Overview

This book is a selection of shorter Old English poems, or fragments, containing both the original texts in Old English and Modern English translation running parallel. The en face arrangement of Old English text on the verso and Modern English translation on the recto will facilitate the reader's grasp of the poetic development of each line.

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9798385242795

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Reviews

""This collection of the best-known short poems in Old English will be a welcome addition to the libraries of graduate students. The clear and concise introduction is sympathetic to the needs of students and is enthusiastic about the literary value of these poems. The presentation of the original texts side by side Professor Lee's faithful translations makes a student reader's task easier and more enjoyable. Additionally, a stimulating appendix offers appreciations of several of the poems, including interpretations of 'The Dream of the Rood' and 'The Wife's Lament' that introduce students to critical arguments about their speakers. Students and teachers alike will use this book with confidence and enjoyment."" --Howell Chickering, Emeritus Professor of English, Amherst College ""The translations are fluent, often wonderfully so. Although Old English tones, alliterative stress across half-lines, and meter are hard to capture in modern English, Sung-Il Lee achieves many nice turns of phrase and line while also conveying the intensity of expression in the battle poems, the elegies, and in allusively obscure, puzzling poems, such as 'Widsith, ' 'Deor, ' and 'The Wife's Lament.' Students new to Old English studies will welcome this lovely volume and its interesting commentary."" --John M. Hill, Emeritus Professor, United States Naval Academy ""Like his masterful translation of Beowulf (Cascade, 2017), Sung-Il Lee's renderings in Twelve Old English Poems are both powerful and eloquent, resonating with the sounds and cadences of the Old English lines. Lee's elegant translations are faithful to the originals and highly accessible to readers approaching these remarkable poems for the first time, whether in Old English, modern English, or both. The culmination of a lifetime of study and appreciation of Old English literature, Lee's translations of 'The Wanderer' and 'The Seafarer, ' to name only two, are without peer. Lee renders each of the poems in this collection with appropriate reverence, gravity, and sensitivity to style. Especially for the student, graduate or undergraduate, who wants to get as close to the sounds and sense of the original poems as possible, Lee's parallel text edition is indispensable. For a lover of Old English poetry, it is a tour de force."" --Philip Edward Phillips, Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University

Author Information

Sung-Il Lee is Professor Emeritus at Yonsei University. A founding member of the Medieval English Studies Association of Korea, he is the author of Beowulf in Parallel Texts (Cascade).

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