I've got to say that I can't imagine a translation more moving and powerful than Heaney's. For years I've been watching people struggle with that initial "Hwaet!" and coming up either with silly monosyllabic, pseudo-archaisms like "Lo!" and "Hark!", or ignoring it completely. My delight was complete when I opened Heaney's version and read there simply, "So."
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Scribbling scrabbling.
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