The Owl and the Nightingale - (Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation) by Simon Armitage

About the Book

"One of the earliest literary works to be written in Middle English and one of the first comic poems in the English language, The Owl and the Nightingale (1189-1216) is an anonymous work that describes a debate between two birds. In arguing about such topics as love, marriage, and nesting habits, the owl and the nightingale address issues that remain relevant to contemporary society, such as identity, cultural background, class distinctions, and the right to be heard. ... Some scholars see it as a commentary on different traditions of debate; others read it as a reflection of modern scientific thinking on the differences between the human and the animal. The award-winning poet Simon Armitage has translated the 1,700-line poem using full rhyming couplets in iambic octameter. The book includes a facing-page translation of the poem, along with an introduction by Armitage"--

Book Synopsis

From the UK Poet Laureate and bestselling translator of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a complete verse translation of a spirited and humorous medieval English poem

The Owl and the Nightingale, one of the earliest literary works in Middle English, is a lively, anonymous comic poem about two birds who embark on a war of words in a wood, with a nearby poet reporting their argument in rhyming couplets, line by line and blow by blow. In this engaging and energetic verse translation, Simon Armitage captures the verve and humor of this dramatic tale with all the cut and thrust of the original.

In an agile iambic tetrameter that skillfully amplifies the prosody and rhythm of the original, Armitage's translation moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the ribald and ridiculous. Sounding at times like antagonists in a Twitter feud, the owl and the nightingale quarrel about a host of subjects that still resonate today--including love, marriage, identity, cultural background, class distinctions, and the right to be heard. Adding to the playful, raucous mood of the barb-trading birds is Armitage, who at one point inserts himself into the poem as a "magistrate . . . to adjudicate"--one who is "skilled with words & worldly wise / & frowns on every form of vice."

Featuring the Middle English text on facing pages and an introduction by Armitage, this volume will delight readers of all ages.

Review Quotes

"Shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, Arrowsmith Press"

"The poem is a masterclass in the art of dishonest debate and twisted logic. . . . [Armitage] has become one of the modern world's great revivers of long-sidelined treasures. Anyone who thinks medieval poetry is crude, and literature began in the Renaissance, needs to read this poem."---Tom Shippey, Wall Street Journal

"[The Owl and the Nightingale] add[s] greatly to our feeling for [Armitage's] skill as a craftsman as well as the range of his knowledge of the living, demotic tradition of poetry."---Jesse Nathan, McSweeney's

"Delivered in a spirited iambic tetrameter, Armitage's translation . . . brings to life a dispute between its eponymous creatures. . . . Moments of unexpected philosophical depth as well as bawdy hilarity."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"In The Owl and the Nightingale, Armitage masterfully reveals the presence of multiple Englishes historically and in our time, of stylistic registers jostling and clashing, with two birds who praise themselves, attack each other, and reflect on their and our shifting, exhilarating, and dangerous place in the world."---Denis Ferhatovic, Asymptote

"It is the current Poet Laureate who has done the most to bring medieval poetry to contemporary audiences. . . . In its own eccentric way, [The Owl and the Nightingale] is every bit as enticing as Gawain. . . . It is arguably the greatest early Middle English poem we have."-- "Prospect"

"[A] graceful, elegant translation."---Fiona Sampson, The Guardian

About the Author

Simon Armitage is UK Poet Laureate and professor of poetry at the University of Leeds. The former Oxford Professor of Poetry, he also previously taught at Princeton University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. In addition to celebrated translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Death of King Arthur, and Pearl, he has published more than a dozen poetry collections and three bestselling works of nonfiction.