While reading Beowulf this week, I could not help but think that I was missing something, something critical. Beowulf is originally written in Old English which we do not speak anymore and in order for modern audiences to enjoy the epic it had to be translated. This is the part that gets tricky. Different translations say different things that may give a completely different meaning to the text. You feel like you are missing something essential to the original story. As any bilingual person can tell you, when translating a word or phrase things get lost in translation. There are just some words you cannot, no matter how hard you try, translate.
In Beowulf, I found a clear difference in the translation of the Old English into modern English in three different …show more content…
A picture of my copy of Beowulf https://www.flickr.com/photos/electricwindows/229564893/sizes/n/ In my copy of Beowulf, translated by Seamus Haney. The same passage is translated as
Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark,
Nursed a hard grievance. It harrowed him
To hear the din of the loud banquet
Every day in the hall, the harp being struck
And the clear song of a skilled poet
In the Frances Barton translation, you get the feeling that Grendel is just a jealous monster who doesn't like to see any one's happiness but his own. In our version, we got the sense that Grendel was a poor, sad monster who wanted to join the fun but could not and becomes jealous. My copy of the epic doesn't evoke any emotion towards Grendel. It just states that he was jealous. It describes him as powerful but does not use any words associated with emotion like the first one did with evil. The second version invokes sympathy for Grendel, the first does not, while the third just states Grendel's feelings. See, stark
In Beowulf, I found a clear difference in the translation of the Old English into modern English in three different …show more content…
A picture of my copy of Beowulf https://www.flickr.com/photos/electricwindows/229564893/sizes/n/ In my copy of Beowulf, translated by Seamus Haney. The same passage is translated as
Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark,
Nursed a hard grievance. It harrowed him
To hear the din of the loud banquet
Every day in the hall, the harp being struck
And the clear song of a skilled poet
In the Frances Barton translation, you get the feeling that Grendel is just a jealous monster who doesn't like to see any one's happiness but his own. In our version, we got the sense that Grendel was a poor, sad monster who wanted to join the fun but could not and becomes jealous. My copy of the epic doesn't evoke any emotion towards Grendel. It just states that he was jealous. It describes him as powerful but does not use any words associated with emotion like the first one did with evil. The second version invokes sympathy for Grendel, the first does not, while the third just states Grendel's feelings. See, stark