Buying books

[Child of Immanuel]

With a couple gift cards, I decided to go on a spree and order a few books. ;D I chose Beowulf, a Latin dictionary, Harry Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Latin), El Hobbit (Spanish), and Princess and the Goblin. I tried to get City of Dreams, but I have to order the used copy online and pay shipping.

Anyway, I can't wait for them. Now my Spanish teacher will have no excuse to lower my participation grade for reading in English.

[dinadan]

Excellent choices CoI. I own Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (german). They are so much fun to read in other languages.

Also, I hope you bought the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf--professionally speaking, it's the absolute best.

[Tegid]

childofimmanuel said:

Harry Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Latin)

How are the spells rendered in a Latin translation? Are they changed into fractured ... English? or some other language?

dinadan said:

Also, I hope you bought the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf--professionally speaking, it's the absolute best.

That's interesting ... an English teacher here didn't care for it at all. I'll have to go dig up some notes to refresh my memory on why he didn't like it. I'll get back with you on that. (I have so much to learn.)

[Later] Okay, I didn't find that much specific information, but this what he had to say:

"I hated Heaney's and I feel almost as strongly about Liuzza's. IMHO, these are lame attempts to make Beowulf more accessible to the modern reader, which is okay, but in doing so, they have destroyed all the things that connect the poem to the Anglo-Saxons that told the story. This is a foundation of British and American Literature, and I think the translations which preserve those artifacts are the best. That said, if you simply want to read the poem to enjoy it, I would prefer Liuzza's over Heaney's -- it is a bit closer to what I like than Heaney's."

And now, equal time for the other view, please --

[Child of Immanuel]

It hasn't come in yet, Tegid. Next on my list, however, is the Ancient Greek version of Harry Potter, with, of course, a grammar and dictionary. I know basic Koine Greek, but it's substantially different from either the Classical or Modern varieties.

I ordered the Barnes and Noble Classic version of Beowulf for only four or five dollars. While I don't like all the extras they throw in, they are wonderfully cheap. And the gilt-edged ones are beautiful and entertaining to turn the pages.

I believe that my library has the Seamus Heaney translation (with the Old English on the opposite page). I've read it a couple times, but I would like a slightly more lyrical, descriptive translation (as the introduction says, "In the main I have called a sword a sword.")

[dinadan]

Certainly there are more erudite translations of Beowulf; Burton Raffel's, in my mind, stands out (and has been the classroom standard for decades...). Heaney, however, is--in my opinion--doing more than simply providing and accessible translation for the masses; the evidence for that is that he uses, in many instances, archaic vocabulary which Tolkien himself would be proud of. The Heaney translation, though, is not just a translation, it's a piece of art on its own; granted, if you read Heaney's original poetry, you'll notice that his Beowulf is colored by his own poetic voice. This is not, in itself, a bad thing. As a matter of fact, he addresses it in his introductory essay, and defends what he has done with the text. Moreover, the arguments from the Anglo-Saxon purists (I might add, how funny, since we know so little about that language to even have purists) can be swept aside by the fact that no one who reads Beowulf in translation is a serious scholar of Old English anyway. Everyone reading it in translation is one of the masses, and so, why not have one that is enjoyable for the average reader. That, too, is another point; the "average" reader isn't going to read Beowulf, translation or no, anyway. So the average reader reading Beowulf is already someone of reasonably high brow tastes; why not, then, provide them a text to read that is neither dry, nor unncessessarily anachronistic, but a fair balance between the two?

This has been shameless and unncessary thredjacking, and I'm sorry.

CoI--I, too, am shamefully a buyer of B&N classics, mostly for their cheapness and their average level of textual support. There are some exceptional finds, there, however; the B&N version of Herodotus' Histories is rather great. I'm not sure which Beowulf they print, but I'll look into it.

[Child of Immanuel]

Ah! It's translated by John McNamara. This was the customer review that swayed me over the line:

A reviewer ([e-mail]), a literature teacher in Taipei, November 17, 2005,
A outstanding new Beowulf
This Beowulf is remarkable for its transparency: instead of an intrusive translator-persona competing with the original, McNamara's energies are entirely directed toward polish: finding the better word, the more harmonious cadence, the more evocative phrase. In so doing, he not only gives the reader a superior view of the letter and spirit of the original, but a superior feeling for Beowulf's poetic intangibles.

Don't worry about threadjacking, I enjoy it as well. :-)