I decided to read Beowulf again (in translation! This is a Book a Day, not a Book a Decade! Although Lucia of Mapp and Lucia would have pretended to read it in the original while keeping the translation to hand, ready to be covered up at a moment's notice ... )
There are many translations of Beowulf available but I recommend this one because Seamus Heaney is a poet in his own right, and will choose the right word for the right effect even if it is not always the "correct" translation. He also gives helpful marginal comments as to what is happening, useful because it is not always obvious otherwise when a scop in the poem declaims another poem, for example.
Now that I have gone back to basics, I might be brave enough to watch 2007's animated Beowulf on DVD. I've been avoiding it because I didn't want to be one of those people who say "but that's not what it should be like!" Now that I've refreshed my memory I've also remembered that there were no doubt many versions of the original tale anyway, and that this is just the one that was lucky enough to be written down and to survive.
Day 70; Book 68
'Sir, there are babies in her uterus': Man Loudly Argues With Vet That It's
Impossible His Cat Is Pregnant Because He Doesn't Have A Male Cat
-
Kittens are adorable. We think we can all agree on that. And nothing makes
us smile quite as hard as seeing pics of cute kittens and looking at videos
of...
7 minutes ago
No comments:
Post a Comment