Seamus Heaney has said he is happy his reworking of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf had been "saluted" by being named the winner of this year's Whitbread Poetry Award.
But he said he would have been "equally as happy if any of the other guys had won".
Among the others pipped by Heaney for the title with his translation of the 8th century poem was the late British poet laureate, Ted Hughes.
The accolade now puts Heaney on the shortlist for the overall Book of The Year award, alongside three other individual category winners announced yesterday - Rose Tremain, Tim Lott and David Cairns.
There will be a fifth entrant for the overall title when the winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Of The Year prize is awarded later this month.
Each of yesterday's successful authors won £2,000 sterling, with the chance of a further £21,000 for the winner of the main prize.
Heaney and Hughes have dominated the previous three Book Of The Year titles. Hughes won in 1999 with Birthday Letters and in 1998 with Tales From Ovid, while Heaney won in 1997 with The Spirit Level.
Speaking from his Dublin home last night, Heaney said he was happy.
"I'm glad for the book, it's nice for it to be saluted" he said. Heaney first began work on the translation in the mid-1980s, but stopped after about 100 of the 3,182 lines. "It was going to take too long and I didn't think I would be able to do it," he said.
He resumed the work in March 1995 after being prompted once again by the Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Over the next three years, Heaney finished his reworking of the poem, which tells of the eponymous mighty warrior who comes to the aid of a Danish king, Hrothgar.
The Whitbread judges yesterday said of his efforts: "In a year notable for many strong works including three brilliant translations, Heaney's recovery of Beowulf for a contemporary readership stands out.
"He brings an extraordinary sensitivity and breadth of language to this Anglo-Saxon warrior epic. In a translation that brilliantly combines the faithful with the original, Seamus Heaney has reclaimed the first classic of the English language for a contemporary readership."