“The Prince’s Progress” by Christina Rossetti: A Translation

“The Prince’s Progress” is the first poem in the second collection of poems by Christina Rossetti (1830-94), entitled The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems (1866). It is written in an allegorical fairy-tale style, and its suggestive details have invited interpretations from various perspectives such as religious symbolism and the genre of quest-romance. The poem has also been analyzed in comparison with other allegorical stories it alludes to, especially the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty”. Here I offer a Japanese translation of this intriguing poem, hoping to successfully emulate its elaborate structure and convey the symbolism of sleeping and waking.