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This is good stuff, Robin. I didn't even know about the biography. Thanks, Jamie. > On 28 Oct 2016, at 04:07, Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Hi, Jamie, > > The short answer is, I'm not absolutely sure ... > > The long answer (and I pulled Rites of Passage off my shelves to have at hand to check) ... > > Hm ... Nae Beowulf ... > > Anyway (this is mostly guessing) the earliest translations he did were from Anglo-Saxon, which he did do from the originals -- as well as Beowulf, "The Wanderer", "The Seafarer", and a couple of others. > > Next down the line (and this is my fading memories, so may not be entirely reliable) would be the first Russian translations -- Voznesensky and Yevtushenko (Mayakovsky into Lallans came later, I think). > > As far as I know, and James McGonigall's biography would probably say exactly, but I'm too lazy to check, he taught himself Russian, easily well enough to work from the originals by himself. He didn't, as far as I know, formally study any foreign languages post school, where (again, I'm assuming, and Jim might deal with this) he'd probably have studied Latin and Greek at school, but as far as I know, he never translated from either language. I'm assuming Latin and Greek, but it could have been [less likely] French and German.) > > Next down the line would be the Polish translations -- dunno, but I think he worked there with a co-translator, Polish speaker. > > The various Italian translations are interspersed -- what you mention (and, guilty admission, I haven't yet read). Relative moderns like Leopardi, but also (though this doesn't seem to get into Rites) Fifty Italian Renaissance Sonnets (at least I think they were all Italian rather than any French). I'd always assumed he read Italian in the original, but I've no proof of this. > > Oh, yeah, looking at Rites, there's also Lorca from Spanish. > > Then there are a couple of plays, I think, as well ... > > That's about it for what I know -- and didn't he ever do a lot when you add it all up! -- and now I can't work out whether I never did get round to getting his Collected Translations, or I simply can't find it on my shelves. > > Hey, just thought that the one favour Alexander Scott did me was to teach a course in Scottish Literature so gut wrenchingly awful that I packed it in after two months. If I'd actually stuck the course, I wouldn't have been (formally) able to take Eddie's Scottish Literature Course (different course, different Department) in my last two years as an undergraduate. Mind you, even before ... It was one of those weird moments of hatred at first sight. On both our parts. Well, maybe not "hatred", but when our eyes crossed over the lectern, it was well beyond dislike, from the get-go. > > So I ended up being taught by Eddie, for two years, instead. Lucky me! He was a lovely man, and a brilliant lecturer and teacher. In most areas. The one exception was when it came to small group teaching, seminars and such, it was ... unnerving. He never, ever let on what he himself thought. You'd think this would be liberating, but I found it unnerving. > > That, for what it's worth. > > Robin > >> On 28 October 2016 at 02:30 Jamie McKendrick <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> >> Talking of translation, I've always loved Edwin Morgan's translations of Leopardi (and Mayakovsky) - some into Lallans. His L'infinito (in English) is also good. Do you happen know, Robin - not that it matters in this case - whether he knew Italian and Russian. >> Jamie >