: Re: Should this introductory quotation be translated, untranslated, or dropped? When I first wrote "Gawain's Guilt-Girdle" (14 lines of verse) I introduced it with a short (modernized/translated) quotation

In general, for a popular work it is bad style to include quotes in a foreign language. Most of your readers will not understand them. An old enough flavor of English is a "foreign language" for all practical purposes. Modern readers can struggle through Shakespeare, but much before that and I'd translate.

If you were writing a scholarly work, or a work intended for people familiar with both languages, I'd give a completely different answer.

If you are trying to make some point that is obscured by a translation, you might give the original along with a translation. For example, if you have some point that hinges on the precise meaning of a word in this other language, or if you have a comment about rhyme or meter in the original, etc.

As to the details of the translation: All I can there is to use the best translation you can make or find. What else could one say?

From your post I take it this is not a scholarly work and you are not analyzing the original text, just using it as background for your own writing. So I'd just go with a decent translation and leave it at that. If a reader cares enough to want to see the original, they can look it up.

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: Re: Should this introductory quotation be translated, untranslated, or dropped? When I first wrote "Gawain's Guilt-Girdle" (14 lines of verse) I introduced it with a short (modernized/translated) quotation

More posts by @Annie587

: Techniques for creating variety in prose When I write my short stories, I usually end up using a direct style as follows: Tim remembered the day he had to say goodbye to Cathy. He did

: Referring to people in a book I'm writing a book (travelogue) about Japan, comparing it to Sweden, where I'm from. During my travels I communicated mostly in Japanese but occasionally in English

: Overusing "the" and "I" I'm not a native English speaker, and I find that my English writing contains too many definite article "the" when writing scientific reports, and too many "I" when writing

: What kind of rhythm should I use for these settings? I am not particularly experienced with using rhythm in creative writing so please note that I am only a beginner. By "rhythm" I am referring

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