Yvain; or, The Knight with the Lion

The purpose of this verse translation is to give English-speaking readers an impression of Chrétien de Troyes as a poet as well as a storyteller. For medieval poets the form was as important as the content of their poems, and even the less exacting verse form of narrative poetry (rhymed octosyllabic couplets) influenced the poet’s way of expressing his ideas. Chrétien de Troyes depended upon rhyme and meter to establish the swift pace of his romances. He used poetical images and metaphors, and frequently he employed the poetic device of rephrasing and repeating an important idea to fix it against the forward movement of the poem. These effects are lost in prose translations; worse, they seem prolix or redundant and become barriers against appreciating Chrétien’s skill as a writer, which was very great. As a poet he was an innovator, responsible for making the narrative verse form more flexible by using enjambment and by breaking the couplet, for varying the traditional rhymes and assonance with identities and very rich rhymes, and for enriching and expanding the vocabulary of his time. Perhaps with a verse translation people who do not read Old French easily will be able to see Chrétien de Troyes in a different light and to appreciate his important role in the development of the Arthurian romance in French and English literature.