{"id":21433,"date":"2013-07-16T06:30:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=21433"},"modified":"2013-07-14T16:22:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T04:22:53","slug":"the-tuesday-poem-the-seafarer-unknown-author-from-the-anglo-saxon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/07\/16\/the-tuesday-poem-the-seafarer-unknown-author-from-the-anglo-saxon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuesday Poem: The Seafarer (Unknown Author, From The Anglo-Saxon)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Seafarer<\/h3>\n

May I of my own self
\nTruth\u2019s song reckon,
\nTell of my traverse,
\nHow I oft endured
\nDays of hardship
\nTimes of trouble,
\nBitter the breast-care
\nThat I suffered,
\nKnown at my keel
\nMany a care\u2019s hold,
\nDread wave-fall
\nWhen wary night-watch
\nFound me often
\nThere at the ship\u2019s stem,
\nWave-tossed, by cliff-wall.
\nCold-fettered
\nMy feet
\nFrost-bound
\nIn cold clasp,
\nWhere cares seethed then
\nHot at the heart;
\nHunger within tore
\nThe sea-weary soul.
\n…<\/p>\n

from the Anglo-Saxon original; an abridged version translated by A.S. Kline\u00a0\u00a9 2010<\/p>\n

Reproduction in accordance with the translator’s permission.<\/p>\n

—<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Featuring \u201cLegendary\u201d Poems:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The David Gemmell Legend Award<\/strong> longlist came out recently<\/a>, so while the voting period is open until 31 July, I thought I\u2019d feature what I consider to be legendary and\/or epic poems each Tuesday.<\/p>\n

While The Seafarer<\/em> does not deal with the business of gods and heroes in the same way as last week’s featured poem, The Iliad<\/a>, I nonetheless feel that it traverses “epic” material in terms of the focus on the wayfarer’s journey as suffering, isolation, and travail. And as I will argue on Thursday, on SF Signal<\/a>, the juxtaposition of the internal and external journey, as part of the hero’s quest, lies at the heart of epic storytelling.<\/p>\n

While this is, once again, only an excerpt from the full poem, you can read the full version here <\/a>(this is the version from which I have drawn today’s excerpt), or the Ezra Pound translation here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill<\/strong> icon<\/strong> in the sidebar.<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Seafarer May I of my own self Truth\u2019s song reckon, Tell of my traverse, How I oft endured Days of hardship Times of trouble, Bitter the breast-care That I suffered, Known at my keel Many a care\u2019s hold, Dread wave-fall When wary night-watch Found me often There at the ship\u2019s stem, Wave-tossed, by cliff-wall. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21433"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21450,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21433\/revisions\/21450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}