Caveat Lector
About Chaucer translated into Modern English.
A word on translations, I do not like them. The nuances of languages make translating literature a hopeful artistic venture at best. We can say of a piece that it is a good translation but it will never elevate itself close to the original. What you have after translation is the work of two writers, the original artist and the translator. Poetry by default utilizes language in its most concise, tight manner. All of the words must serve at least double duty. Imagine what the Bard's verse sounds like translated into Polish. Double entendre, puns that exist in the original just cannot translate. Yet translations are necessary. I know that I will never read Goethe in German or Flaubert in French, so the English translations will have to serve me. But it is not without full knowledge that I am missing out on a large part of what makes reading literature so satisfying: watching the writer play with her language.
Which brings me to the thought of what an absurdity it is to read, as an English speaker, an English writer in translation. Albeit one who wrote some 650 years ago. Yes, Chaucer's English has significant differences than Modern English but not enough that it is insurmountable. Reading Beowulf in Old English would be insurmountable-unless you wanted to learn (almost) another language. Chaucer just slightly missed the printing press and with it a stabilization of the English language. Unfortunately he also wrote before the Great Vowel Shift. My advice is to read the Modern English version of Chaucer to familiarize yourself with the story. Then go read Chaucer in Middle English (after brushing up on pronunciation) and enjoy his way with words. The effort will be well worth it.
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