That's the Heaney translation. The original Old English starts this way: > Hwæt! Wé Gárdena in géardagum Hwæt has usually been translated as "listen", th

That's the Heaney translation. The original Old English starts this way: > Hwæt! Wé Gárdena in géardagum Hwæt has usually been translated as "listen", though it has since evolved into the modern word "what" and at least one researched thinks it is not an interjection but an intensifier [1]. In archaic English it might have been translated as "hark". [1] http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/listen-beowulf-opening-line-misinterpreted-for-200-years-8921027.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/l...