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Karl Young: 1990
Tatlin Books - Bangor, Maine
The present rendering consists of a poet's personal engagement with the
text and extensions of Norse verse forms over a period of some 20 years.
It makes no claims to scholarship. In translating other Anglo-Saxon poems,
notably the Exeter Book riddles, I tried to work with the original order of
phrases on the hunch that the Anglo-Saxon poets plotted half lines as a
basic device shapping all levels of significance, ranging from rhythm to
exposition to stages of epihpany. In one of the most provocative and
meaningful workings of Anglo-Saxon poetry, "So For Then Also The Dragon,"
which I published in several versions, Don Wellman took a similar approach
much farther. My work in this direction lead me to a dead end; Wellman's
does not. In my version of "The Seafarer," I returned to a more
conventional approach, and to such formal properties as alliteration,
which I had previously avoided, preferring to emphasize patterns set up
by syntax, relative stress, and caesura. In my "Seafarer" working, I played
considerably with formal attributes I had previously neglected, and I did
so in ways (such as alterd and extended aliteration, and assonance)
not necessarily present in the original text, just as I allowed myself some
of the usual liberties in lexical transference. I also found that half-lines
sometimes worked better in Modern English when extended to full lines. By
numbering the lines of my working according to the base text, I indicate
extensions of this sort by omitting line numbers, so that extended lines
have no numbers in the portions extended. I also broke hypermetric lines,
presenting the second halves as separate, indented lines.
My primary source for the text was the old war-horse, George Philip Krapp
and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie's The Exeter Book, Columbia University
Press, 1936. My efforts with Anglo-Saxon poetry are inextricably bound up
with original poems of various sorts, most importantly, Milestones,
a series begun in 1970 which take their base in the life of
contemporary America as seen while driving cars; and with adaptations
of Chinese poetry -- particularly in a sequence titled Clouds Over
Fortjade in which the activist Tu Fu holds an oblique debate with
the quietist Wang Wei, through parrallelism and antithesis worked out
in screenfolds. My rendering of "The Seafarer" was published in a tiny
but magnificently crafted edition by Walter Tisdale, which contained
variants in production in different individual copies. The poem as it
appears here includes several textual revisions made since the book's
publication. Tisdale also published the first volume of Milestones,
showing his usual sensitivity to context and sequence. May poets
everywhere find such sensitivity in their publishers, on the web and
in print -- as Charles Harrison Wallace shows those whose work appears
at this site.
© Karl Young 1990 all rights reserved back to other versions
1. I will tell you my personal testament,
2. tally the weight of weary days,
3. the hours of torment, the times of agony,
4. the bitter heart-stabs I have abided,
5. endured in anguish in endless keels
6. thrown through the troughs of towering waves
often obsessed in the cell of my heart
7. through night's narrow watches as the prows of my ships
8. dashed beside cliffs. Cold grasped
9. my aching feet, frost clenched my skin,
10. chilling my bones, while sorrow burned inward,
11. hot in my heart: the hunger within
12. ate at my spirit, sick of my wandering
over the ocean. He whose lot
13. keeps him on land can never know
14. my sorrow and need on the freezing sea,
15. how I have endured the path of the exile,
16. deprived of my kin, through winters of pain
17. hung with grim icicles while hail scourged the wind.
18. There I heard nothing but the roar of the sea,
19. the crash of the ice road. The swan's blare,
20. did me for games -- the gannet's cry,
21. the curlew's song for sociable laughter --
22. the mew's singing for the drinking of mead.
23. There storms beat the stone cliffs, there the tern answered
the shattering waves with icy feathers;
24. often the eagle's scream surrounded the storm
25. with feathers of darkness. No familiar protector
26. could bring consolation to my care riddled spirit.
27. Yet those who enjoy a complacent life
28. secure in their cities, stately and wine-proud,
29. cannot comprehend why I must continue,
30. however weary, to wander the sea-path.
31. Snow swept from the north, night's shadows descended,
32. frost held earth bound, snow covered the world,
33. the coldest of grains. Yet thoughts grip my heart,
34. need moves my spirit: I must go by myself
35. over the salt crests, the cavernous ocean;
36. always my mind moves toward the distance --
37. my heart beats faster, I follow its surge
38. alone as a pilgrim to land far away.
39. Yet none is so spirited nor strong in his courage
40. nor generous in giving nor vigorous in youth
41. nor bold in his actions nor blessed by his lord
42. that he has no fears to follow the sea
43. to the fate that the Lord has stored up for him.
44. The harp does not hold him nor the hoarding of rings
45. nor the pleasures of love nor worldly attainments --
46. his only thought is the tossing of waves --
47. though he has his longings alone on the sea.
48. Groves take blossom, towns come alive,
49. meadows flourish, the world is refreshed;
50. all of this urges the eager mind
51. of the veteran traveler to venture forth
52. into the distance over deep seas.
53. Even the cuckoo, the warden of summer,
54. urges him forward with mournful voice
foreboding sorrow, the bitter fate
55. of the innermost heart. Warriors at home,
56. blessed with comfort, can never know
57. how much the sea-pacer must suffer and bear
who follows farthest the path of the exile.
58. Yet now my heart hammers my chest,
59. longs for the journey; my hungering spirit
60. soars out wide over the whale's turf
61. to earth's far corners and comes back to me
62. insistant and greedy; the lone-glider cries
63. irresistibly pulling my soul to the whale's path,
64. the boundless ocean. For the bliss of the Lord
65. is warmer to me than this waking death
66. that flickers on land. I have no faith
67. in earthly possessions that pass in a day.
68. Till the end of life's tide one of three things
69. remains uncertain in worldly events:
70. illness or age or hate driven swords
71. will take a man's life as fate turns its way.
72. Hence for all men it is best to accomplish
73. durable fame, renown in the world,
74. among their survivors, those who speak after
75. they have departed, through deeds of courage,
76. through memorable acts against the fiends' malice,
77. opposing the devil, earning posterity's
78. emulation and praise, and forever and ever
79. enjoying the glory of the angels in heaven,
80. the triumphant host. The time has passed
81. for earthly magnificence in majestic realms;
82. now no emperors, no imperial Caesars,
83. no givers of gold do glorious deeds
84. among their peers or live in splendor
85. in lordly dominion as they did in past ages.
86. That fraternity has fallen, the fellowship ended;
87. weaklings now work the world they left
88. in grief and toil. Grandeur has faded,
89. earth's nobility ages and whithers,
90. just like mankind throughout middlearth.
91. Decrepitude takes them, all grow pale,
92. white-headed they lament, mourn for old friends,
93. the children of nobles given to earth.
94. When life has departed, the cask of the flesh
95. tastes nothing sweet, nor feels any pain,
96. its hands cannot move, nor its mind fashion thoughts.
97. Though brother gives kinsman a magnificent funeral,
98. packing the coffin with precious treasure,
99. with gold to his tribute, it won't travel with him;
100. no gold can aid nor gain atonement
101. for a soul full of sin in the presence of God,
102. however he hoards it here on this earth.
103. Great is the strength of God almighty;
His terrible power turns over this world.
104. It was He Who established the earth's foundations,
105. spread wide its face and framed it with heaven.
106. A fool is he who fears not his Lord,
fated to die without preparation;
107. Blessed is he whose life is humble,
heaven will grant him its mercy.
108. The Lord will secure him a steadfast spirit
because he surrenders to the power of God.
109. A man must control the heat of his temper,
must find a firm base for his fierce spirit,
110. must honor his pledges and lead a pure life.
111. Every man must learn moderation
112. with friends and with foes, [in fellowship and] anger.
113. Though he may not wish to see his true friends
114. filled with fire or burned in the flames,
115. [yet he must keep patience:] Fate has more power,
116. God has more might than any man knows.
117. Let us consider where we have our true home,
118. then let us reflect on how to arrive there,
119. then let us labor to enter that place,
120. and there find the blessings, the beauties of heaven,
121. where the source of life is the love of God
122. in endless peace. Eternally thank
123. our Lord in the highest, that he should so honor us,
124. the Prince of Glory, throughout all time.
Amen.