A poet’s translation of the complete Middle English poem, made to carry itself like the original in sound, word, and cadence. Translated on a single flight from Newark to Rome, March 18, 2026.
United Flight UA40 EWR → FCO. Terminal C. Gate C74. Departed 6:36PM Tuesday, Mar 17. Arrived 7:41AM, Wednesday, Mar 18.
Stanza 1 of 101
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Fitt I
Since the siege and the assault was ceased at Troy,The burg broken brittle and burnt to brands and ashes,The tulk that the trammels of treason there wrought,Was tried for his treachery, the truest on earth;It was Aeneas the athel, and his high kind,That since mastered provinces, and patrons becameWellnigh of all the wealth in the west isles.From rich Romulus to Rome enriches him swiftly,With great bombast that burg he builds upon first,And names it his own name, as it now has;Ticius to Tuscany turns, and tenting begins;Longbeard in Lombardy lifts up homes;And far over the French flood Felix BrutusOn many banks fully broad Britain he settles,with wynne;Where war, and wrack, and wonder,By cycles has dwelt therein,And oft both bliss and blunderFull swift has shifted since.