Writing a poetic translation: translating dialect
Simon Armitage – translating Gawain
Notes and drafts for Simon Armitage's translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' show how his working practices evolved as he worked on the poem.
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Evolving drafts of 'Once the siege...'
Description of the evolving drafts in Simon Armitage's translation of Gawain
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First version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, page one.
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Second version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages two and three.
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Third version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages four and five.
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Early drafts of ‘Once the siege…’
Description of first typed up draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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First draft of ‘Once the siege…’
Description of first typescript draft of first stanza of Gawain
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Second draft of ‘Once the siege…’
Description of second typed up draft for first stanza in 'Gawain'
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'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Description notebook drafts for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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First version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Second pages of drafts
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Second version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Third page of drafts in Gawain notebook
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Third version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Pages of drafts from Gawain notebook.
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Early notes for 'Now through England's realm...'
Typescript early notes for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Second draft of 'Now through England's realm...'
Second typescript draft of lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Writing a poetic translation: defending the work
Notes on the introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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Writing a poetic translation: translating dialect
Notes on introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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Writing a poetic translation: pronunciation
Notes for introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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This page of notes continues Armitage's defence of, or explanation for, various elements of Gawain.
The dialect words in the centre of the page – “bide”, “laike”, “childer”, “barlow” and “samen” amongst others – show Armitage listing words from Gawain that were familiar to him as Yorkshire dialect, which possibly helped him to identify with the Gawain poet.
Armitage uses dialect terms throughout his translation. Some are a direct crossover from the original, and some have made their way into other sections of the poem.
For example: “every hill wore a hate of mizzle on its head” (l. 2081). Mizzle is derived from the Middle English word “misy” (swamp or bog) and is still current in parts of the UK in the form of “mizzle” (drizzling rain).