On the Heathoremes’ land the ocean bore up,
Whence he did seek his pleasant home,
Dear to his people, the land of the Brondings
His fair strong city, where he had people,
A city and rings. All his boast against thee
The son of Beanstan truly fulfilled.’
Criticism of the Translation.
The translation, in its revised form, is throughout a faithful version of the original text. The fault of Garnett’s translation is the fault of all merely literal translations—inadequacy to render fully the content of the original. The rendering may be word for word, but it will not be idea for idea. Examples of this inadequacy may be given from the printed extract. ‘Grief’ in line 502 is a very insufficient rendering of æf-þunca, a unique word which suggests at once vexation, mortification, and jealousy. Had the poet simply meant to express the notion of grief, he would have used sorh, cearu, or some other common word. In line 508 ‘pride’ hardly gives full expression to the idea of wlence, which signifies not only pride, but vain pride, of empty end. In line 517 ‘conquered’ is insufficient as a translation of oferflāt, which means to overcome in swimming, to outswim.
Examples of this sort can be brought forward from any part of the poem. At line 2544 Garnett translates—
Struggles of battle when warriors contended,