…famously has no direct translation, so everyone puts their own spin on it. Reading the amount of thought that goes into a translation is always interesting to me - for instance the introduction to a Sir Gawain and the Green Knight I have really helped me understand how the alliterative style worked and why the translation was done in a certain way (and why it was so hard).
…investment, it gets easier with each new author. The payoff is freedom from historical provincialism. Only reading contemporary authors is like only knowing people from your home town. By the way, have you read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? It's really hard - you are basically looking up every word in the back - but it is a wonderful poem in the alliterative style.
Simon Armitage 翻译的《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》简直绝了，在我看来比托尔金的译本好得多。所以我对这本超级期待。Bill Wallis 朗读的有声书也是我们全家的最爱：https://www.audible.com/pd/Sir-Gawain-and-the-Green-Knight-A...
Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is exceptional, much better IMO than the Tolkien translation. So I'm very excited for this. The audio performance of it by Bill Wallis is also a family favorite: https://www.audible.com/pd/Sir-Gawain-and-the-Green-Knight-A...
…differed from one another. Chaucer’s English is similar enough to modern English that bookish people today can quickly get used to it with the help of an annotated edition of the Canterbury Tales. But Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or the less popularly known writers of the Middle English period like the Pearl-poet or William Langland are more challenging and generally only ventured by specialists, and everyone else relies on translations.
…original transcription was subsequently discovered in the 1930s, so we still have access to the words, just not the original artifact. [2] This very same library is home to the only known manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [3]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_library#Ashburnham_Hous... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Maldon [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Maldon#History_o...…
…rather than English. The class did not read him, except for one student who chose that as the focus of a class project. I did have a high school English class covering (among other, non-medieval works) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the story of Tristan and Iseult. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was read in translation, but Tristan and Iseult was a fairly modern reimagining (set in the original period), with an author's introduction…
……众所周知根本没有直译这回事，所以每个人都会加上自己的理解去发挥。看译者在翻译里倾注的心思对我来说一直很有意思——比如我手头那本《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》的导言，真帮我搞懂了头韵体是怎么运作的，以及为什么会翻成特定某种模样（还有为什么会这么难翻）。
…famously has no direct translation, so everyone puts their own spin on it. Reading the amount of thought that goes into a translation is always interesting to me - for instance the introduction to a Sir Gawain and the Green Knight I have really helped me understand how the alliterative style worked and why the translation was done in a certain way (and why it was so hard).
……沉没成本，而且每读一个新作者都会变得更容易。回报则是摆脱历史的狭隘局限。只读当代作家的书，就跟一辈子只认识老家同乡没什么两样。顺便问句，你读过《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》吗？读起来真硬核——你基本得全程在书后查每一个词——但它确实是一首美妙绝伦的头韵体史诗。
…investment, it gets easier with each new author. The payoff is freedom from historical provincialism. Only reading contemporary authors is like only knowing people from your home town. By the way, have you read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? It's really hard - you are basically looking up every word in the back - but it is a wonderful poem in the alliterative style.
Simon Armitage 翻译的《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》简直绝了，在我看来比托尔金的译本好得多。所以我对这本超级期待。Bill Wallis 朗读的有声书也是我们全家的最爱：https://www.audible.com/pd/Sir-Gawain-and-the-Green-Knight-A...
Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is exceptional, much better IMO than the Tolkien translation. So I'm very excited for this. The audio performance of it by Bill Wallis is also a family favorite: https://www.audible.com/pd/Sir-Gawain-and-the-Green-Knight-A...
……彼此大不相同。乔叟的英语跟现代英语足够接近，如今爱读书的人只要借助《坎特伯雷故事集》的带注释版本，很快就能看顺手。但《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》或者没那么广为人知的中世纪英语作家，像“珍珠诗人”或威廉·兰格伦，门槛就要高得多，一般只有专业学者才会去碰，其他人全靠现代译本。
…differed from one another. Chaucer’s English is similar enough to modern English that bookish people today can quickly get used to it with the help of an annotated edition of the Canterbury Tales. But Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or the less popularly known writers of the Middle English period like the Pearl-poet or William Langland are more challenging and generally only ventured by specialists, and everyone else relies on translations.
……最初的转抄稿随后在 1930 年代被发现了，所以我们仍然能读到原文内容，只是原本那件文物没了而已。[2] 正是这同一家图书馆，保存着《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》唯一已知的抄本 [3]。[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_library#Ashburnham_Hous... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Maldon [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Maldon#History_o...…
…original transcription was subsequently discovered in the 1930s, so we still have access to the words, just not the original artifact. [2] This very same library is home to the only known manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [3]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_library#Ashburnham_Hous... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Maldon [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Maldon#History_o...…
……而不是英语。全班都没读他的作品，除了一名选它当课程项目重点的学生。我高中的英语课确实涵盖了（除了其他非中世纪作品之外）《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》以及《崔斯坦与伊索德》的故事。《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》看的是译本，而《崔斯坦与伊索德》则是相当现代化的重写（背景依然设在原本的时代），还附带了一篇作者前言……
…rather than English. The class did not read him, except for one student who chose that as the focus of a class project. I did have a high school English class covering (among other, non-medieval works) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the story of Tristan and Iseult. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was read in translation, but Tristan and Iseult was a fairly modern reimagining (set in the original period), with an author's introduction…