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The News site for Linguists |
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04-01-2007
Interview of Simon Armitage
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London, UK (Independent): Simon Armitage's translation [of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] is, necessarily, an adaptation. Some translators - Tolkien springs to mind - have stuck as close as possible to the original, in structure as well as in diction, thus inadvertently, as Armitage points out, coming out with something "which seemed older than the original". Others have rather ploddingly avoided the challenges of the verse altogether. Others have kept the alliteration but dropped the rhyme. Armitage keeps structure, rhyme and alliteration, but messes about genially with the vocabulary. The result, apart from some forced alliteration, and some truly weird anachronism, is alert, alive and accessible. The lyricism, the power and the drive of the original are triumphantly present.
For more information, please visit:
enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2114933.ece
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