Scott Moncrieff's First Translation
2012; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 21; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3366/tal.2012.0088
ISSN1750-0214
Autores Tópico(s)Translation Studies and Practices
ResumoC. K. Scott Moncrieff, famous as the translator of Proust, began his translating career in 1918 with La Chanson de Roland. Knowing nothing of Old French, he encountered this classic text while recovering from a war wound; the work of translation was a ‘solace’ in time of war, but also a homage to his friend Wilfred Owen and others who had ‘met their Rencesvals’ as the war drew to a close. Scott Moncrieff was no jingoist, but against the cynicism of Siegfried Sassoon's war poetry, he used the Old French epic to celebrate the positive values embodied in the idea of vassalage. Like his Proust, his Song of Roland sought to bring another world to life in English-speaking culture, in all its specific difference. Here this led him to adopt an archaizing and purportedly oral style, notably in the imitation of the assonanced laisses of the original.
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