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 monotonic 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: the first and last rhyming couplets are both feminine - unlike Britannicus for example, which begins with a masculine couplet. I am convinced that this was a significant choice on Racine's part, and not mere subtlety, and entertain the hope that this translation might render this nuance perceptible to an English speaking public.

David Stanley Phillips, May 2022.