Pearl

One of the great treasures of the British Library, this 14th century poem is a work of brilliance. This new translation remakes the imaginative intensity of the original, in which a father sees his lost daughter on the far bank of a river in a dream landscape radiant with jewels. An account of loss and consolation that retains its force across six centuries, this version is a unique encounter between medieval tradition and an acclaimed modern poet.

Jane Draycott has been nominated three times for the Forward Prize and has won the Keats–Shelley Poetry Prize. She is a resident writer at Henley’s River and Rowing Museum, a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, and the author of Prince Rupert’s Drop and The Night Tree and Prince Rupert’s Drop. Bernard O'Donoghue teaches medieval English at Wadham College–Oxford and has published seven collections of poetry, including Gunpowder and Here nor There. He is the recipient of the Whitbread Prize for Poetry.