Assignment Details

• Translations are due on Friday, 5 April by 5 pm. You may slip your translation under my door in Sierra Tower 803 or hand it in to the English department secretary. You may staple your translations to your essay.
• All translations must be typed.

Guidelines for Translation

• Do not paraphrase the content of the passage. Include as much of the original as is possible.
• You should use modern English vocabulary equivalent in meaning to the Middle English words in the poem (if you cannot find an equivalent word or phrase, provide a note explaining the meaning of the Middle English word). Where it is possible to use the same grammatical constructions as in the original, do so. The original Middle English must be translated as closely as possible into Modern English subject to the stipulations below.
• Your translation does not need to be in verse; you may use prose. You may change the punctuation as you feel is necessary.
• You must use word order and grammatical forms acceptable in English usage today. If your translation does not sound like natural speech to you, it is not acceptable.
• The repetitive and sometimes convoluted phrases of Middle English poetry can sometimes challenge the translator to come up with a rendering that is faithful to the original and pleasant to the Modern English ear. You need to consider the most effective compromise in such situations.
• Remember that no translation is 100% equivalent to the meaning of the original, and every individual translation is different. That means that every individual translation is your individual interpretation of the meaning of the passage. So give some thought to the implications of the words and phrases you use.

Sample Passage

Notes:

Line 2: The use of men here seems to be in the gender neutral sense found in words like mankind. I have substituted a similar term in Modern English.

Line 4: The verb will in Middle English could be used in the older sense of "to wish, desire". In Modern English we prefer "remain and hear" to "hear and remain", so I have switched the order of the two Middle English verbs here and dwelle, the order of which seems related to the rhyme scheme.

Lines 9 and 13: In Middle English the word that could regularly be used where we would say so that or in order that. You may need to supply such extra words. In line 13 the subject I of wile is omitted: a bit of poetic licence. You'll need to supply that as well for your translation.

Lines 14-15: Both these lines have the so-called subjunctive mood, used to indicate hypothetical or wished for possibilities. In Middle English you can often identify subjunctive forms with third person subjects because they do not end in the normal -eth, as in Crist us shildeth "Christ shields us". In Modern English we generally indicate the subjunctive with words like may or let, as Crist us shilde "may Christ shield us, let Christ shield us". 

Lines 15-16: Krist late us hevere so for to do / That.... This is an awkward idiom to translate. The preposition for is largely redundant with to (a bit like our into), so we can omit it. In Modern English we say, "May Christ let us do", so I have preserved the to by changing let to allow, a word with the same meaning in the context. The remaining problem is how to deal with so. The word actually works if we supply an object for do, e.g. "what it takes": "May Christ allow us ever to do [what it takes] so that we may come to Him". But, since the precise object is unstated in the original, I have compromised substituting such for so, which seems to create the same sort of effect in Modern English.