“Green thoughts come around every now and then…”

Hark! Open Letters Monthly has posted the fourth installment of Green, Adam Golaski’s funky translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Here’s a typical passage, which shows how Golaski’s weird diction brings out the exoticism of the original:

Arthur’nd Arthur’s court
look’d long’nd in wonder, + wondered what kind’v man be-held them,
wondered what this magical spectacle must mean,
f’r’a knight’nd’is horse to’ve accrued such’a hue that is

green

green as th’grass’nd growing greener it seemed
green glow’n’nd bright’nd brighter than enameled gold.

Can Adam Golaski sustain this idiom through an entire translation? I don’t know—but after the past few years, when translations of medieval poems have met with such reverence, it’s nice to read one that’s just fun.