Jan Priddy’s Reviews > The Song of Roland > Status Update

I was warned about the body count—details of slaughter, celebration by the victor!

Cross comparisons were going along fine and then abruptly at "stanza" 110, my two translations diverge. argh! —Burgess seems to have broken a stanza in two and now his stanza numbers no longer match, though the lines #s do.

B: Who did not expect to die. AOI
[end of 8-line stanza 110; stanza 109 is also 8 lines]
S: Who ne'er had thought such death should be their dole. AOI
[end of 16-line stanza 109]

I am working between two translations, reading all of Sayers's and some of the other. Sayers has honored both lines and sound, managing music, form, and meaning—an astonishing accomplishment.

I am working my way through two translations side by side. Sayers's from 1957 and the later translation by Glyn Burgess (1990). Both are Penguin and each translates line by line. So far, I prefer the former; the latter is ordinary modern prose cut into lines—no attempt to capture the rhythm or sound (or wording) of the original archaic French.

Ha! I joked about it being a lie before I began reading, and wouldn't you know the first thing Sayers does in her lengthy (and excellent) intro is clarify the known history and its [near total] lack of connection to The Song of Roland. Most characters, the death of Roland and his companions and army—historical, but motive, roles, & antagonists have shifted around—not history but epic of another age.

This is Dorothy Sayers's translation, which is the reason I will read it. It is war and battles (and mostly lies), but poetry too. I will try.