What Chaucer Did to the Roman de la Rose

Abstract: The portion of a Middle English translation of the Roman de la Rose attributed to Chaucer reveals an unusual understanding of the translator's task. So little is changed when Chaucer moves the French of the Rose into English, even at the level of sound, that his technique provokes questions about the kinds of stasis that may be lurking in his other poems (hiding behind standard claims that his technique generally "developed") as well as the nature of translation itself. A finer description of the relationship between Chaucer's Romaunt and the Rose suggests that it is more like a collection than a translation and, as such, it offers some insight into the more gnomic passages in Walter Benjamin's account of the translator's task. Although it may not be "true translation" (wahre Übersetzung) in all the ways Benjamin meant this phrase, the inertia that characterizes the Romaunt may make it a truer translation than most.