Translations [S. Worthen

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Do you have favorite or recommended translators/translations for any of these books or authors? Please let me know!

Don Quixote
Beowulf
Italo Calvino

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There are 15 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I'm probably going to get blasted by the more scholarly for this but I love the Heaney translation of Beowulf. I understand that it's not the most accurate (or so I'm told) but it's brilliant in its own right. The audio version of Heaney reading it is pure unadulterated pleasure.

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I agree, actually. It's not the most literal translation, but it's wonderful nonetheless.

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Mine is the (1977) Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition - Translated With An Introduction And Commentary By Howell D. Chickering Jr. Like it, not that it ever had really heavy usage as I'm not an Anglo-Saxonist. (had an Anglo-Saxon lit class lo those many years ago, donchaknow)

Taught a prose Beowulf (the Donaldson) and HATED IT. Beowulf as prose - uuuuuuuuaaargh! When the Liuzza came out the Director switched the text to that one (for the gen. ed. course in question), and though I haven't taught the course since I am positive it's an improvement.

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Beowulf I'd really recommend Seamus Heaney's translation for reading enjoyment purposes. I have another version of Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsberg - it can be hard to find, but is very very useful as it contains the original text, a facing translation and (the best bit) a serious glossary. It is quite old-fashioned and some bits of it are outdated, but useful nonetheless.

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I think Klaeber is still the best scholarly text, with Chickering very useful also.

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Ooh, really? I have the 1936 edition which, although it's lovely and gives me warm fuzzies bibliophilically, I've known for a while was somewhat dated :> I'd love a new edition.

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I don't know if it is known when the asu 4th edition will be available, or finished. To be fair, discussions of an update to Klaeber have swirled around for decades. In the 80s, there was talk of a team at Harvard that was going to do it. That's why the 1950 edition is still the standard, that, and we don't have Klaeber to chain to an inkwell.

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Seems a little redundant now, but let me chime in to agree on Heaney's Beowulf. It's a lovely, meaty, chewy text, wonderful to read.

(It does annoy me that it doesn't have more than a page or two of the original text.)

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There is a dual language edition. ISBN 0-374-11119-7

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For Calvino, look for William Weaver. Assuming it's the same William Weaver that does all the major editions of Eco, and not some other William Weaver, I'd trust him fully.

You may laugh when I think there could be two William Weavers, but last year I was at a conference and there was a William Weaver on the program talking about Renaissance translation and I got all excited ... and it was some young kid from Columbia. He was good, but he was definitely someone else.

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I was just going to suggest Weaver:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Weaver

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I bought a "My First Quixote, ages 6 - 8" when I was in Madrid this summer. They had a range of "My First Quixotes" for age groups starting at 3 or 4 and presumably ending around 16. I should have gone for group 4 - 6.

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I wonder what "My Second Quixote" is like.

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I'm so glad you asked this. I've always wondered about what are the best translations for Beowulf (which I've read) and Don Quixote (which I've only read part of). I have a tough enough time finding Italo Calvino's books that I can't be choosy about translations for him, though. :-/

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A vote for Chickering's dual-language. Love it, and extensive notes in back, and line-by-line glossary for selected passages.

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S. Worthen | Weblog

Translations

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