Piers Plowman the A Version: Passus 3, lines 34-65

Abstract

My first encounter with Piers Plowman was in Professor Calabrese’s English 3000 course in the fall semester of 2023. It was a class dedicated to having students interact solely with the text as an opportunity to delve past surface level understanding. I developed new insights in critical reading and was encouraged to collaborate with my peers. My classmates were from diverse backgrounds; yet we had a commonality: we were immersed in the cultures of Los Angeles—cultures that continue to expand because there are communities of ever-growing ethnic backgrounds, immigrants, religions, and subcultures in the area. The practices and mannerisms we brought into this space were tools for envisioning the world of Piers Plowman: Los Angeles Edition. Revising my original translation from the course for this publication involved revisiting the text, both the Middle English and Calabrese’s translation of Piers Plowman: The A Version. Coming back to the poem years later has allowed me to bring in fresh ideas into my translation, and in the process, reflect on how Piers Plowman relates to my “everydayness.”