[msla]

> But there isn't really any separate process by which old works are "translated" to a more modern version of their original language (and any such process could be controversial).

This is dependent on the perception of the source language: For example, Beowulf is often translated into Modern English, even though it is (officially) written in English itself, but even the worst prig will admit that Old English isn't comprehensible to a modern reader who hasn't explicitly learned it as a foreign language.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, is almost never translated, even though his poetic Early Modern English is so distant from our own that Juliet's famous "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" is often performed with Juliet looking for Romeo from her perspective on the balcony. Translating Shakespeare would be admitting defeat, I daresay, so the prigs allow footnotes and no more.

Is Chaucer translated these days? Have the prigs ceded at least that much?

That said, there's No Fear Shakespeare and (probably) some other works aimed at students, which do essay an actual translation:

https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/hamlet/act-1-s...