Translating Early Medieval Poetry
Page 10
war, he had no misgivings about using English as his primary literary language.37
In using English, he was not repudiating Scots. Morgan knew enough about the
history of Scots to realise that it went back directly to the early Middle Ages, to
the Old English he was translating. Northumbrian Old English was the ancestor
of Scots and was spoken across southern Scotland. Indeed one of the most famous
Anglo-Saxon artistic monuments is the eighth-century Ruthwell Cross, from near
Dumfries, which contains a text in Old English corresponding to part of The Dream
of the Rood. In translating Old English poetry Morgan was translating literature that belonged to a (multilingual) Scottish past as much as an English one. That he chose
to translate it mainly into English reflected an outward-looking appreciation of his
literary context and a recognition of English as providing an adaptive and enabling
literary language in a way that Scots, whether vernacular or ‘synthetic’, for Morgan,
did not.
37 Morgan’s own embracing of Modern English as his literary medium, though not
popular in nationalist circles after the war, turned out to be shared by most (though not all) Scottish poets of later generations, and interestingly language questions did not figure in the debate about identity and independence during the 2014 referendum campaign.
3
Gains and Losses in Translating Old English
Poetry into Modern English and Russian
Inna Matyushina
Translation has traditionally been divided into two types: that on
a spatial axis, from one language to another, and that on a chronological
axis, within one language of different periods. In contrast to cross-lingual
translations, which have been thoroughly analysed, defined and exemplified, the
complexities of translation between historical stages of the same language have not
yet received enough scholarly attention. Diachronic translation presupposes trans-
lation into the same language but of a later period. It might seem at first sight that translations of Old English poetry into Modern English belong to the sphere of
diachronic translation, especial y if we take into account the historical identity of
the language of the original and the translation.
Diachronic translation implies not only the identity of the language of the
original text and the translation but also the identity of the poetic systems of both
texts with all their phonetic, prosodic, metrical, lexical, grammatical and syntactic
constituents. However, looking at Old English and Modern English poetic systems,
it is impossible not to notice that Old English alliterative verse and Modern
English accentual-syl abic verse derive from different roots and are thus histori-
cal y dissimilar.1 Alliterative verse, as is well known, did not survive the Norman
Conquest, when not only extra-linguistic (the break in the literary tradition) but
also linguistic changes2 put an end to the old poetic tradition. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries attempts were made to revive alliterative verse, but by the end
of the fourteenth century it was forever ousted by accentual-syl abic verse which
was confirmed by acquaintance with French and Italian poetic systems. The history
1 Old English alliterative verse, as is well known, is based on the tonic system of
versification, in which the number of stressed syl ables per line is fixed, whereas the number of unstressed syl ables may vary. Modern English verse is essential y accentual-syl abic, or syl abic-tonic, from Greek συλλαβή (‘syl able’), τόνος (‘stress’): that is, fixing both the number of stresses and the number of syl ables per line.
2 The linguistic changes that put an end to the alliterative tradition include phonological transformations such as quantitative changes in the stressed and unstressed syl ables, as well as syntactical and morphological processes causing an abundance of auxiliary words and thus extinguishing alliteration.
Gains and Losses
47
of English verse begins anew, and it is Middle English poetics that serve as the basis of its development.
In contrast to modern syl abic-tonic versification, Old English alliterative verse
is characterised by a tight unity of verse and language. If in modern poetic texts
the form is to some extent extrinsic to the language, in alliterative verse the two are indivisible. Alliterative technique does not deform the language but moulds it in a
special way, so that not only is the language organised by the alliterative verse, but the verse requires particular linguistic conditions. The rhythm of alliterative verse
is based on the specific qualities of Old Germanic stress: the system of alliterative
verse was born in Germanic languages together with the shift of stress and its fixa-
tion on initial root syl ables, emphasising the semantical y most important part.
Therefore it is obvious that the system of alliterative verse could exist only as long Old Germanic languages themselves existed.
On Translations of Old English Poetry into Modern English
Assuming the historical identity of the English language, translators of Old English
verse into Modern English usual y aspire to imitate individual peculiarities of
the alliterative poetic system, disregarding the fact that they exist not as sepa-
rate elements, and not as a simple sum total of those elements, but in a complex
system of interrelated and interdependent components. Trying to give the reader
an adequate idea of alliterative metre, they concentrate their efforts on rendering
the prosodic structure of the original. Having paid tribute to nearly all theoretical y possible rhythmical forms (bal ad,3 rhymed,4 free verse,5 blank verse,6 rhythmical
prose7), translators usual y choose the metre which they think closely resembles
the alliterative verse – tonic verse with alliteration. Some translators, including
Emily Hickey in her version of The Wanderer, give preference to tonic verse with six stressed syl ables per line:
Morn by morn, I, alone, am fain to utter my woe;
Now is there none of the living to whom I dare to show (lines 8–9)8
Others, trying to observe the canons of alliterative rhythmical structure, use tonic
verse with four stresses per line, in which they place three, or a minimum of two,
3 Cf. Stopford Brooke’s translation of ‘The Seafarer’, in The Cambridge Book of Prose and Verse, ed. G. Simpson (Cambridge, 1924), pp. 4–6.
4 Cf. the translations in G. Bone, Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Oxford, 1943).
5 As is stated by P. H. Frye, the translation should give ‘essential y the same impression’
as the translated text, therefore blank verse is ‘our natural epic expression’ most suitable for translating epic poetry such as Beowulf, ‘The Translation of Beowulf’, Modern Language Notes 12 (1897), 79–82.
6 ‘I had little doubt that blank verse is the proper medium, free verse being too informal for poetry in verse of so conventional and orderly type’, Richard Hamer, trans., A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse (London, 1970), p. 22.
7 M. Lehnert, Poetry and Prose of the Anglo-Saxons (Berlin, 1955).
8 Emily H. Hickey, trans., The Wanderer, in The Cambridge Book of Prose and Verse, ed.
G. Simpson (Cambridge, 1924), p. 8.
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Inna Matyushina
alliterating syl ables.9 Those translators of Old English verse who use four-stressed
metre with alternating stressed and unstressed syl ables, a caesura and alliteration,
express confidence that they have ‘borrowed the form of the Old Eng
lish verse in
making these versions’.10
Analysing Modern English translations of the Old English poem The Wanderer,
the poem used for comparison throughout this chapter, it becomes conspicuous
that formal observance of the canons of alliterative verse does not bring a transla-
tion any closer to its original. The accentual pattern in the translated lines is not
obvious because it is not dictated by the metre, as it was in the Old English alliterative verse. Thus in the lines ‘When the dark earth / covered my dear lord’s face’ (line 22) and ‘So have I also, often, / in wretchedness’ (line 19),11 the number of stresses varies between one and four, whereas the number of unstressed syl ables can also
reach four. In lines which are overfilled with unstressed syl ables, alliteration can
only be guessed at: perhaps the alliterating syl ables were meant to be ‘dark’ and
‘dear’, as well as ‘also’ and ‘often’. Alliteration on the semantical y weakest words
such as adverbs (‘also’, ‘often’) violates one of the important rules of alliterative
verse, according to which alliteration should only be carried by the semantical y
most important words, most frequently poetic or compound words. Alliteration
falling on auxiliary or semantical y weak words can hardly be functional, however
frequently it is used.
In contrast to the Old English originals, in modern translations alliteration
frequently binds both stressed and unstressed syl ables: ‘grievous d isasters and
d eath of kin’ (line 7).12 Thus the main law of alliterative verse, requiring the closest unity between metrical stress and alliteration, is not observed. Changes in accentua-tion dissociate stress from sound in modern translations and make it impossible
to include in the alliteration only initial syl ables, as those do not necessarily carry the stress. Realising this, some translators start marking with alliteration not only
initial but any syl ables carrying metrical stress: ‘to k eep se c ure the k eys of his heart’
(line 13); ‘oh un h appy me, from h ome exiled’ (line 20)13. The introduction of this sound repetition, albeit still retreating from the canonical Old Germanic norms of
alliterative verse, might be important in helping a modern reader to get the feel of
the nature of alliterative verse.
On the contrary, the reduction of alliterative schemes by the limits of half-lines
(сf. ‘not earthly glory / but c old heart’s c ave’ (line 33); ‘oft s orrow and s leep / banded together’ (line 39)14 distances the translation from the originals, in which alliteration always fal s on stressed syl ables of both half-lines. Alliteration in translations retains tenuous surface similarity with Old English alliteration, whose main function
9 For instance, see Charles Kennedy, trans., Old English Elegies Translated into Al iterative Verse (Princeton, 1936); Michael Alexander, trans., The Earliest English Poems (London, 1977); Edward Fulton, ‘On Translating Anglo-Saxon Poetry’, PMLA 13:2 (1898), 286–96.
10 Alexander, trans., The Earliest English Poems, p. 20.
11 Kennedy, trans., Old English Elegies, p. 46.
12 Ibid. p. 45.
13 Fulton, ‘On Translating Anglo-Saxon Poetry’, p. 293.
14 Alexander, trans., The Earliest English Poems, pp. 48–51.
Gains and Losses
49
consisted in binding half-lines into units of higher order – long lines.15 In contrast to the originals, alliteration in Modern English translations loses its organising
function, as it is either restricted to a single half line or fal s on unstressed syl ables, or is ‘extinguished’ by auxiliary words flooding the lines of Modern English texts.
Attempts to transplant the prosodic and sound structure of Old English verse in
translations into Modern English can hardly be successful: the verse of the modern
translations, lacking an organising force, becomes not very different from prose.
If the imitation of alliterative rhythm is traditional y considered the hardest
aspect of translation, the rendering of the Old English word-stock is usual y felt
to be an easier task. The most important aims for translators appear to be to avoid
archaisms and evident Romance borrowings, comprising a highly elevated poetic
vocabulary in Modern English. In order to avoid overlaying the Germanic back-
ground of Old English poems with an Elizabethan or neoclassical colouring, trans-
lators sometimes try to use mostly words of Anglo-Saxon origin, and thus usual y
have to restrict their translations to neutral, everyday vocabulary.
To appreciate the complexity of the task which the translator is facing, it is neces-
sary to briefly summarise the characteristic features of the language of Old English
poetry. Old English poetic vocabulary is organised into complicated systems of
lexemes. Words used with a transferred meaning characteristic of poetry, archaic
words, compounds (kennings and potential words formed according to models of
word-formation which were productive in Old English) function as poetic words
because they belong to systems of poetic synonyms, formed in the poetic language.
Old English synonyms comprising systems organised by alliterative verse must have
had identical denotative-logical meaning, but differed in minute tints of aesthetic
information, expressed through metre and alliteration;16 special poetic ranks
assigned to each word determined its use within the line as well as its inclusion
into alliteration.17 In order to give a modern reader an idea of the immense rich-
ness of Old English synonyms, translators often try to keep Old English words at
all costs. Thus in his translations Michael Alexander introduces Old English words
15 О. А. Смирницкая, ‘Метрические единицы аллитерационного стиха (к проблеме
языка германской эпической поэзии)’, Художественный язык средневековья (Москва, 1982), pp. 266–71 [O. A. Smirnitskaya, ‘Metrical Units of Alliterative Verse (On the Problem of the Language of Germanic Epic Verse)’, in Poetic Language of the Middle Ages (Moscow, 1982), pp. 266–71.]
16 For example, in Beowulf the synonyms ealdor, eorl, hlaford and cyning are treated differently by alliterative verse. The word ealdor occurs both in even and odd half-lines and always takes part in alliteration, cf. lines 56a, 346a, 369b, 392a, 592b, 668a, 1644b, 1848b, 2920a; the word eorl is mostly used in the odd half-lines and is always included in alliteration, cf.
lines 248a, 357b, 369a, 689a, 761a, 795a, 1035a, 1866a, 2142a, 2190a, etc., the word hlaford is usual y found in even half-lines and always in alliteration (267b, 2283a, 2375b, 2634b, 2642b, 3142b, 3179a). On the contrary, their synonym cyning never carries alliteration and usual y occurs in the even half-lines (cf. lines 11b, 619b, 863b, 920b, 1010a, 1306b, 1925b, 1885b, 2702b, etc.).17 On the basis of the metrical distribution of synonyms in alliterative verse
Olga Smirnitskaya singles out seven poetic ranks of synonyms , О. А. Смирницкая,
‘Синонимические системы в Беовульфе’, Вестник МГУ. Сер. 9. Филология, № 5 (1980), 44–57. [O. A. Smirnitskaya, ‘Synonymic Systems in Beowulf’, Vestnik MGU. Ser. 9, Philologia 5 (1980), 44–57.]
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Inna Matyushina
with hardly any orthographic changes, such as aetheling for ‘prince or king’,18 weird for ‘fate’,19 and byrne for ‘coat of mail’.20
Other translators aspiring to approximate their vocabulary to Old English give
preference to Modern English words which are
etymological y identical to those of
the original. However these words have sometimes developed a different meaning
or acquired diverse overtones or invoke specific associations. For instance the Old
English word wann which means ‘dark’, as in the line ‘þonne won cymeð, / nipeð nihtscua’21 (lines 103b–104a), is translated as by Emily Hickey as ‘wan’, in ‘When
the shadow of night fal s wan’,22 although ‘wan’ in Modern English means ‘pale’, or
‘faint’. Similarly, the word fealu (‘pale yellow’) used to describe the colour of waves in the lines ‘Ðonne onwæcneð eft / wineleas guma, // gesihð him biforan / fealwe
wegas’ (lines 45–6), is rendered in virtual y all modern translations as ‘fallow’, which in Modern English means ‘pale brown’, as in Elaine Treharne’s ‘Then he awakes
again, the friendless man, sees before him fallow waves’.23 Thus the meaning and the
connotations of the words used in the original ( fealu is the colour of corn) and in the translation (‘fallow’ is the colour of earth) are entirely different. The Old English word fægen (‘glad, joyful’), as in the lines ‘Wita sceal geþyldig, // ne sceal no to hatheort / ne to hrædwyrde, // ne to wac wiga / ne to wanhydig, // ne to forth, ne to
fægen, / ne to feohgifre’ (lines 65–7), remains in some Modern English translations
the etymological y equivalent lexeme ‘fain’, which in the modern language has the
meaning ‘compelled, obliged’, as in Emily Hickey’s ‘Full patient the sage must be,
and he that would counsel teach / Not over-hot in his heart, nor over-swift in his
speech; / Nor faint of soul, nor secure, nor fain for the fight, nor afraid.’24 The key concept for Old English poetry duguð (‘comitatus’), as in ‘dreame bidrorene, / duguþ eal gecrong’ (line 79), is translated as ‘the doughty’, which has acquired humorous,
ironic connotations in Modern English, as in Richard Hamer’s ‘Deprived of pleas-
ures, all the doughty troop’.25
The etymological approach to translating Old English poetry is especial y vivid
in the treatment of compound words by modern translators. Usual y the translator
just substitutes the Old English roots of compound words with genetical y identical
modern lexemes. Thus the Old English compound wintercearig, which means ‘sad