The Owl and the Nightingale

From the UK Poet Laureate and bestselling translator of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a complete verse translation of a spirited and humorous medieval English poem

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.

"[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

"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."

"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."

"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

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

"Shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, Arrowsmith Press"

“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