Chaucer in translation


By Britt Lewis |
March 30, 2010

As part of ASU's celebration of Chaucer – March 31 to April 2 – here is an excerpt from "The Summoner's Tale" that compares Chaucer's text to a modern translation.

Wikipedia translation: This friar boasts that he knows hell,

Wikipedia translation: And God knows that it is little wonder;

Wikipedia translation: Friars and fiends are seldom far apart.

Wikipedia translation: For, by God, you have ofttimes heard tell

Wikipedia translation: How a friar was taken to hell

Wikipedia translation: In spirit, once by a vision;

Wikipedia translation: And as an angel led him up and down,

ikipedia translation: To show him the pains that were there,

Wikipedia translation: In the whole place he saw not one friar;

Wikipedia translation: He saw enough of other folk in woe.

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