I respect the copyright of other’s work and expect that of mine.
Obtaining permissions to post the work of others which I would like
To put up here is not a process with which I am familiar. There must
Be a way to do it and I suppose I shall find out in all good time.
Older works at some point fall out of copyright but the life of copyright
Within a particular country from which the work originated differs and
Keeps being extended, often beyond the life of the author and, sometimes,
Beyond those of the beneficiaries; a bit like how countries keep extending
Their territorial waters.
Translations of work which has long fallen out of copyright is owned
By the translator. Not the work itself, but the translation. One is
Grateful to these translators for bringing the work into contemporary
English from another language one does not know into one’s own
Native language.
Since the work, a poem or such, has merit and has long since not
Been under copyright, it seems to me that to translate such work,
As I might try, does service both to the work and to present readers since
Otherwise the work remains inaccessible to understanding and one may even
Unaware of Of its existence.
Translations of an older work may have been done over the
Centuries but, with time, those translations cease to be
In a language which is current. The translations go stale.
Hence this perpetual need to replenish and refresh the work
So as to keep it alive and available to us.
Such efforts might be those that have repeatedly occurred over
The centuries that have kept alive for us the Metamorphosis of Ovid, say.
Looking back at the work of those worthy people’s attempts,
The results are frequently dreadful. I mean just dreadful.
As surely they must have been to readers at the time. One
Does not need knowledge of the original to see this. Bad writing
Is bad writing in any age, in any language, and we should avoid
It like the Plague.
Even in one’s own native tongue there is a need to continually
Update into our present use our language of such a work as,
For example, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. One can go back and
Read the original should one have the skills but, for those whom
Middle English is unfamiliar, it is going to be hard work. Not that
This effort will not be rewarded. It will.
But this work of Chaucer’s is not short.
This necessity to update older works has its limits. One would not wish to
Update the language of The Kings James version of the Bible, though it was
Written by a committee, into the language of the Twenty First century.
Any attempt to bring this, among the finest of any work in the English
Language, version up to date is doomed to miserable failure.
Horrors to anyone should try. One might rid it of the thee’s and thou’s
But that is about all.
Likewise, Shakespeare too, should be spared. His English is closer
To us than that of Chaucer’s and the effort to read him in his own
Version of English will be amply rewarded. Otherwise one sort of
Produces the equivalent of the utter ignorance of an idiot’s guide and
One of the great beauties of our culture will be raped.
One would no more try to modernize a piece of music by Bach
Or Beethoven.
Why on earth would one want to try?
Malcolm D B Munro
Saturday 9 April, 2016
Filed under: poetry
