It's a good translation, Haney's. It's very hard to make the poetry come out to the Western ear, which has for so long now been attuned to rhymes rather than alliteration.
In English, it was when the Normans adopted French forms of poetry in preference to the older Scandinavian ones. There were, in their defense, a couple of very powerful and moving fashions of poetry coming out of the French-speaking world at that time.
Sometime during the early Middle English period, the period in which French transformed the English language, that elite fashion jumped from French to English poems and came to dominate it.
It's a good translation, Haney's. It's very hard to make the poetry come out to the Western ear, which has for so long now been attuned to rhymes rather than alliteration.
ReplyDeleteHe had a great talent with words.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when & why we moved to rhyme. That's an interesting historical question.
In English, it was when the Normans adopted French forms of poetry in preference to the older Scandinavian ones. There were, in their defense, a couple of very powerful and moving fashions of poetry coming out of the French-speaking world at that time.
ReplyDeleteSometime during the early Middle English period, the period in which French transformed the English language, that elite fashion jumped from French to English poems and came to dominate it.
Interesting. Thanks.
ReplyDelete