The Owl and the Nightingale, one of the earliest literary works in Middle English, is a lively, anonymous comic poem about two birds who embark on a war of words in a wood, with a nearby poet reporting their argument in rhyming couplets, line by line and blow by blow. In this engaging and energetic verse translation, Simon Armitage captures the verve and humor of this dramatic tale with all the cut and thrust of the original.
In an agile iambic tetrameter that skillfully amplifies the prosody and rhythm of the original, Armitage’s translation moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the ribald and ridiculous. Sounding at times like antagonists in a Twitter feud, the owl and the nightingale quarrel about a host of subjects that still resonate today—including love, marriage, identity, cultural background, class distinctions, and the right to be heard. Adding to the playful, raucous mood of the barb-trading birds is Armitage, who at one point inserts himself into the poem as a “magistrate … to adjudicate”—one who is “skilled with words & worldly wise / & frowns on every form of vice.”
Featuring the Middle English text on facing pages and an introduction by Armitage, this volume will delight readers of all ages.
Awards and Recognition
- Shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, Arrowsmith Press
Simon Armitage is UK Poet Laureate and professor of poetry at the University of Leeds. The former Oxford Professor of Poetry, he also previously taught at Princeton University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In addition to celebrated translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Death of King Arthur, and Pearl, he has published more than a dozen poetry collections and three bestselling works of nonfiction.
"[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
