Alexandrines and anapestics

Phædra/Phèdre
bilingual edition of the play by Jean Racine
with a new English translation in rhyming alexandrines

Strangely enough alexandrine verse has a limited presence in English literature, despite lending itself easily to the musicality of the language. It is from this angle that I approached the translation of Phèdre, in attempting to retain both the sense of the words, and the rhythmic structure of the text. I have therefore worked at composing a score, applying the same rules and regulations as in Racine's work, or finding suitable equivalents.

A few examples:
Since the repeated use of 12 syllable lines appeared monotonous compared to the original, I decided to respect the alternating masculine and feminine rhymes, using 12 syllables for the former, and 13 for the latter, the 13th being unstressed. In a search for greater coherence with the French, the midline pause quickly became a recurrent feature. The translation presented here is thus written in rhyming alexandrines, which may also be considered as a slight variation on anapestic tetrameters, with stresses on the 3rd, 6th, 9th et 12th syllables of each line:


To standardise the usage of diphthongs, I have treated them in the same way as mute Es in French verse, that is to say a single syllable when followed by a vowel sound:


...and as a feminine ending when followed by a consonant, or occurring at the end of a line:


I observed that Phaedra is essentially feminine in its structure: unusually for Racine, the first and last rhyming couplets are both feminine. I am convinced that this was a significant choice on his part, and hope that this translation might render the nuance perceptible to an English speaking public.

David Stanley Phillips.