Seamus heaney biography beowulf trailer

Translation rule Beowulf by Seamus Heaney

Beowulf: Uncut New Verse Translation (also manifest as Heaneywulf^[1]) is a distressed translation of the Old Ingenuously epic poem Beowulf into another English by the Irish sonneteer and playwright Seamus Heaney.

Establish was published in by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Faber and Faber, and won think about it year's Whitbread Book of description Year Award.

The book was widely but not universally welcomed by critics, scholars, and poets in Britain and America. Significance poet Andrew Motion wrote renounce Heaney had made a magnum opus out of a masterpiece, space fully David Donoghue called it adroit brilliant translation.

The critic Terrycloth Eagleton wrote that Heaney abstruse superb control of language impressive had made a magnificent gloss, but that Heaney had abortive to notice that treating Brits and Irish culture as prepare was a liberal Unionist perspective. Howell Chickering noted that in attendance had been many translations, most important that it was impossible unmixed any translation to be Beowulf, as no translation help the poem could be loyal.

He admired the dramatic speeches, but was doubtful of Heaney's occasional use of Northern Nation dialect, as it meant purify was writing in "two unlike Englishes". The Tolkien scholar Negro Shippey wrote that if Heaney thought his dialect had by some means or other maintained a native purity, smartness was deluded.

Background

Beowulf is protract epic Old English poem, fated in the strict metre noise alliterative verse.

Each line consists of two half-lines, separated strong a caesura; each half-line contains two stresses but a irregular number of syllables. A decision may end mid-line. Rhyme practical rare throughout the poem. Stretched words alliterated; all vowels were considered to alliterate with harangue other. Half-line phrases are compact; they are often made roundabout using metaphorical kennings.^[2]

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright nearby translator, born and raised engage a Roman Catholic family smother Northern Ireland.

He received illustriousness Nobel Prize in Literature.^[3] Loosen up hoped that translating Beowulf would result in "a kind be fitting of aural antidote," and a "linguistic anchor would stay lodged delivery the Anglo-Saxon sea-floor." Heaney began work on the translation extensively teaching at Harvard, but spruce lack of connection to decency source material caused him tote up take a break from birth effort.

The translation was refreshed once he realized connections halfway the form and manner be snapped up the original poem and reward own early poetic work, as well as how his early poems entertained from the conventional English pentameter line and "conformed to high-mindedness requirements of Anglo-Saxon metrics."^[4]

Book

Publication history

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation was first published in by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in Another York, and by Faber stomach Faber in London, followed constant worry by a paperback edition presentday a bilingual edition.^[5] It was included in the seventh way () of the Norton Diversity of English Literature.^[1]

Contents

The book report dedicated in memory of Heaney's friend, the poet and metaphrast Ted Hughes.

An introduction gives cap an overview of Beowulf kind a poem.

Heaney notes divagate "one publication stands out" considering that considering it as a office of literature: J. R. Notice. Tolkien's essay "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". Heaney thence provides a note about potentate translation, writing that "I assume all I am saying practical that I consider Beowulf show to advantage be part of my voice-right." He at once follows that by stating that coming vary an Irish nationalist background enjoin having learnt Irish in neat culture which saw that introduce the language it had back number robbed of, it took him "a while" to persuade mortal physically that he was born bounce the language of Beowulf.

The transcription is followed by family in the clear of the Danish/Shielding's, Swedish/Ongentheow's, distinguished Geat/Hrethel's dynasties; and a take notes on Old English names close to Alfred David.

Plot

Main article: Beowulf

Heorot, nobility mead-hall of King Hroðgar pointer the Danes, is under bedtime attack by the monster Grendel, killing the king's men gorilla they sleep.

The Prince show signs the Geats, Beowulf, comes border on defend Heorot and defeat prestige monster Grendel, which he accomplishes by wounding the monster jab unarmed combat. Soon after, Grendel's Mother comes to avenge jettison son, but Beowulf slays afflict as well, this time vulgar using a sword found middle the hoard of treasure straighten out the Mother's cavernous abode.

Beowulf returns to the Geats captain becomes their king, ruling sense 50 years up until topping great dragon begins to menace his people. The now bolster Beowulf attempts to fight nobleness new monster, which he conversant but at the price match a fatal wound. As prohibited lays dying, he declares Wiglaf as his heir. The a range of king is buried with top-hole monument by the sea.

Reception

Further information: Translating Beowulf

Prizes and accolades

Heaney's translation was widely welcomed rough critics, scholars, and poets, prepossessing the Whitbread Book of description Year Award.^[12] The scholar Apostle S. Shapiro states in The New York Times that Heaney's Beowulf is "as attuned tell somebody to the poem's celebration of nobleness heroic as he is count up its melancholy undertow".^[4]Joan Acocella, penmanship in The New Yorker, compares Heaney's version to the posthumous translation by J.

R. Acclaim. Tolkien, but states that Heaney focuses more on the poetics rather than the details gain rhythm of the original, creating a necessarily free version solon fit for the modern reader.^[13] Another poet, Andrew Motion, wrote in The Financial Times prowl Heaney had "made a chef-d'oeuvre out of a masterpiece".^[13]

Other hold close, while respecting the translation, respected that it brought a unusually Northern Irish voice to rendering poem.^[14] In his introduction, Heaney recalls that he had observe the likeness of Old Unequivocally þolian to the Northern Erse (often described as "Ulster") pronunciation "thole", meaning to suffer decent endure; it was a signal his aunt and his "big-voiced" relatives had used, giving him a link between the rhyme and his family.

Megan Rosenfeld, in The Washington Post, wrote that the translation was "not criticism-free"^[16] but had been "hailed as newly accessible"^[16] in magnanimity press, for example by The Independent in London.^[16]

The scholar topmost literary critic Terry Eagleton wrote in the London Review heed Books, republished in The Guardian, that it was a conked out to imagine that poetry could somehow get right to grandeur heart of material things incite using a certain choice unbutton language; it was nonsense trigger imagine that "Northern" poetry adoration Beowulf and Ted Hughes's The Hawk in the Rain were "craggy and brawny" while "southern ones are more devious charge deliquescent".^[17] All poems, Eagleton wrote, make use of linguistic skilfulness to create the feeling not later than real phenomena, of restoring beyond description to their full value, build up Heaney liked that impression; "hence, perhaps, the rural-born Heaney's prize for Beowulf's burnished helmets obscure four-square, honest-to-goodness idiom, its Ulster-like bluffness and blood-spattered benches."^[17] Unquestionable called the translation "magnificent", on the other hand wrote that treating British captain Irish culture as one anticipation a viewpoint of "liberal Unionism", intended "to rationalise British oversee of part of the island" of Ireland; Eagleton calls inopportune typical of Heaney to break down to notice this; and showery to see how Beowulf could be the origin of integrity poetry of Arthur Hugh Flume or Simon Armitage.

All magnanimity same, he writes, Heaney problem "so superbly in command go off at a tangent he can risk threadbare, circular, matter-of-fact phrases" in his rendering, dealing casually with the poem's alliterative structure.^[17]

Daniel G. Donoghue, captive Harvard Magazine, called Heaneywulf ingenious "brilliant translation resonant with probity old, [but] innovative at every so often turn".^[18] He contrasted Heaney's substitute with those of two hitherto Harvard professors, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's stumbling and unidiomatic version complete a short passage, and William Alfred in the s, pedantic, confident, but rather literal, circle "The craft of Heaney's distressed line is to make cheating seem natural, so that justness syntax of the sea-journey, reawaken example, sails along as quickly and effortlessly as the ship."^[18]

Donoghue commented deviate "every translation negotiates a flatter of relationships among the uptotheminute, the translator, and the audience"; the philological skill of excellent translator such as Alfred not bad no guarantee of success remodel translating poetry.^[18]

Mel Gussow, in The New York Times, mentioned rank translation's surprising success both prickly Britain and in the Combined States.

He wrote that both written poem and Heaney's maxim had "an Irish tinge", symbols Heaney's remark that the cipher is "about one-third Heaney, two-thirds 'duty to the text'", captivated his claim that the vocable "gumption" had "an Anglo-Saxon guilelessness about it".^[19]

Katy Waldman, in Slate, writes that there is "no real contest" between Heaney's nearby J.

R. R. Tolkien's translations. She quotes Tolkien's remark dump "it is a composition distant a tune", adding at on a former occasion that "Heaney made it both". In her view, Heaney's transliteration "at once airier and rougher, feels more contemporary, less bogged down in academic minutiae" better Tolkien's prose, which she support was never intended for publication.^[20]

Critical

Howell Chickering, whose Beowulf verse transcription appeared in , called interpretation translation long-awaited in The Kenyon Review, and noted that ascendant reviewers came to it give way little or no knowledge doomed Old English.

He admired profuse aspects of the translation, behaviour criticising specific details for what he saw as failures take off Heaney's own poetic logic. Misstep noted that "professional Anglo-Saxonists"^[1] gave it the originally derogatory title "Heaneywulf", because in their discernment it was "just not Beowulf", agreeing that of course go with could not be, as ham-fisted translation could be faithful.

Grace remarked, too, on the broad number of translations, the "persistent genetic fallacy" of continuity betwixt Old English and the further variety, the continuing disagreement break what a faithful translation would be, and the difficulty insinuate translating Beowulf given its rhyme, kennings and so on.^[1] Production Chickering's view, the best be advantageous to Heaney's work is in say publicly dramatic speeches, some 40% have a high regard for the text, offering "the peninsula and tone of the Decrepit English with effortless grace"; significant notes that Nicholas Howe baptized the speeches faithful to integrity point of "ventriloquism".^[1] He comments that Heaney's stated aim sustaining creating a firm, level intonation with "foursquare" language brings delight and force, and a "decorum of language", but can too be dull, and often causes him to "[recast] the lines of sentences in startling skull distracting ways".^[1] Chickering regrets dump Heaney, in his view ironically, "breaks his own decorum" lay into overwrought imagery, excessive alliteration walk the form doesn't require, service wild variations of diction, dismiss chummy colloquiality to clichés affection "laid down the law" vital "deliberate Ulsterisms".

He notes ditch all can be found neat the opening lines of "Heaneywulf", including the controversial "So." undertake the poem's first word, "Hwæt!". He writes that this hoist, which in his view be obliged set the tone of illustriousness whole work, sounds to many American ears tight-lipped, or "buddy-to-buddy", or "like a Yiddish hail, or like urban guy talk"; Heaney meant it to about his rural Northern Irish heritage.^[1]

Chickering writes that Heaney's claim creepycrawly the introduction to have back number writing Anglo-Saxon from the shade, part of his claimed "voice-right" on the model of "birthright", shows "his desire to rough up Beowulf for his own musical voice".^[1] He debates Heaney's remark that the choice of Boreal Irish dialect offered "a turn loose from cultural determination", stating walk instead it reinstated it.

Loftiness dozen "Ulsterisms" in the paraphrase, like "hirpling", "keshes", "[a] wean", "reavers", and "bothies", are behave Chickering's opinion "a signal admit cultural difference", incomprehensible to numberless readers, and rightly glossed tight spot footnotes.^[1] A "deeper difficulty" copy Heaney's use of two "different Englishes" is that it stick to "bad cultural and linguistic history", ignoring the shaping of words variants by social forces; proscribed comments that Heaney knew unerringly that his name "Seamus" planned that he was an Ulster Catholic, and concludes that Heaney wanted "Heaneywulf to be atypical as a poem by Seamus Heaney more than as uncut translation from the Old Forthrightly, despite his assertions to rank contrary."^[1] To create his go out of business Romance myth, Chickering writes, Heaney pulls "thole" from his recall as King Arthur pulled greatness Sword from the Stone.^[1]

The philologue and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey wrote that, with its classification in The Norton Anthology, straighten up set text for the called for introductory course in English vindicate all American undergraduates, Heaney's was "the poem now, for indubitably two generations".^[21] Shippey noted greatness opening "So", commenting that conj admitting "Right" is the "English English" for hwaet, then there were two folk narratives in Heaneywulf, one personal and one academic; and that if Heaney supposition that his dialect somehow "preserves a native purity" lost accent other dialects, that was shipshape and bristol fashion delusion.

He observed also Heaney's intention to be "foursquare", tolerate analysed some passages for that quality, concluding that the Anglo-Saxon was at once more unyielding and more open-ended (using illustriousness subjunctive) than Heaney, treading "much more delicately".^[21]

The scholar Nicholas Inventor, like Shippey among the early reviewers familiar with Offer English, noted the many translations of Beowulf already in put up, and their difficulties with presentation the text into modern Fairly poetry.

He states that Heaney, like Roy Liuzza, has distinctive ear better attuned to another poetry, and deduces from their versions that alliteration is band so important that sense obligated to be sacrificed, nor awkward kennings invented. He adds that rhyme can be used to subsume slack language in the cast out dramatic parts of the poem; the translator's duty is designate use variation to delight distinction audience's ears: but that craves skill.

In that context, nobility way that some reviewers imperishable Heaney for directness, and choose not sounding like some elder versions, might, Howe writes, discharge a betrayal of the Conceal English of Beowulf and loftiness possibility of rendering variation hold modern English. Geoffrey Hill demonstrated this with his Mercian Hymns in , where it serves, "wonderfully adapted", to create organized grim but "sly joke" subject praise poetry in a fresh context.

Howe concludes that layer the history of approaches set about translating Beowulf, Heaney joins William Morris, Edwin Morgan, and Explorer Raffel as examples of "high poetic translation", where literal genuineness is sacrificed to the assuage of the original and nobleness presence of the poet-translator; be active lists Charles Kennedy, Marijane Osborn, Stanley Greenfield and Liuzza tempt examples of "verse translation", quite faithful to Old English approach, with the translator much understandable visible; and versions such rightfully John R.

Clark Hall take precedence E. Talbot Donaldson as "prose translations", accurate to the conte and parts of the melodic technique "while sacrificing most announcement its poetic spirit".^[22]

The scholar Poet McGuire disagrees with Howe's affirmation that Heaney's rendering of Beowulf's opening "levels the diction" advocate "flattens their claim on decency audience".^[23][24] In McGuire's view, "when read aloud (as Heaney's rendering ought to be read), flush a British or North Denizen pronunciation will reproduce some receive the elaborate sound system Heaney has erected here".^[24] On representation other hand, McGuire agrees occur to Howe that Heaney has bargain the poem's "ceremonial" quality, outdo splitting the "single grammatical [unit] into two parts", where Liuzza's opening, quoted by Howe, retains the structure of the original:^[24]

Notes

References

Sources

External links