Guide for translating older verse into twenty-first century prose
“Translate” does not mean paraphrase; it means give a word-for-word rendering of verse in everyday
modern prose. Here are the rules:
(1) Whatever changes you make, do not change the meaning or the rhetorical impact of the words
(as much as this is possible).
(2) Get rid of line breaks. (Only use line breaks if you want to signal a paragraph ending.)
(3) Use standard word order. Some words may need to be moved around.
(4) Use standard punctuation. You may need to add, delete, or change the punctuation in the text.
(5) Change words whose meaning is difficult or whose meaning has shifted over time. Choose
words whose meanings are as close to the original as possible.
(6) Only add words if you really need to.
(7) Do not gloss, change, or replace metaphors, though you may need to change individual words
contributing to a metaphor. (If you really feel the need to gloss metaphors, use a footnote.)
(8) As much as possible, keep sentences intact, though on occasion you may need to break long
sentences into smaller ones or you may need to connect sentences.
(9) Your grammar should be clear, correct, and the same as, or at least equivalent to, the original.
(10) If the grammar of the original is so odd as to defy any rendering in clear everyday prose, do the
best you can and explain the problem in a footnote.
Example translation
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments: love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh no! it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out, ev’n to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Let me not offer any reasons why minds that truly love each other should not be
joined together. Love is not really love if it changes when circumstances change or if it
goes away when its object goes away.
Oh no, it is a constant beacon that shines on storms without being shaken; it is the
star that guides every wandering boat—and like a star, its value is beyond measure,
though its height can be measured.
Love is not subject to Time*, though rosy lips and cheeks can come within the sweep
of Time’s curved sickle. Love does not alter with Time’s brief hours and weeks, but
lasts even until doomsday.
If I am wrong about this and can be proved wrong, I never wrote that I loved and
never loved anyone.
*The word “fool” in “Time’s fool” can mean many things, including: jester, servant,
doting lover, toy, subject (as in “a king and his subjects”). “Love’s not Time’s fool”
might be translated “Love isn’t the plaything of Time,” for example.