James's Reviews > The Parliament of Birds

This is a facing page translation, with the Middle English on the left and modern on the right. Chaucer's English is some of the most beautiful, and he was a skilled poet. Unfortunately, I think Richmond takes extreme liberty with too many passages: for instance, he reads the lines "Many a servaunt have ye put out of grace..../ For wel I wot, whyl ye have lyves space, / Ye can not love ful haf yeer in a place" as "Many a suitor you've dismissed, God knows..../ For, madame, the plain truth about you shows / You could not love a fortnight if you chose." That's not translation (can a language be translated into itself, anyway?) it's just paraphrase bordering on invention. Where does that "God knows" come from? These are great poems, and my frustrations to some are small and petty. I hope that too many people won't simply ignore the Middle English and focus on the translation. This would be a loss. There are some great Middle English dictionaries available on-line to help anyone willing to put forth the effort.