And To All A Good Knight

      It has occurred to the Not-So-Good Doctor that he never did get around to looking into W.S. Merwin's new translation of the marvellous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (which, serendipitously enough, has been released by "Bloodaxe"). Merwin-- a well-known and fine poet in his own right-- has basically set out to do the same thing that Seamus Heaney did with Beowulf [extract available here] a few years ago in offering a facing-page translation that would attend as much as possible to changes of idiom while maintaining (again, as much as possible) the structural principles of the original.   The Guardian's review of Merwin's success whets the appetite somewhat, and the note in the final paragraph is intriguing, as it picks up on some of the five-patterns so apparent in the poem but seldom meaningfully discussed (the N-S-G-Doctor says, recalling how much a onetime paper/lecture of his did with it almost a decade-- yes, a DECADE     -- ago).   Another review of Merwin's translation can be found at the Blackheath Poetry Society.   For those interested, a less-than-enthusiastic review of Heaney's Beowulf can be found here, and there's an old interview with Heaney on the poem's translation to be found here. There's also an interesting essay available here.    We all need some good stories of knights and heroes now and again, especially in these patently unchivalrous days.

      (Perhaps, but not necessarily, interesting aside: I used to describe myself to my incoming students-- as some of you reading this may or may not remember-- as their Green Knight, the dissheveled figure that would chop off their heads if he had to, but if they faced matters sincerely and conscientiously, would discover they could probably face down the knight and emerge with merely a knick in the neck. It was a bit of bluster, of course, but not untrue, either. Those without at least a tinge of fear never do feel there's anything real at stake. As Mr Joyce once said, "no fear, no brains.")

      Clicking about The Net also brings to the N-S-G-Doctor's ever-decreasing attention this piece about "The Problem With Poetry."    Unfortunately, I find myself in strange agreement with the assessment of Malcolm Bradbury with which the article's author takes issue, although I do agree with the commentator's conclusion that "the problem with poetry is that you have to read it" (i.e., go out and find it and read it).   But, alas, the more I go out and read New Material, the more I agree with Bradbury, and the more I find writers like Heaney and Mark Strand and Merwin truly "above the pack."   It's peculiar, though, that the more we talk about "decentering the canon," the more rare truly central our better poets become, however artificially, and however much as a satiary need. It also makes me wonder if the relative fecundity of bad and mediocre poets these days has something to do with a general disconnection from, or reluctance to engage intimately with, the past.