TRANSLATION        WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?
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                       BEOWULF

                                               (Page Two)

MAKING SENSE

One of the complex problems involved in translating Beowulf is that the grammatical structure of Old English -- the language in which the poem is written -- is considerably different from Modern English. Old English is an inflected language; this means that its word forms can express relationships which in modern English require the use of added words. Consequently, even a literal (word-for-word) translation of the poem must include words that are not actually separate words in the original text.

The example below illustrates this with the opening lines of the poem in the original version and a literal translation. I've highlighted comparable phrasings. You can see by comparing the highlighted words that prepositions (of) and articles (the) had to be added to the translation, resulting in the use of more words than in the original version.

In addition to adding words, a translation must also make changes in word order if the translation is to make sense. In my literal translation of the above passage, the word order isn't the normal order used in modern English. The Old English text (in a word-for-word translation) has the subject of the sentence first, then the object, and then the verb --  

We of the Spear-Danes in old days of the people-kings, power heard.

In modern English, however, the subject is usually followed by the verb and then by the object. A  modern English translation might read like this:

We  have heard of the power of the Spear-Danes and their kings who in old days....

In fact, though, there's some ambiguity in the original text because the Anglo-Saxon text omits words that are normally used, in modern English, to explain relationships.  Is the text saying we have heard of the Spear-Danes' kings and their power (with emphasis placed on kings, not the Spear-Danes as a group), or  we have heard of the Spear-Danes' power -- and of their kings? You can see in the  examples below that two well-known translators have interpreted the lines somewhat differently. 

Each translator had to decide what the relationships were meant to be because many of the connecting words used in modern English are not present in the Anglo-Saxon language. Consequently,  it's essentially impossible to translate Beowulf word-for-word if the translation is to make sense to a modern reader.  Most translators are forced to add words and change sentence structures -- which is one main reason why translations of the poem are often so different from each other.

To illustrate, let's look at translations of another passage, lines 720-727, where Grendel's entrance into the hall of the Spear-Danes is described. First you'll see, in the boxes below, the original text and a literal translation.

You can see that the literal translation, even with a few words added, really doesn't make much sense. Now look at how four translators have rendered the same passage. Beneath each one, I've indicated the number of words and sentences used by the translator. 

Along with considerable differences in word choices and word orders, the translations show wide variations in their numbers of words and sentences. Burton Raffel's version is closest to the original text in the number of words used: he has 46 words while the original has 45. To accomplish this, however, he has had to omit repetitions used in the original poem -- phrases saying essentially the same thing in different words, such as came then and warrior traveling, door pushed back and threw open... building's mouth -- that are characteristic of the style of Beowulf and other Old English poems. So, although Raffel uses about the same number of words, the style of his translation is much more straightforward and direct than that of the original poem. 

The other three translations do include some of the repetitions that Raffel has omitted, but they're also much wordier than the original version. Ruth P.M. Lehmann and R.M. Liuzza use 59 words and 58 words, respectively,  while the original text has only 45. Seamus Heaney's translation is by far the wordiest; it has 64 words -- 19 more than the original text -- and adds a number of descriptive words that aren't in the original. Heaney, however, is the only one who uses the same number of sentences as the original:  he has three sentences, Liuzza and Raffel have two, and  Lehmann has five. 

At this point I must explain that what I'm calling the "original" text is itself a modified version of the way in which the original manuscript is written. To make the poem readable -- even for those modern readers who can understand Old English -- all printed texts of the poem contain a number of changes in punctuation, spelling, and line arrangements. So, in fact, translators are working with a text that has already been "translated" to some extent from Old English to modern English. From that point on, however, the differences in translations can still be quite remarkable as they're compared to the original, albeit edited, version. 

Further differences between the Old English text and modern translations will be discussed on the following pages. But before going on, please do the exercise below.

EXERCISE B.

In at least one full paragraph, write your own version of a situation similar to the one in Beowulf where the monster Grendel is entering a house. Describe how the monster enters, what he looks like, and what he does after he's in the house. (In the poem Grendel attacks a sleeping soldier, tears him apart, and begins eating him -- until he's attacked by Beowulf.)  You can take this as far as you want, possibly even write a whole story. After you've written it, read it over and analyze the writing style that you've used. Is your style very descriptive? Have you used many adjectives and adverbs?  Or is your style very straightforward and direct? How many sentences have you used?

When you've finished the exercise, go to Page 3. 

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