Felix Randall

Multilingual Translation Workshop 2012

About the innovative Multilingual Translation Workshop

The 2012 Multilingual Workshop was directed by Dr. Diarmuid Johnson, Bonn University

Felix Randal the Farrier

Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844–1889

Felix Randal the farrier, O is he dead then? my duty all ended,
Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome
Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it, and some
Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?

Sickness broke him.
Impatient, he cursed at first, but mended
Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some
Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom
Tendered to him.
Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended!

This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears.
My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears,
Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal;

How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years,
When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,
Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!

Source: Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics, 1985)

To R. B. (poem selected for 2013 Workshop)
German Translation of I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
Spring and Fall Translations Carrion Comfort
No Worst there is None ... That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
The Windhover
Felix Randall the Farrier
German Translation of I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark