Really the only difficult thing about Piers Plowman is finding a good translation that is readable and hasn’t lost the original context.
I recommend that anyone trying to read it, go out and find following version:
ISBN: 9780393960112
Title: Piers Plowman: An Alliterative Verse Translation
Author: William Langland
Translator: E. Talbot Donaldson
Edited & Annotated: Elizabeth D. Kirk & Judith H. Anderson
I spent a lot of time looking through options for reading Piers Plowman, and this version is highly readable, annotated extremely well, and doesn’t seem to mess up any of the context.
Sidenote: The translator also has a pretty good Beowulf Translation, which I have also picked up and started reading.
I’ve tried going through the Middle English version you can find online, which does have some annotations and easy access to a Middle English dictionary, but it’s just too hard going to read the whole poem that way (for me at least). The sounds, alliteration and rhythm really come through though.
The only translations I’ve seen have been prose. A well done verse translation is exactly what I want. Thanks for the suggestion.