ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) (06/25/85)
- Connoisseurs of modern poetry and old english can now enjoy
both at the same time. Those interested should check out
Peter Glassgold's _Hwaet! -- A little Old English Anthology of
American Modernist Poetry_.
This book contains the author's translations of works by William Carlos
Williams, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Robert Duncan &c. into
Old English. Sample:
This is Just to Say Thys is Efne to Secgenne
I have eaten Ic aet
the plums tha pluman
that were in the waeron on
the icebox thaere iscieste
and which and the
you were probably thu eallmaest cuthlice
saving hordodest
for breakfast for morgenmete
Forgive me Forgief me
they were delicious hie waeron smaecclice
so sweet swa swete
and cold and swa cealde
-William Carlos Williams -Peter Glassgold
If you care to hear the OE, pronounce the vowels roughly as in spanish
or italian (although unaccented vowels are very weak as in all Teutonic
languages). Also, `ae' = a in cat. Furthermore, `c' in {ic,iscieste,
-lice,cealde} as ch in church, c in cat elsewhere; `cg' as dg in judge;
`g' in forgief as y in yet; `f' in efne as v; `y' as german umlaut-u;
`th' as in thin (optionally as then, for grammatical words).
Another of my favorites is Wallace Stevens' _Anecdote
of a Jar_ (_Thaes Crocces Spell_) which begins:
I placed a jar on Tennessee.. Ic sette crocc on Tennessee..
-michael
Leohtflaesc ascode Aemtigum:
eart thu hwaet-hwugu? otthe is nanthing thaer?
-Ceoang Tse