This translation of Perceval is the fifth and final installment of Raffel's translations of Chretien's romances. The project began with the translation of Yvain in 1987, followed by Erec and Enide (1996), Cliges and Lancelot (both in 1997) and is now completed.
The story relates how Perceval, a naive young squire, rises to prominence through combat and love. Perceval had abandoned his mother to follow the trail of knighthood; his sudden departure from home, without a care as to what would happen to the mother left behind, causes him to fail in the adventure of the Grail Castle. Intrigued by miraculous objects in the castle, but following advice not to ask too many questions, Perceval remains quiet, vowing to inquire the next morning. But by then it is too late--there is no one to ask and the Grail castle is closed to him. Because he kept silent, great misfortune spreads throughout the land and those whom the knight should protect--orphans and widows, for example--suffer greatly. Perceval sets out to right his wrong. After five years of wandering, Perceval finds himself at his uncle's hermitage, where the knight rediscovers God. Interwoven with Perceval's quest are the adventures of Gauvain, accused of murder and obliged to seek the Bleeding Lance, one of the miraculous items found at the Grail Castle. The romance is incomplete and breaks off while relating the adventures of Gauvain.
An afterward by Joseph Duggan sets the tale of Perceval in its historic context and introduces the reader to stories that parallel that of Chretien, notably those from Irish or Celtic mythology. Duggan briefly explores themes found in the romance, such as the kinship ties that permeate the story or the fortress in the land of the dead. He also provides a summary of the continuations composed in the Middle Ages to complete Chretien's unfinished work. Duggan completes his discussion with an evocation of other literary works that are based on the Perceval story, such as the Norse Parcevalssaga or the Middle High German Parzival.
A review of this work must emphasize the quality of the translation--the quality of Chretien's work needs no discussion. In the introduction to Yvain, Raffel laid out his principles of translation: he declined to copy Chretien's meter and rhyme, arguing that they are not suitable for twentieth-century English. The octosyllabic couplets Chretien used would not be "distinctly speech-like in syntax and lexicon" (Yvain xi) in translation. Raffel opted for a "flexible line of an invariable three stresses, but with varying numbers of unstressed syllables. In practice, this measure varies from an extreme of four total syllables to the opposite extreme of thirteen total syllables" ( Yvain xi- xii). Following John Milton's advice, Raffel dispensed with rhyme as a force behind his translation, although rhymes do occur fortuitously throughout. The Old French text used for the translation is the edition of Daniel Poirion (published in La Pleiade), although Raffel did consult and use on occasion the edition prepared by Charles Mela.
I found the translation to be very readable, a pleasure in fact. Raffel set out to offer the reader "some reasonably clear view of Chretien's swift, clear style, his wonderfully inventive story-telling, his perceptive characterizations and sure-handed dialogue, his racy wit and sly irony, and the vividness with which he evokes, for us his twentieth-century audiences, the emotions and values of a flourishing, vibrant world" ( Perceval ix). I would say Raffel has succeeded handily. His verse duplicates much of the cadence of Chretien's. I offer this example: Et cil dist que l'en li aport Ses armes qu'il a demandees; Et l'on les li a aportees, Si l'arment et monter le font Sor un cheval que il li ont Appareillie enmi la place (ll. 2138-2143)And then he called for his weapons And armor, and they brought them out, And made him ready, and helped him Mount on a horse waiting In the middle of the courtyard, fully Equipped.... (ll. 2138-2143) Sometimes, however, the way Raffel breaks lines in the English translation is somewhat less felicitous. I offer this example; the Haughty Knight (li Orgueilleus) is speaking: Et jurai molt, que droit en oi, Que d'avaine ne mengeroit Ses palefrois ne ne seroit Sainnies ne ferrez de novel, Ne n'avroit cote ne mantel Autre qu'ele avoit a cele ore.... (ll. 3890-3895)I'm angry, and I have a right! And so I've said her palfrey Will never eat again, Or be cared for, or have new iron Hooves, and she herself Will wear only what's on Her back right now... (ll. 3891-3897) "Iron hooves" for "iron shoes" is curious. But it led me to question other translations that might lead the reader astray. For example, the English lines "they made more noise / than a mob out hunting snails!" (ll. 5947-48) are intriguing. Is snail-hunting a particularly noisy activity? The Old French reads: "Onque por tuer la limace / N'ot en Lombardie tel noise" (ll. 5946-47). More important is the note to these lines in my French text, "conbatre a la limace indique une attaque contre un ennemi qui ne peut du tout se defendre, et elle s'applique surtout aux personnes qui manquent de courage et qui ne se decident aux entreprises les plus faciles qu'apres les plus minutieuses precautions" (ed. Roach, p. 291, quoting G. Tilander, 151). Here the reader would have been better served had the translator strayed from his original so as to provide the sense of the words, rather than their literal meaning.
Though Raffel states that he began his translations of Chretien because there were no translations in English (Yvain, xii), I find this hard to believe. Certainly in the last few years, Chretien's works have been translated into English several times, generally with good results. I cite, as examples, the work of David Staines (1990) and William Kibler and Carleton Carroll (1991) in particular, two sets of translations that do good service to replace the very dated and, for a very long time, only available translation of W.W. Comfort. These examples both offer the romances of Chretien in one volume. A merit of Raffel's translations, each tale by Chretien as a separate publication, is that for classroom adoption, it becomes possible to order only the specific romance one seeks to read with the students and students will not complain about having had to acquire five medieval romances when only one was on the reading list.
I close by reiterating that Raffel's effort is very good and eminently readable. It is not perfect, but no translation is. If we hope to introduce American students to the great works of medieval literature, it will happen through translations. And Raffel's effort, highly readable, a flowing rendition, is a good step in the right direction.
WORKS CITED:
Chretien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances, trans. William W. Kibler and Carleton W. Carroll. London: Penguin Books, 1991.
------. Arthurian Romances, trans. W.W. Comfort. Everyman's Library. London: Dent, 1914. Rpt. 1978.
------. The Complete Romances of Chretien de Troyes, trans. David Staines. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990.
------. Oeuvres completes, ed. and trans. Daniel Poirion et al. La Pleiade. Paris: Gallimard, 1994.
------. Le Roman de Perceval ou le Conte du graal, ed. William Roach. Textes litteraires francais. Geneva: Droz, 1959.
------. Romans, ed. and trans. Charles Mela. Paris: Livre de poche, 1994.
------. Yvain, The Knight of the Lion, trans. Burton Raffel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
Tilander, Gunnar. Remarques sur le Roman de Renart. Gotebord: Elanders boktryckeri aktiebolag, 1923.