TRANSLATION        WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?
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                  BEOWULF

                                    (Page Three)

"HEROIC" VS. MODERN

Before beginning to translate Beowulf, one of the important choices for the translator involves using either a "heroic" or a modern style.  "Heroic"  means that the translation will use sentence structures and language that are deliberately elevated and somewhat archaic so that readers will experience the poem as being from and about a much earlier time. Modern translation style is very different: this type of translation uses contemporary language and sentence structures to make the poem relevant and meaningful to modern readers.  Each style has its advantages and disadvantages. The use of modern, colloquial language and sentence style makes the story easy to understand but may seem inappropriate to a work that reflects the values of a remote, mysterious culture. On the other hand, an elaborate, archaic style may seem artificial and will probably be more difficult to read.  

To illustrate these differences in styles, the boxes below contain two translations of lines 1704-1708, a passage where King Hrothgar is praising Beowulf.  As you read them, try to decide: Which of these sounds as if it was written in a much older time? 

If you chose Clarence Griffin Child's translation as the one that sounds "older," you're right. You can see the difference immediately when Child uses the archaic pronouns thy and thou while Hieatt uses the modern your and you. Other archaisms in Child's translation are words like dost, troth, spake, and ere now.  In contrast, Hieatt's phrase over all nations is obviously modern since there was no concept of nations in Anglo-Saxon times, and her phrase I shall carry out the agreement we made before is typical modern wording and word order, as contrasted to Child's I shall fulfill my troth to the, that we spake of, ere now, together.

Child's translation, it's important to note, was made in the 1930's while Hieatt's was published in the 1960's. Styles of translation have changed over the years. While it was common in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to use deliberately elevated and archaic wordings, English translations since the 1950's have tended to use a much more contemporary style.

Nevertheless, the choice between "heroic" and modern" does not have to be absolute. Some modern translators have tried to find a middle ground between these two styles. Their goal is to create translations that modern readers can easily understand yet which will also emphasize the vast distance between our modern world and the much older world of the poem. Examples of this approach are illustrated in two translations below, both published in the 1990's. The passage being translated is from lines 1384-96, in which Beowulf is speaking to King Hrothgar. 

While both translations avoid deliberately archaic wordings, their style is not purely contemporary. For example, there are no contractions -- both use wordings like it is (rather than it's) and do not (rather than don't).  Liuzza's phrase Sorrow not is a reversal of the normal modern English word order (which would be Do not sorrow) and, in general, the words chosen are somewhat more elevated -- Liuzza's abide the end and Heaney's waiting for our end, Liuzza's unliving man and Heaney's warrior is gone -- than is common in ordinary spoken English. So, although both passages can be easily understood by a modern reader, they succeed in creating the sense of an earlier time period without resorting to deliberately archaic usages.   

This middle-ground approach is the most common among recent translators.  Most translators today believe that using contemporary language and style is  an accurate way of translating the poem since the original poem was intended to communicate directly with its audience, to tell an exciting story that wouldn't be difficult to understand. On the other hand, they also know that an effective translation will capture the unusual elements in the way the poem was written, particularly its use of repetitions and circular forms of description. In short,  if the poem sounds too modern, the audience won't be able to appreciate the unique qualities of the culture which this poem so beautifully represents. 

The next page will discuss another choice that must be made by the translator: to translate the poem as either poetry or prose. But before going on, please do the exercise below.

EXERCISE C.

In the boxes below you'll see two translations, by Michael Alexander and Francis B. Gummere, of lines 1373-1382, in which King Hrothgar is speaking to Beowulf. First read both of them and then answer the two questions that you'll find below the boxes.

1. Which of these two translations sounds "older"  -- i.e., uses words not like those used commonly used today?

Check the one that seems "older":

Alexander  ____

Hall   ____

2. Explain your choice by giving several examples of words used in this translation that are not commonly used today.