Whose verse do you like the best? Do you prefer verse or prose? You are allowed to vote for more than one option.

For the French original please refer to Post #175215, however in my opinion you can also appreciate English without speaking the SL.

Here are the six translations, as numbered in the original thread (Thank you, Nanna for putting them together! With the new editor it takes hours to copy and paste and fix and refix. Just adding sonnet numbers to the original post took me half an hour this morning because the post fell apart as a result):

Even though (using Vista and MS Word 2007) I had the devil's own time discovering how to remove the grid from the online version, I still like Kirkup's version the best. His version is wonderfully translated* - hot and randy - and makes me laugh.

But --- Dunstan Martin's version is thoughtful and sober. I like that too.

I am not fond of the prose.

Nanna

* Translated. Since I don't read French, I actually do not know, for, I am looking strictly at the English version.

I am sorry to tell you this,  Jacek, but I only like the prose, maybe this is why people started attempts to translate the sonnets as prose, since they were very hard to translate as verse, if one wanted to preserve the form of a sonnet.

Originally written by Liliana Boladz-Nekipelov on May 7, 2009 11:24 AM I am sorry to tell you this,  Jacek, but I only like the prose....

Frankly, I have not yet had the time to ponder all the versions myself, so no need to be sorry, Liliana!

If the many many sites and blogs are any indication, then half the people in the world are confused about the difference between verse and prose.

Definition of Prose Literary Term

Prose is ordinary language that people use in writing such as poetry, stories, editorials, books, etc. The word prose is derived from the Latin word 'prosa' meaning straightforward.

Prose comes in two types of text - narrative and expository. Narrative text is defined as "something that is narrated such as a story. Expository text is non-fiction reading material such as Description, Analysis, Classification etc.

Translation of Poems
When a poem, especially an epic poem such as the Iliad, is translated from one language into another, the poem is often converted into prose. 

What is the difference between Prose and Poetry?
Prose is not confined to poetic measures and is usually grouped into paragraphs. Prose lacks a specific rhythm or the rhymes that can be found in poetry.

Poetry aims to convey ideas and emotional experiences through the use of meter, rhyme, imagery in a carefully constructed metrical structure based on rhythmic patterns.

What is Prose Poetry?
Prose poetry combines the characteristics of poetry with the apparent appearance of prose containing traces of metrical structure or verse. Prose poetry deliberately breaks some of the normal rules of prose to create heightened imagery or emotional effect.

What is Free Verse?
Free verse is a form of poetry which uses fewer rules and limitations using either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical pattern. The early 20th-century poets were the first to write what they called "free verse" which allowed them to break from the formula and rigidity of traditional poetry.

http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/91-prose.htm

Bumping it up

Not dumping, but thumbing lumping bumping ... 

With the arrival of the following #7 from Nanna I haven't been able to make up my mind...

Originally written by Jacek K. on May 11, 2009 10:35 AM With the arrival of the following #7 from Nanna I haven't been able to make up my mind...

Oh, I failed to add that my vote would go anyway to one of the now six sonnet-form versions proposed...

Thanks to her acclaimed volume of poetry and prose published in France in 1555, Louise Labe (1522-66) remains one of the most important and influential women writers of the Continental Renaissance. Best known for her exquisite collection of love sonnets, Labe played off the Petrarchan male tradition with wit and irony, and her elegies respond with lyric skill to predecessors such as Sappho and Ovid. The first complete bilingual edition of this singular and broad-ranging female author," Complete Poetry and Prose" also features the only translations of Labe's sonnets to follow the exacting rhyme patterns of the originals and the first rhymed translation of Labe's elegies in their entirety.

http://www.flipkart.com/complete-poetry-prose-louise-labe/0226467155-8qw3ffdw4d

Originally written by Laurent Chiacchierini on May 4, 2009 5:00 PM as the sonnet form exists both in English as well as in French (and other languages), it should be ideally rendered as such when translating a poem from French into English (or vice versa; see for example RE: Sonnet de Shakespeare 29). The discussion, however, is not new. For those reading French, see http://www.univ-paris8.fr/dela/etranger/pages/5/cottegnies.html

Does William Shakespeare's Poetry Really Reach Us Anymore? Come On---Really?

Originally written by Jacek K. on May 21, 2009 12:18 PM Does William Shakespeare's Poetry Really Reach Us Anymore? Come On---Really?

"The problem is whether Shakespeare's English is the language we speak at all. English of the late 1500s presents us with a tricky question: At what point do we concede that substantial comprehension across the centuries has become too much of a challenge to expect of anyone but specialists? "

-----

I doubt that I could understand the Middle English if read aloud to me, but reading it in a side-by-side version, it doesn't take that long to get a feeling of the rhythm and the language to the point where the Middle English starts to feel familiar and the Wife of Bath (my favorite tale) a friend speaking in a language you actually understand.  

 I have removed the hyperlinks in the ME version. However, on the library site they have a glossary and the hyperlinks in the ME version leads you straight to it.

From Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales:

From The Canterbury Tales:
The Wife of Bath's Prologue
lines 1-34: The Wife of Bath mentions her five husbands

The Prologe of the Wyves Tale of Bathe

"Experience, though noon auctoritee   Were in this world, were right ynogh to me   To speke of wo that is in mariage;   For, lordynges, sith I twelf yeer was of age, 5 Thonked be God, that is eterne on lyve,   Housbondes at chirche dore I have had fyve -   For I so ofte have ywedded bee -   And alle were worthy men in hir degree.   But me was toold, certeyn, nat longe agoon is, 10 That sith that Crist ne wente nevere but onis   To weddyng in the Cane of Galilee,   That by the same ensample, taughte he me,   That I ne sholde wedded be but ones.   Herkne eek, lo, which a sharpe word for the nones, 15 Biside a welle Jhesus, God and Man,   Spak in repreeve of the Samaritan.   "Thou hast yhad fyve housbondes," quod he,   "And thilke man the which that hath now thee   Is noght thyn housbonde;" thus seyde he certeyn. 20 What that he mente ther by, I kan nat seyn;   But that I axe, why that the fifthe man   Was noon housbonde to the Samaritan?   How manye myghte she have in mariage?   Yet herde I nevere tellen in myn age 25 Upon this nombre diffinicioun.   Men may devyne, and glosen up and doun,   But wel I woot, expres, withoute lye,   God bad us for to wexe and multiplye;   That gentil text kan I wel understonde. 30 Eek wel I woot, he seyde, myn housbonde   Sholde lete fader and mooder, and take to me;   But of no nombre mencioun made he,   Of bigamye, or of octogamye;   Why sholde men speke of it vileynye?

"Experience, though no authority   Were in this world, were good enough for me,   To speak of woe that is in all marriage;   For, masters, since I was twelve years of age, 5 Thanks be to God who is forever alive,   Of husbands at church door have I had five;   For men so many times have married me;   And all were worthy men in their degree.   But someone told me not so long ago 10 That since Our Lord, save once, would never go   To wedding that at Cana in Galilee,   Thus, by this same example, showed he me   I never should have married more than once.   Lo and behold! What sharp words, for the nonce, 15 Beside a well Lord Jesus, God and man,   Spoke in reproving the Samaritan:   "For thou hast had five husbands," thus said he,   "And he whom thou hast now to be with thee   Is not thine husband." Thus he said that day, 20 But what he meant thereby I cannot say;   And I would ask now why that same fifth man   Was not husband to the Samaritan?   How many might she have, then, in marriage?   For I have never heard, in all my age, 25 Clear exposition of this number shown,   Though men may guess and argue up and down.   But well I know and say, and do not lie,   God bade us to increase and multiply;   That worthy text can I well understand. 30 And well I know he said, too, my husband   Should father leave, and mother, and cleave to me;   But no specific number mentioned He,   Whether of bigamy or octogamy;   Why should men speak of it reproachfully?

----------

http://www.librarius.com/canttran/wftltrfs.htm

I have voted for #5 on this poll.

Hollywood celebrities have gone to London to seek redress over reports of wayward kisses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/business/media/25libel.html?ref=europe

No, reckless, juicy, tasty and wayward rekissing. And no smackers, please.

Nanna

When is a kiss just a kiss? 

Post #115324

It is difficult
to get the news from poems,
yet men die miserably every day
for lack of what is found there.

William Carlos Williams

http://www.spcsb.org/advoc/poetrytx.html

[snip]Though poetry as therapy is a relatively new development in the expressive arts, it is as old as the first chants sung around the tribal fires of primitive peoples. The chant/ song/poem is what heals the heart and soul. Even the word psychology suggests that, psyche meaning soul and logos speech or word. In mythology Oceanus told Prometheus, "Words are the physician of the mind diseased." Though it was recorded there was a Roman physician named Soranus in the first century A.D. who prescribed poetry and drama for his patients, the link between poetry and medicine has not been well documented. It is interesting to note, however, that the first hospital in the American colonies to care for the mentally ill, Pennsylvania Hospital founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin, employed several ancillary treatments for their patients including reading, writing and the publishing of their writings in a newspaper they titled The Illuminator. The term "bibliotherapy" is a more common term than poetry therapy, which became popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s, which literally means the use of literature to serve or help. Freud once wrote, "Not I, but the poet discovered the unconscious." Another time he said, "The mind is a poetry-making organ." Later on, many other theoreticians such as Adler, Jung, Arieti and Reik wrote of how much science had to gain from the study of poets. ...

I like version 2 most.