Michael Alexander.

 

Sad News. I heard today that Michael Alexander died last month. 

A translator of Old English, writer of one of the most judicious books on Ezra Pound, historian of literature and a fine poet in his own right. His interests ranged widely. There's a good book on Medievalism, a fine history of English Literature, and a book on Shakespeare that stands out amongst the flood of books on that subject as being both thoughtful and thought provoking. 

I bought this copy of Beowulf in 1976. I liked the cover. I knew nothing about Old English. 

But I was hooked. There was something strange and intriguing and I wanted to know what the original sounded like. It was one of the main reasons I studied medieval literature.  

Many years later, banging my head against Pound's Cantos I found his book The Poetic Achievement of Ezra Pound. He'd met the man, dedicated his Old English Translations to him 'without irony'. But his discussion of Pound's Seafarer is the most level headed I've read. 

Even more years later, when Pn Review published my version of 'Wulf and Eadwacer' in the same edition Michael was remembering his meeting with Pound,  I thanked the editor and told him that I owed  my interest in Medieval Literature to Michael's translations. The email was passed on, a correspondence followed. 

I was the awkward school boy staring at that Penguin book in W.H.Smith's in Coventry trying not to write fan letters.  He was generous with his time. Stories about meeting Pound, and David Jones. Links in the chain. 

When he read A Presentment of Englishry he was complimentary, but he also wrote; 'It wasn't all plague rape and pillage'. He was right. There's a poem in A Man of Heart called 'These are the good old days #1' which begins 'There must have been sunshine./  Good days when a man unbent from his work/ and smiled to see the healthy children play'. Originally 'For Michael Alexander' I removed the dedication, thinking the piece wasn't good enough. I wish I hadn't. 

It's strange the debts I owe to strangers. Sometimes I'm given the chance to thank them.

Safe travelling.