Pearl

The publication of Simon Armitage's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a literary event, garnering front-page reviews on two continents. Armitage now turns his attentions to another beloved medieval English masterpiece attributed to the same anonymous author, reanimating it with contemporary vigor. Honoring the rhythms and alliterative music of the original, Armitage's translation describes a man mourning the loss of his Pearl, something that has "slipped away." Drawn back to the garden where his Pearl disappeared, he falls asleep, dreaming of a radiant apparition. Much like Dante's Beatrice, this maiden leads him through the throes of grief toward divine redemption. Armitage's lyrical translation-presented here with facing original text-is a circular and perfected whole, like the Pearl itself.