Scott Moncrieff's First Translation

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter France
Keyword(s):  
Old French ◽  
Specific Difference ◽  
War Poetry ◽  
Chanson De Roland ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Song Of Roland ◽  
Wilfred Owen

C. 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.

scholarly journals Il nazionalismo della letteratura britannica prima della Grande Guerra e l’esperienza dei War Poets

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-86
Author(s):  
Angelo Giunta
Keyword(s):  
War Poetry ◽  
Siegfried Sassoon ◽  
Rupert Brooke ◽  
Wilfred Owen

L’immagine di un Regno Unito visto come Eden inconsapevole della tragedia che sta per lacerarlo è diffusa, ma piuttosto falsa. L’apparente serenità nasconde una violenza latente e gravi questioni interne e la guerra, quindi, non fa altro che accelerare un processo già in atto. Di tutta la letteratura inglese del Ventesimo secolo, la poesia di guerra sembra, sotto molti punti di vista, una “parentesi” all’interno del panorama letterario. La war poetry è il prodotto di un determinato periodo storico, sociale e culturale venutosi a formare nella Prima guerra mondiale. Tra i migliori poeti della Grande Guerra troviamo Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen e Siegfried Sassoon. Il fatto che molti poeti siano ufficiali – ma non alti ufficiali – permette loro di essere in contatto, a livello socio-culturale, con i ranghi elevati dell’esercito e, fisicamente, con i soldati semplici. In questo modo hanno una visione più ampia della realtà in trincea.

23 Wilfred Owen, War Poetry

2021 ◽  
pp. 381-396
Author(s):  
Marzena Sokołowska-Paryż
Keyword(s):  
War Poetry ◽  
Wilfred Owen

A tragic harp: Ritual, irony and myth in the war poetry of Wilfred Owen

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Kevin Penny
Keyword(s):  
Stylistic Analysis ◽  
War Poetry ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
Classical Language ◽  
Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen stands out as one of the foremost poets writing on the theme of war and the pity of war. This article examines Owen’s innovative use of Romantic, biblical, and Classical language in conjunction with specific literary and rhetorical devices as a way of developing irony in his work. Also central to the poet’s stylistic approach was his deliberate collapse of conventional literary modes of expression, which included the traditional sonnet form. The enquiry which follows examines how Owen’s use of antiquated language and literary patterning — which the poet relied on to undercut established ritual and myth and their associated symbolism — served to juxtapose the classically ‘heroic’ with the sacrificial ‘heroes’ he had encountered on the battlefields of Europe. To assist him in this the poet — somewhat paradoxically — relied on a mythopoeic approach that mirrored later Modernist attempts to address issues of personal nobility amidst the perceived dissolution of society. Close stylistic analysis contributes to an understanding of the intricate ironic patterning in Owen’s war poetry, which defamiliarizes, yet also heightens, a reader’s intuitive response to the poet’s work.

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