The Owl and the Nightingale: A New Verse Translation

"[A] graceful, elegant translation."—Fiona Sampson, The Guardian

"The poem is a masterclass in the art of dishonest debate and twisted logic. . . . [Armitage] has become one of the modern world’s great revivers of long-sidelined treasures. Anyone who thinks medieval poetry is crude, and literature began in the Renaissance, needs to read this poem."—Tom Shippey, Wall Street Journal

"Delivered in a spirited iambic tetrameter, Armitage’s translation . . . brings to life a dispute between its eponymous creatures. . . . Moments of unexpected philosophical depth as well as bawdy hilarity."—Publishers Weekly

"It is the current Poet Laureate who has done the most to bring medieval poetry to contemporary audiences. . . . In its own eccentric way, [The Owl and the Nightingale] is every bit as enticing as Gawain. . . . It is arguably the greatest early Middle English poem we have."—Prospect

"[The Owl and the Nightingale] add[s] greatly to our feeling for [Armitage’s] skill as a craftsman as well as the range of his knowledge of the living, demotic tradition of poetry."—Jesse Nathan, McSweeney's

"In The Owl and the Nightingale, Armitage masterfully reveals the presence of multiple Englishes historically and in our time, of stylistic registers jostling and clashing, with two birds who praise themselves, attack each other, and reflect on their and our shifting, exhilarating, and dangerous place in the world."—Denis Ferhatović, Asymptote

“Two brilliant birds meet an accomplished wordsmith. The result? Great fun and pleasure! Simon Armitage revivifies this lively poem with extraordinary verve.”—James Simpson, author of Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism