[Milton-L] Paradise Lost -- Parallel Prose Edition

[Dennis Danielson]

To respond briefly (if inadequately) to Carl Bellinger, Jameela Lares,
Meredith Beales, and Jim Watt:

Many of the versions mentioned, including the recent one (which frankly
I didn't consult), seem to be for children. I've got nothing pro or con
to say about such efforts, except that my own aims at an adult or
near-adult audience. Yes, I suppose any translation is in some sense a
dumbing down. I myself don't feel especially brilliant when I'm using a
parallel text of the Commedia or the New Testament--but I sure like
being able to glance over at the original (despite my meagre linguistic 
grasp of it) to see if I can wring a few more drops of meaning out of 
the translation I'm using. But the main point is that, without the
translation, I'd be getting very, very little from the NT's Koine or
Dante's Italian. Sub-obtimal though this situation is, I NEED the
translation. In my view, if you don't have full use of your legs, to use
a walker or a crutch is OK. These might even help strengthen you to get
walking on your own. Or, to adjust the metaphor, you can think of this
as a "training wheels" PL. And even in prose--what a great story it is 
(thanks not to me but to Milton and his sources)!

That's about as far as my theorizing of this "translation" goes (i.e.,
not very far). I've deliberately avoided any long preface or academic
apparatus or commentary. The prose IS the commentary. Academic is what I
didn't want the book to be.

Finally (for Meredith), it's a project I began if I recall correctly in
the back of a cab, when I was returning from the IMS in Buckinghamshire
in 1981. The taxi driver heard where we'd been, and said something like
"Oh, yes, Milton; Paradise Lost; I'd love to read it; but the poetry is
beyond me." And it got me thinking. I finished my first complete draft 
by about 1989. I collected loads and loads of rejection slips 
(justifiably). I took it up again a few years ago, again without 
success. But the occasion of Milton's 400th encouraged me to have one
more try. My electronic files were now unreadable, but I had kept a copy
the MS., which was execrable, so I completely reworked the whole thing,
re-inputted it all, and voilà.

With gratitude to all of you--and to Milton.
Dennis D

-- 
Dennis Danielson
Professor and Head
Department of English
University of British Columbia
#397 - 1873 East Mall
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1
telephone: 604-822-3174
Author: The First Copernican
WEB: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/ddaniels/