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What can be problematic about translating a poem like Beowulf?

What can be problematic about translating a poem like Beowulf?

Maybe a problematic can be that When the translators rewrote the poem, they changed it to their liking by adding or removing some parts. In addition, translate a poem from Old English also means that translators had to translate the rhetorical figures and they had to try to make them fit as much as possible.

What are the problems associated with translating a poem?

The translator may face the linguistic, literary and aesthetic, and socio-cultural problems in translating it. The linguistic problems include the collocation and obscured syntactic structure. The aesthetic and literary problems are related with poetic structure, metaphorical expressions, and sounds.

What language was Beowulf written in and why was it hard to translate?

The first manuscript was written in the language of the Saxons, “Old English,” also known as “Anglo-Saxon.” Since then, the epic poem has been estimated to have been translated into 65 languages. However, many translators have struggled to maintain the flow and alliteration present within the complex text.

Why did Tolkien put the translation of Beowulf into a drawer and never publish it?

Why did Tolkien never publish his “Beowulf”? It could be said that he didn’t have the time. As he was finishing his translation, he got the appointment at Oxford and had to move his family. Such a disruption can put a writer off his feed.

What are some problems that occurred with the manuscript of the poem Beowulf as a result of the fire?

On the night of 23 October 1731 a fire broke out and many manuscripts were damaged, and a few completely destroyed. Beowulf escaped the fire relatively intact but it suffered greater loss by handling in the following years, with letters crumbling away from the outer portions of its pages.

Who Was Beowulf quizlet?

Who was Beowulf? A mighty warrior and noble individual, the poem’s hero, with the strength of 30 in his hand-grip, comes to the aid of Hrothgar’s Danes. Later BEowulf is king of the Geats.

What are the translation problems?

Some of the most common challenges of translation include:

  • Translating Language Structure.
  • Translating Idioms and Expressions.
  • Translating Compound Words.
  • Missing Names In Translation.
  • Two-Word Verbs.
  • Multiple Meanings In Translation.
  • Translating Sarcasm.

Why is translating a poem difficult?

Translation is the activity to make understand from one language (source language) into another language (target language). Translating poetry is the most difficult one because language poetry cannot be understood easily like ordinary language that have literal meaning.

Why is it so difficult to translate Beowulf?

Among the challenges to the translator of Beowulf are whether to attempt a verse or prose rendering; how closely to stick to the original; whether to make the language archaic or to use distinctly modern phraseology; whether to domesticate or foreignize the text; to what extent to imitate the original’s laconic style …

What are some problems that occurred with the manuscript of the poem as a result of the fire?

Answers 1. Some pages of the manuscript were entirely burnt. Others would be blurred by the singed edges, leaving it quite difficult for translators to fully comprehend what the writer was wanting to get across to the readers.

Why did Tolkien translation Beowulf?

The translation was made by Tolkien in the 1920s and intended it to be “crib notes” that was to be used by students he was teaching at Oxford. Still, this edition of Beowulf, which was posthumously published over forty years after Tolkien’s death, is very valuable to scholars according to Orchard.

Why is Beowulf considered a heroic poem?

Beowulf is a heroic poem, considered the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic. It deals with events of the early 6th century CE and is believed to have been composed between 700 and 750.

How are lines in Beowulf quoted in the book?

Note: Quotations are from Howell D. Chickering, Jr.’s dual-language (facing-page) translation, Beowulf (New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1977), introduction and commentary by the translator. Lines quoted are simply indicated in parentheses. In the Anglo-Saxon, each line is separated into two parts by a caesura (indicated by spacing).

When was Beowulf translated into English?

Beowulf has often been translated into modern English; renderings by Seamus Heaney (1999) and Tolkien (completed 1926; published 2014) became best sellers. It has also been the source for retellings in text—John Gardner’s Grendel (1971), for example, which takes the point of view of the monster—and as movies.

Why does Beowulf not start in medias res?

It does not open with an invocation to a Muse, and it does not start in medias res (“in the middle of things”), although time is out of joint in the poem, especially in its last third. Some of the devices employed by the Beowulf poet, such as frequent digressions, may seem tedious to the modern reader.