The poems called "Cleanness" and "Patience," retell incidents of biblical history for a definitely didactic purpose, but even these are frequently lifted into the region of imaginative literature by the author's power of graphic11 description. "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight" is a priceless contribution to Arthurian story. "The Pearl," though it takes the form of symbolic12 narrative13, is essentially14 lyric15 and elegiac, the lament, it would seem, of a father for a little, long-lost daughter.
The present translation of "The Pearl" was begun with no larger design than that of turning a few passages into modern English, by way of illustrating16 to a group of students engaged in reading the original, the possibility of preserving intricate stanzaic17 form, and something of alliteration, without an entire sacrifice of poetic19 beauty. The experiment was persisted in because its problems are such as baffle and fascinate a translator, and the finished version is offered not merely to students of Middle English but to college classes in the history of English literature, and to non-academic readers.
If "The Pearl" presented no greater obstacle to a modern reader than is offered by Chaucer's English, a translation might be a gratuitous21 task, but the Northwest-Midland dialect of the poem is, in fact, incomparably more difficult than the diction of Chaucer, more difficult even than that of Langland. The meaning of many passages remains22 obscure, and a translator is often forced to choose what seems the least dubious23 among doubtful readings.
The poem in the original passes frequently from imaginative beauty to conversational24 commonplace, from deep feeling to didactic aphorism25 or theological dogma, and it has been my endeavor faithfully to interpret these variations of matter and of style, sometimes substituting modern colloquialisms26 for such as are obsolete27, or in other ways paraphrasing28 a stubborn passage, but striving never to polish the dullest lines nor to strengthen the weakest.
A reader who will observe the difficult rhyming scheme, a scheme that calls for six words of one rhyme and four of another, will understand the presence of forced lines, an intrusion that one must needs suffer in even "The Faerie Queene." These padded lines are a serious blemish29 to the poem, but the introduction of naïve and familiar expressions is one of its charms, as when the Pearl, protesting like Piccarda in Paradise[1] that among beatified spirits there can be no rivalry30, exclaims: "The more the merrier."[2]
The translation may, at many points, need apology, but the original needs only explanation. Readers familiar with mediæval poetry expect to encounter moral platitudes31 and theological subtlety32. Dogma takes large and vital place in the sublimest33 cantos of Dante's "Paradise," and the English poet is consciously following his noblest master when he puts a sermon into the lips of his "little queen." To modern ears such exposition is at harsh discord34 with the simple human grief and longing35 of the poet, but to the mediaevalist symbolic theology was a passion. Precisely36 in the moment when she begins a discourse37 concerning the doctrine38 of redemption, Beatrice turns upon Dante "eyes that might make a man happy in the fire," and at its close he looks upon her and beholds39 her "grow more beautiful."[3] If even Beatrice has been considered mere20 personification, it is natural that the Pearl should be so regarded, but the plain reader finds in the symbolic maiden40 of the English poem, as in the transfigured lady of the Italian, some record of a human being whose loss was anguish41, and whose presence rapture42, to a poet long ago.
The lover of things mediæval will find in this little book not only the familiar garden of Guillaume de Lorris, of Boccaccio and of Chaucer, but an unexpected and enchanting43 vision of great forest and rushing water, of hillside and plain, of crystal cliffs and flame-winged birds; of the Pearl among her white peers; of the Apocalyptic44 Jerusalem, discovered to the poet, it may be, as a goodly Gothic city, though its walls are built of precious stone, and its towers rise from neither church nor minster.
If even a few readers turn from the modern to the original version, the translation will have had fair fortune, for the author of "The Pearl" is, though unknown and unnamed, a poet second only to Chaucer in Chaucer's generation.
It is a pleasure to record my many debts of gratitude45: to Professor Frank H. Chase of Beloit, Professor John L. Lowes of Swarthmore, and Dr. Charles G. Osgood of Princeton, for their careful reading of the translation in manuscript, with invaluable46 assistance and suggestion; to Professor Martha Hale Shackford, and Miss Laura A. Hibbard, for constant aid while the work was in making, and, above all, to Professor Katharine Lee Bates for a critical, line by line, comparison of this version with the original.
[Footnote 3: Par. VII, II. 17-18; Par. VIII, I. 15.]
S.J.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE,
June, 1908.
EDITIONS: R. Morris, Early English text Sc. 1864; I. Gollancz, London, 1891; C.G. Osgood, Boston, 1906 (with admirable introduction, etc.). TRANSLATIONS: Gollancz (above); S. Weir47 Mitchell, New York, 1906 (poetic, but incomplete); G.G. Coulton, London, 1906 (metre of the original); C.G. Osgood, Princeton, 1907 (prose).
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1 anonymous | |
adj.无名的;匿名的;无特色的 | |
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2 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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3 par | |
n.标准,票面价值,平均数量;adj.票面的,平常的,标准的 | |
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4 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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5 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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6 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
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7 alliteration | |
n.(诗歌的)头韵 | |
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8 lament | |
n.悲叹,悔恨,恸哭;v.哀悼,悔恨,悲叹 | |
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9 chivalric | |
有武士气概的,有武士风范的 | |
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10 accentuated | |
v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 );使突出;使恶化;加重音符号于 | |
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11 graphic | |
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的 | |
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12 symbolic | |
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的 | |
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13 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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14 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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15 lyric | |
n.抒情诗,歌词;adj.抒情的 | |
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16 illustrating | |
给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 ); 说明; 表明; (用示例、图画等)说明 | |
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17 stanzaic | |
诗节的 | |
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18 stanza | |
n.(诗)节,段 | |
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19 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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20 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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21 gratuitous | |
adj.无偿的,免费的;无缘无故的,不必要的 | |
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22 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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23 dubious | |
adj.怀疑的,无把握的;有问题的,靠不住的 | |
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24 conversational | |
adj.对话的,会话的 | |
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25 aphorism | |
n.格言,警语 | |
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26 colloquialisms | |
n.俗话,白话,口语( colloquialism的名词复数 ) | |
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27 obsolete | |
adj.已废弃的,过时的 | |
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28 paraphrasing | |
v.释义,意译( paraphrase的现在分词 ) | |
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29 blemish | |
v.损害;玷污;瑕疵,缺点 | |
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30 rivalry | |
n.竞争,竞赛,对抗 | |
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31 platitudes | |
n.平常的话,老生常谈,陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 );滥套子 | |
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32 subtlety | |
n.微妙,敏锐,精巧;微妙之处,细微的区别 | |
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33 sublimest | |
伟大的( sublime的最高级 ); 令人赞叹的; 极端的; 不顾后果的 | |
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34 discord | |
n.不和,意见不合,争论,(音乐)不和谐 | |
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35 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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36 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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37 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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38 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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39 beholds | |
v.看,注视( behold的第三人称单数 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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40 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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41 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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42 rapture | |
n.狂喜;全神贯注;着迷;v.使狂喜 | |
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43 enchanting | |
a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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44 apocalyptic | |
adj.预示灾祸的,启示的 | |
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45 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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46 invaluable | |
adj.无价的,非常宝贵的,极为贵重的 | |
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47 weir | |
n.堰堤,拦河坝 | |
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