Hey, Veeky Forums. I got a copy of The Canterbury Tales, but it was translated into "modern English" by Nevill Coghill...

Only a psued reads in dead languages

>when the monks fuck up translations because they only speak latin and french

penguin usually delivers pretty good general translations. the reasons and intricacies of other academic translations would be lost on non-english students/scholars.

REEEEEE IT'S NOT FUCKING OLD ENGLISH

You can read the untranslated one pretty easily. Just remember two things:
>lit is always wrong
>lit hasn't read the book

It's a bit like Shakespeare and after a couple days your brain will "click" like when you are looking at a strange map and it takes a few seconds to recognize the outlines. I accidentally got an untranslated copy of Hobbes and it's really not so bad.

When in April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
As brings about the engendering of the flower,
When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath
Exhales an air in every grove and heath
Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun
His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
And the small fowl are making melody
That sleep away the night with open eye
(So nature pricks them and their heart engages)
Then people long to go on pilgrimages
And palmers long to seek the stranger strands
Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands,
And specially, from every shire’s end
Of England, down to Canterbury they wend
To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick
To give his help to them when they were sick.

Disgusting. Read the original or don't bother.

it is to most people. how many people are even aware of aenglisc? this isn't the classroom.

Reads like my cousin writing drunk Facebook posts

>it is to most people
And this is a problem that must be corrected whenever possible.

uhh...okay, whatever.

This, I read it in Middle English and english is not my mother tongue

There's a difference between old English and Old English.

Nevill's is a fine translation, the man spent most of his life studying Chaucerian texts and its contemporaries. I'd sooner trust him over the pseud brainlet purists here who demand it be read only in Middle-English (in itself a form of mindless elitism by anons wishing to discourage newcomers into their secret club of old timely texts)

The fuck? Chaucer is one of the greatest poets in English language. Why would I want to read random academic Neville Coghill's poetry instead?

right but when communicating with people, definitions aren't static and rather than being a pendant you should probably just answer because you know what he meant in the first place.

>pendant

If you're reading it to experience pure middle-english forms of poetry maybe you shouldn't have gotten a modern translation then you fucking numpty.

OP here, thank you for the aswer, user. I think there is an inherent pleasure in reading Chaucer as it was written. But as english is not my mother tongue, I'll go with translation then.

My point exactly.

Any translation into modern English will be ugly, so what is the point?

>Modern English Translation

What's the fucking point? You may as well just read a Jersey Shore plot.

One reads Chaucer *for* the language.

Just compare the opening couplets:

>Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
>The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

>When in April the sweet showers fall
>And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all

Why on earth would anyone choose the latter to read for pleasure?

It's fine, OP.

Who can't read that? You just need to read slower but it's still beautiful and fairly accessible.

But that's not bad at all, user

Try reading the original with explanatory notes (which is what native speakers do as well) first.

But which edition?

I read Chaucer for the farting and cuckoldry

Oh yes, whan sounds so much better than when, soote than sweet and who in their right mind could prefer lowly April when we have godly Aprill? Plebs, the lot of them.

Also, what kind of dilettante rhymes fall with all at the beginning of one of the greatest poems in the English language? The kind of guy who allows himself to bear the name of Neville Cargill, that's who. Soote with roote on the other hand is so much better for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who is a well read patrician such as--to give just a random, yet evident example--myself.

Are you serious or trolling? Pls answer it. Genuine question.

>this
It's written in middle English.

You don't even know how to pronounce Middle English. Feels good to be a native German speaker. The eternal Anglo will never learn.

Yeah, you should read it.

If you really want to read it in Middle English, get the Riverside Chaucer, it has a lot of notes and essays, and also includes Chaucer's other works.

Middle English is not that difficult if you already have a fluent grasp of the English language, and with notes it becomes easier. Remember to read it out loud, since the sound of the words will remind you of their modern equivalent.

Also, here are some resources for Middle English:
sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/less-0.htm
nativlang.com/middle-english/index.php
sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/CTlist.html
quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/

You're ESL, you probably can't read Middle English. Good translations are fine, especially good translations of a single language, and especially with Chaucer because his English influenced our own much more than something like the Gawain poet's English.

So, a lot of what the translator is really doing is just updating spelling.
Natives can read it because they're native speakers, ESL can't unless they're only strictly ESL. E.g., they were born in one country, migrated when they were like 2, and then picked up English very quickly as kids tend to do.

most editions have copious footones, but norton is fine

ESLs can read Chaucer if their command of Modern English is good. It's sometimea easier for them since Chaucer's Middle English is influenced by Latin, and the traces are rather evident if you already know, say, Spanish.

What I'm trying to say is, being a non-native speaker doesn't prevent you from reading Middle English, unless your Modern English is bad from the start.

t. non-native speaker who learned English when he was a teenager

He's obviously trolling, but he does bring up a good point.

The original isn't even hard to read--not sure how much of a pleb you actually have to be to read a translation: it's like reading a modern translation of fucking shakespeare

>not sure how much of a pleb you actually have to be to read a translation

An ESL, maybe?

...you can't understand this? I have never researched middle English but I can understand this just fine, except for "prys" and "wys," maybe "in lyste thries"

Have you ever heard of context?

He's talking with an ESL you dumbass.

The user posting it was trying to make the point that it was hard/impossible to understand and multiple anons whom I doubt are all ESL said just that in response

I think you're the dumbass here

Read the whole thread, dumbass

words such as prys and wys might actually be easier to understand for dutch people, as price is prijs and wise is wijs over here

most native speakers don't understand this you dunce

False.

If you speak a Latin language, it might eve be easier for you to understand Chaucer than for a native English speaker. Many chaucerian words that English speakers are not familiar with have their equivalents in modern-day Romance languages.

To stick to these lines we can find Portuguese equivalents of:

battailles = batalha
vileynye = vilania
verray = veraz

>it might eve be easier for you to understand Chaucer than for a native English speaker.
No, not unless your English is very very good. Most ESL do not have very very good English.

The best-case scenario is a native English speaker that also knows Latin or maybe Italian (Portuguese too, if you insist).

Native English speakers reading Chaucer most likely went through the typical high school regimen of reading Shakespeare every year, too, which is a huge boon.

OP here. I just bought a middle-english version (Oxford) and the translation that I was talking about. Guess it will be a fun read.

Thank you lads.

trump was making a casual reference to chaucer, plebs don't understand

And prively he caughte hire by the queynte,

And middle English is fucking easy to understand if you know modern English. When you don't get something just try to hear it instead of reading it, and more often than not you will get it. Besides, many editions will have notes for the most difficult terms. I say get the original one.

You did good :thumbsup:

I can read this and English isn't even my first language.

No, you should correct people so they don't keep on being wrong, you turbopleb.