‘Once the siege…’: lines in detail
Simon Armitage – translating Gawain
Evolving drafts of 'Once the siege...'
First version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Second version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Third version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Early drafts of ‘Once the siege…’
First draft of ‘Once the siege…’
Second draft of ‘Once the siege…’
'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
First version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Second version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Third version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Early notes for 'Now through England's realm...'
Second draft of 'Now through England's realm...'
Writing a poetic translation: defending the work
Writing a poetic translation: translating dialect
Writing a poetic translation: pronunciation
Once the siege and assault of Troy had ceased,
with the city a smoke-heap of cinders and ash,
(Faber, 2007)
The drafting of the first two lines shows Armitage's engagement with the stress patterns and alliterative form of the poem. These drafts also show Armitage's desire to produce a translation for today, which is also loyal to the sense and sound of the original Middle English version of the poem.
Aftermath and After appear regularly in the early drafts, but are discarded in favour of Once, which fits more easily with rhythm, allowing the line to alliterate on the stressed syllable.
These drafts also show Armitage's efforts to bring more contemporary language into the poem, as can be seen from his use, and eventual rejection of the word blitz, presumably because its specific historical connotations were too strong.
Once the elements of the line are in place, the drafts show that they are still being worked on: for example, Troy moves around the line several times before becoming fixed in the later drafts.
