T
he act of translating a text from a
distant historical epoch is
fundamentally an encounter with
alterity. A profound temporal dissonance
permeates the process, arising from the
inevitable evolution of language, radical shifts
in socio-cultural norms, and the loss of shared
contextual knowledge.
1
The translator's task
is akin to facilitating a conversation across
centuries, fraught with the perils of
misinterpretation and oversimplification.
The ethical imperative is paramount: "To
translate history is to converse with ghosts –
respectfully, but without ventriloquism."
2
We
must render the voice of the past audible to
the present without distorting it to conform
to contemporary sensibilities. When it comes
to a text as temporally distant as Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales (1387-1400), the translator
is faced with language that is drastically
different to Modern English.
There is significant semantic drift (in Middle
English 'nice' implies foolishness), while some
grammatical structures and lexical items have
vanished altogether (e.g. 'eke' meaning 'also').
One example is the distinct second-person
pronouns for informal singular ('thou/thee/thy')
and plural/formal singular ('ye/you/your'). A
pronoun shift can signal social tension, such as
in 'The Miller's Tale' when Alison switches from
intimate 'thee' to formal 'you' when rejecting
Nicholas: "'Why, lat be!' quod she… 'Do wey
youre handes, for youre curteisye!'" It can also
convey satire (the overly formal 'thee' for
Chartered Institute of Linguists
AUTUMN 2025 The Linguist 9
POETIC GREATS
Ford Madox Brown's 'The Seeds and Fruits
of English Poetry' (1845) depicts renowned
British poets with Chaucer in the middle
Tamer Osman's tips for bridging historical and cultural gaps
when translating historical fiction like The Canterbury Tales
Transversing time
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