From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
> Alison: I think it's a great thing to do. Whether or not your version
> turns out to be great, it's the best way to read deeply into the poem.
> It's why I translate.
>
> Mark
I'm on the opposite end of this ... untranslatable poems.
Why translate anything that anyone has already done better?
... as for instance, I'd never think of touching Catullus after Peter
Wrigham.
_Beowulf_ (whether for the reasons among others that dave suggests,
english-to-english) has not yet been done.
Other than Clark Hall style gloss, the closest I can think of to marginal
success is Eddie Morgan's.
Why is Beowulf just so hard to do?
Tolkein's GGK reads better than any Beowulf translation, even Alison's, than
I've ever encountered.
Deeply counter-intuitive ...
R.
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