Translator


My translations have mostly been done in the course of research for my articles in Skeptical Inquirer science magazine (see Paranormal Investigator). These include ten quatrains of Nostradamus (1503-1566) which I translated from their Middle French of the sixteenth century and recast into rhymed modern English verses-a challenging task. (See my "Nostradamus: A New Look at an Old Seer," Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 2010).

Again, I translated portions of "The Pardoner's Tale" from the fictional classic The Canterbury Tales (ca. 1386-1400) by Geoffrey Chaucer, turning its quaint Middle English into a modern form. (See my "The True Cross: Chaucer, Calvin and Relic Mongers," Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2010.)

Also, I translated a historical parchment that related the legend of "The Miracle of Turin" of 1453 (although I published only phrases from the undated document, which appears-from its text and italic script known as cancellaresca-to date from the fifteenth or sixteenth century. (See my "Eucharistic 'Miracles,'" Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 2008.)

(The above three projects were of varying difficulty: Given my Ph.D. in English, Chaucer's text, although quaint, presented the least difficulty; my undergraduate and graduate French studies, together with the use of dictionaries and grammar books, got me through Nostradamus; but the Italian text required even more effort (although deciphering the dated script was easy for me). However, for all, I consulted other translations and even did historical research, aided by CFI Libraries director Timothy Binga, so as to understand a word or clarify a phrase.)






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