"Kek Kek": Translating Birds in "The Parliament of Fowls."

Published: Michael J. Warren. Birds in Medieval English Poetry: Metaphors, Realities, Transformations (Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 2018), pp. 179-218.

Description: Argues that PF--a poem {about which voices do and do not count"--"magines the potential for translatability between species." Engages scholastic discussions about the nature of "vox," and raises questions about phonetic and semantic translation, "biotranslation," allegory, meaning, and taxonomies, focusing on the representation of bird-sounds in PF, line 499, but commenting also on speaking birds elsewhere in the poem and in Chaucer's other works, especially SqT.

Alternative Title: Birds in Medieval English Poetry: Metaphors, Realities, Transformations