English meter which we wouldn't get from a literal prose translation. So if you want a closer relationship with the original language, then a prose translation may be a better bet (as long as your stopping short of reading the Old English), but Heaney's translation maintains much of the elegiac beauty that make the poem so much more than a recounting of heroic adventures.
share