Finally i finished translating the poem "The Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson into Vietnamese. people may wonder, but to me this poem is easier to translate than many songs and of course much easier than Shakespeare's. obviously, this poem is easy to read and easy to understand.

however there is 1 thing i still cannot get after reading the poem. The Lady of Shalott was written under Victorian time and that time was considered as one of the most luxurious time of England. then what made the poem end in such a painful way , especially when it got involved with Sir Lancelot, one of the big heroes in English tales and history as far as i know.

also, the poem opened in such an... irritating(?) way: the Lady of Shalott who had not been presented as a sinner actually had to suffer from a curse that chained her from everything, even the smallest happiness. and people' smallest consideration was her biggest sickness

" "I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott."

i dont know if there is anyone thinks she got scared of her own shadow. but to me, it was actually she was scared and sick of her loneliness, when she saw people passed by freely.



i especially got hard time with the 2 last paragraphs in the poem . i dont know why, maybe because my emotion became so strong reading there, or it's just true that my English is not enough to translate fully the meaning and feeling of the poem

"Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."


yes she died, singing her last song, seeing the world the first and also last time. be free the only time in her life.

Alas, brutally that even her lover's face, she couldn't see though she paid her own life for it.

sad poem. some people compare the Lady of Shalott to Shakespeare's Ophelia. maybe they both had the same ending, but I still think Lady of Shallot was much more into agony than Ophelia.