Yes, you can translate "cyberspace" into Old English. After all, the word itself is a kenning of two words, though the part 'cyber' actually comes from a greek word 'kubernan' that means to steer. The translator took the direct analogue of this in Old English 'steor', the direct ancestor of our 'steer', so now it's literally "steer-room". Whatever works, I guess.
Also, on the subject of 'steer', the word 'starboard' does not come from "board on ship that faces the stars" as I originally thought. Rather, it was 'steorbord' as in 'steer-board', "board on which you steer". Funny how what it took me to realize this etymology was not a dictionary but actually learning how to steer in a canoe. (The paddler and I kept getting our lefts and rights confused so I had the paddler call 'starboard' and 'port' instead.)
Anyway, what I wanted to talk about was this website, which is called "Beowulf on Steorarume". It's the home to what is probably the best translation of the Beowulf text I have ever seen, with the Old English alongside, just the way I like it. (And it's the only place where it's officially published, too!)
What makes this translation so good? The fact that it's both literal and understandable. Slade tries his best to preserve the syntax of the original text while trying to make it readable. Take a look, for example, at the first few lines, which are in old english:
Hwaet! We gardena || in gear dagum
Theodcyninga || thrym gefrunon
hu tha aethelingas || ellen fremedon.
Which literally means something like:
What! We of the spear-danes || in elder days
of people kings || power have heard
how the athelings || noble deeds have done
Due to the unusual, flexible syntax of the Anglo-Saxon tongue (heavily played with in this poem, the first line being a tricky example) as opposed to the more linear syntax of the modern English tongue, the meaning of the text is not fully retained. "We" (We and the scop) are not Spear-Danes (sadly enough) despite what literal translation of the first line may suggest (the noun case system that determined the context in which 'gardena' was used here is lost in modern English), we have merely heard of them.
Most translators approach this problem by rearranging the elements of the line into the modern syntax, which works fairly well and does not alter the meaning of the line (at least not by much), but sacrifices some of the rhythm and presentation.
Listen! We --of the Spear-Danes || in the days of yore,
of those clan-kings-- || heard of their glory.
how those nobles || performed courageous deeds.
Here in Benjamin Slade's translation, all of the elements retain their original order, with the out-of-place elements being separated from "we" by em-dashes. It's not completely perfect as the sentence sounds broken in Modern English while fluid in the Old English, but it's the closest step towards retaining the Anglo-Saxon poetic structure I have ever seen taken. Many rounds of applause!
The other thing that makes this publication so awesome is the annotations by the editor, which explain the kennings, etymological origins of names, cultural significance of various elements in the story, and pictures of the Sutton Hoo helm, of course (which by this point I'm kind of getting sick of seeing everywhere). I love seeing things like this instead of a (usually unsuccessful attempt) to translate or rework what was said into something the reader could hopefully understand, as it shows me that the translator is realistic about their own limitations, and that they truly care about the work, both translation and original.
The one downside, of course, is how poorly-formatted the page is. I would like to print out a complete text of Beowulf for my own purposes, but this would require endless hours of redoing Slade's terrible tables. The frame-based website is also astonishingly difficult to navigate (it's best to isolate the frame you're reading as the other frames can be distracting)
But none of that can beat the content of the page, of course. Just as with the original poorly-preserved, sparsely decorated, cheap manuscript that brought us Beowulf, the presentation of this translation does nothing to hinder its value.
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