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COMPARATIVE TRANSLATIONS From Williamson, A Feast of Creatures, 51-2. "Each translator rebuilds the Anglo-Saxon world in his own way. For those interested in the comparative variety of shapes , I include in the next section a collection of bookworm riddle translations. Some are pedantic, some are lively, some are provocative, some sing. Some seem to have been gobbled by a sharp-toothed bookworm and regurgitated. But all of us, scholars and poets must plead mea culpa in trying to translate. Hauling words and idea from one culture to another is no easy task. |
| A moth ate a word. To me it seemed A marvelous thing when I learned the wonder That a worm had swallowed, in darkness stolen, The song of a man, his glorious sayings, A great man's stength; and the thieving guest Was no whit the wiser for the words it ate. –Charles W. Kennedy A worm ate words. I thought that wonderfully Strange–a miracle–when they told me a crawling Insect had swallowed noble songs, A night-time thief had stolen writing So famous, so weighty. But the bug was foolish Still, though its belly was full of thought. –Burton Raffel A moth ate words. To me it seemed a remarkable fate, when I learned of the marvel, that the worm had swallowed the speech of a man, a thief in the night, a renowned saying and its place itself. Though he swallowed the word the thieving stranger was no white the wiser. –Paul F. Baum A moth devoured words. When I heard of that wonder it struck me as a strange event that a worm should swallow the song of some man, a thief gorge in the darkness on a great man's speech of distinction. The thievish stranger was not a whit the wiser for swallowing words. –Kevin Crossley-Holland |
I heard of a wonder, of words moth-eaten; that is a strange thing, I thought, weird that a man's song be swallowed by a worm his binded sentences, his bedside standby rustled in the night–and the robber-guest not a whit the wiser for the words he had mumbled. --Michael Alexander A moth ate words, a marvelous event I thought it when I heard about that wonder A worm had swallowed some man's lay, a thief In darkness had consumed the mighty saying with its foundation firm. The thief was not One white the wiser when it ate those words. –Richard Hamer A moth ate songs–wolfed words! That seemed a weird dish–that a worm Should swallow, dumb thief in the dark, The songs of a man, his chants of glory, Their place of strength. That thief-guest Was no wiser for having swallowed words. –Craig Williamson "Moth mouthed words." When I learned of that wonder it struck me as a gemlike idea-- that a pitiful worm, a creature of darkness, swallowed a hero's poem its glorious sense and its very substance And, we know, don't we, that the nitwit was not a bit the brighter for mouthing the words –W.F. Klein |