It's not really that hard, you just need to get used to it. Get the Riverside edition; the textual notes explain all the things that won't be immediately appreciable to a contemporary reader. It helps a lot to read it out loud to yourself. But reading a modern translation is just retarded. Rather spend the hours acclimatising yourself and you'll enjoy it much more. It will also let you read other Middle English literature for which there aren't so often translations into modern English.

Yeah. If you can already ready English with ease, this is one occasion where the
>translation
meme should be taken without a grain of irony. Just be sure to get an annotated version and look into the pronunciation.

>>8121303

Start by reading it out loud, and look at annotations as mentioned above. Eventually you'll understand it like an accent or regional dialect. The rhyme structure helps.

>>8121303

If you're very comfortable with english, you should be able to learn how to read Middle English without much problems. Here's a useful site to read:
http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/less-0.htm

holy shit that cover is real

>>8121303
Chaucer's middle english is easier than other varieties (Gawain and the Green Knight for instance). It'll be dense for a few pages but after ten you should have it down.
>>8121424 is right about reading aloud. Really helps.

If you can't get the hang of it, don't worry. A translation is fine.