Some of
the biggest debates of Marlowe’s Hero and
Leander come from the violence of love and nature throughout the poem. This
is not to say that these are the only points of interest, such as Leander’s
battle against virginity, but the violence of the translation holds most
scholars’ attention. This is why I picked my particular passage from the poem
because it is right at the brink of Leander’s battle with both love and nature.
Sitting on a rock after his first meeting with Hero, Leander ponders his
newfound love and the ocean that lies between them. This is the point at which
he dives in the ocean to swim to Hero but first must fight with Poseidon.
Pamela Macfie exemplifies this violence by pointing out that Marlow used
Lucan’s First Book as a major inspiration for Hero and Leander. She claims, “He
yokes his exploration of erotic passion in Hero and Leander to the universal
violence that is at once Lucan’s subject matter and his method.” (Macfie, 48).
Lucan’s text is so violent that Marlowe incorporates this violence into that
nature of love and what nature can do to try and destroy that love.
The
craftsmanship of my translation had to do with some of the passion and violence
of the poem as well. The entire thing is so mystical yet raw that making
drastic changes seemed wrong and even the tiniest changes seemed drastic. The
ability to see the text in its original version, the way Marlowe would have
seen it, made keeping it as original as possible a top priority. It was hard to
choose which part of the poem would be best to translate but upon reading
through it entirely a couple of times I began to see the beauty of this part
more clearly. It is probably the part with the least amount of action but the
way Marlowe creates Leander’s love out of nature and then sends him into its
depths to fight for it was so beautiful. Leander’s thoughts on the rock seem so
raw yet the world under water seemed so mystical the combination of these
elements describes love to me and I found that a powerful place to do my
translation.
Macfie, Pamela Royston. "Lucan, Marlowe, and
the Poetics of Violence." Renaissance Papers (2008): 47-63. Humanities
International Complete. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.
For this translation I focused on keeping the text as similar to the original as possible. I kept the text as it was but took out the accents Marlowe had over some of his words and instead of changing the F's to S's I kept those the same and used * to mark the words readers couldn't sound out and had their modern renditions to the side of the line. I did this because the piece felt somewhat less magical to me reading it without Marlowe's own intentions. Then I went back and re-read the entire thing while writing down any word or phrase that I did not understand. I took each phrase and found it's meaning then made it a footnote. OED was really excellent for that. My advice to whoever has to do this next is to print out the work you've decided to translate and give every line it's own number. Work with lines on their own first, set up a system that will help you decide what's going to be changed * or footnoted, then go through and re read for content and meaning.
Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe
And thence* vnto [1]Abydus
*fooner blowne, unto/sooner
Than he could *fayle, for [2]incorporeall
Fame, sail
Whole weight *confifts in
nothing but her name, consists
Is *fwifter than the wind,*
whofe tardy plumes swifter/whose
Are reeking water, and dull
earthly fumes.
Home when he came he seemed
not to be there,
But like exiled ayre *thruft
from his *fphere, thrust/sphere
Set in a *forren place, and *ftraight
from thence, foreign/straight
Alcides-like[3] by
mighty violence,
He would *haue chac’d away
the *fwelling Maine have/swelling
That him from her *vniuftly
did detaine: unjustly
Like as the Sunne in a
Diameter,
Fires and inflames obiects *remooued
farre, removed
And heateth kindly *fhining
lat’rally, shining
So beauty *fweetly quickins
when it’s *nie; sweetly/nigh
But being *feperated and
remoued, separated
Burnes where it *cherifht,
murders where it *loued[4]: cherished/loved
Therefore, *euen as an Index to a booke, even
So to his mind was young Leander looke;
O none *haue power but gods
their loue to hide, have
Affection by the count’nance
is *defcribe[5]. described
The light of hidden fire it *felfe
difcouers, self-discovers
And loue that is conceal’d,
betrayes poore louers.
His *fecret flame apparantly
was seene, secret
Leanders father
knew where he had been,
And for the fame mildly
rebuk’d his *fonne, son
Thinking to quench the *fparkles
new begunne. sparkles
But loue *refifted once,
grows *pafsionate, resisted/passionate
And nothing more then *counfell
louers hate: council
For, as a hot proud *horfe
highly *difdaines horse/disdains
To haue his head control’d,
but breakes the raines,
Spits forth the ringled bit,
and with his *houes hooves
Checkes the *fubmifsiue
ground[6]: *fo
he that loues, submissive/for
The more he is *reftrain’d,
the *worfe he fares; restrained/worse
What is it now, but madd Leander dares?
O Hero, Hero, thus he cry’d full oft,
And then he got him to a
rocke aloft,
Where hauing *fpide her
tower, long *ftar’d he on’t, spied/stared
And pray’d the narrow toiling
Hellefpont [7]
To part in twaine[8],
that he might come and go.
But *ftill the rifing
billowes[9]
anfwered no; still
With that he *ftript him to
the [10]yu’ry
skin, stripped
And crying, Loue, I come,
leapt *liuely in: lively
Whereat the [11]Saphyr-vifag’d
god grew proud,
And made his capring Triton found aloud,
Imagining that [12]Ganimed *difpleaf’d, displeased
Had left the *heauens,
therefore on him he *feaz’d: heavens/siezed
Leander *ftriu’d,
the *vvaues about him vvound, strived/waves
And puld him to the bottome,
wwhere the ground
Was *ftrewd vvith pearle, and
in lovv corrall *groues, strewed/groves
*Svvet *finging mermayds *fported vvith their loues, sweet/singing/sported
On heapes of *heauy gold, and
tooke great *pleafure, heavy/pleasure
To *fpurne in *careleffe fort
the *fhipwrackt treafure: spurn/careless/shipwrecked
For here the *ftately azure [13]palace
*ftood, stately/stood
[1]
Ancient city on Asian bank. Also Hero’s home.
[2]
Having no body or structure. Severed from all earthly substance.
[3]
Like hercules
[4]
Being in love and apart can kill
[5]
His love is visible from his face
[6]
Paws the ground
[7]
Strait in Turkey between the Aegean Sea and the Marmara Sea. One bank is in
Europe (or Sestos where Hero lives) and the other bank lies in Asia (the home
of Leander).
[8]
Two
[9]
Tumultuous waves
[10]
Ivory
[11]
King Neptune
[12]
Young Trojan boy abducted by Jove (the Roman name for Zeus) to be the God’s
cupbearer
[13]
King Neptune’s palace
No comments:
Post a Comment