WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

The difference between the English literary ambiguity and the Portuguese’s moral exactitude is
seen in their word choice. Although the Portuguese commonly uses “como,” ‘like’ or ‘as,’ to
translate the Middle English “lich,” it uses “semelhante” ‘similar’ to translate “lich a beast.”
This choice may seem arbitrary (and perhaps simply synonymous) until we compare the
Portuguese to Jerome’s Latin description of Nebuchadnezzar’s change:
Eadem hora sermo completus est super Nabuchodonosor, et ex hominibus abiectus est, et foenum
ut bos comedit, et rore caeli corpus eius infectum est: donec capilli eius in similitudinem
aquilarum crescerent, et ungues eius quasi avium.
In that same time, the speech was fulfilled over Nebuchadnezzar, and he was thrown from men,
and as an ox he ate grass, and with the dew of heaven was dyed: until his hairs grew in similitude
of the eagles, and his nails as if they were of birds [My emphasis]. 217
Jerome’s translation of the episode goes to extra pains to insert indirect speech and comparison
to back up his claim that Nebuchadnezzar did not really transform from human into a beast, but
that his human actions were wild and unkempt like a beast. As he comments, “[Daniel] shows
that [the king] had lost not his outward appearance but only his mind.” 218
In rendering, “lich” as “similitudinem” the Portuguese translation restores Jerome’s
reading and it appears to reconcile Jerome’s position with Gower’s story. By saying that the
king’s actions operate “contra a lei de deus” ‘against God’s law,’ the Portuguese translation
replicates Jerome’s clear conclusion that the narrative is clear indeed and requires but little
interpretation. Because he displeased God, Nebuchadnezzar was turned into a madman. In the
Portuguese, Genius tells the reader specifically “porem para bem mentes ao rregimiento de ty
medes que nom seias feito semelhante aa besta” ‘because of this, pay close attention to your own
regiment so that you would not be made similar to a beast’ where as in the English, he has a
more ambiguous moral to impart, “Forthi, my sone, tak good hiede/So for to lede thi
217 Dan. 4:30.
218 Jerome Commentary on Daniel 53.
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