πάντα δυνήσεαι αὐτὸς ἑλέσθαι. The beginner can at least be simple; he should aim to attain the other qualities also. It is instructive to compare different translations of a famous passage, ✪ 555 ff.: — Θ ὡς δ ̓ ὅτ ̓ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἄστρα φαεινὴν ἀμφὶ σελήνην Τρώων καιόντων πυρὰ φαίνετο Ιλιόθι πρό. This is translated by Chapman :1 1 The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, never before in any language truly translated, with a comment upon some of his chief places, done according to the Greek by George Chapman. Of this translation, A-B, H-A were published in 1598. The first twelve books of the Iliad were published in 1610, and the other twelve in 1611. The first half of the Odyssey was published in 1614, and the rest in 1615. Chapman was about six years older than Shakespeare. The reader will notice that the metre is the "common metre" of our hymn-books. Chapman says in his "Preface to the Reader": "Alwaies conceiving how pedanticall and absurd an affectation it is, in the interpretation of any Author (much more of Homer) to turn him word for word, when (according to Horace and other best lawgivers to translators) it is the part of every knowing and judiciall interpreter, not to follow the number and order of the words but the material things themselves, and sentences to weigh diligently; and to clothe and adorne them with words, and such a stile and form of oration as are most apt for the language into which they are converted. If I have not turned him in any place falsly (as all other his interpreters have in many, and most of his chiefe places;) if I have not left behind me any of his sentence, elegancie, height, intention and invention. if in some few places . . . I be somthing paraphrasticall and faulty; is it justice in that poore fault (if they will needs have it so) to drowne all the rest of my labour.” Pope criticises Chapman's translation as "loose and rambling," and for its "frequent interpolations." "He appears to have had a strong affectation of extracting new meanings out of his author. . . . But that which is to be allowed him, and which very much contributed to cover his defects, is a daring, fiery "Fires round about them shinde As when about the silver Moone, when air is free from winde, And stars shine cleare; to whose sweete beames, high prospects, and the brows Of all steepe hils and pinnacles, thrust up themselves for showes; And even the lowly vallies joy, to glitter in their sight, When the unmeasur'd firmament, bursts to disclose her light, And all the signes in heaven are seene, that glad the shepheards hart; So many fires disclosde their beames, made by the Trojan part, Before the face of Ilion; and her bright turrets show'd. A thousand courts of guard kept fires; and every guard allow'd Fiftie stout men, by whom their horse, eate oates and hard white corne, And all did wilfully expect, the silver-throned morne." Pope's translation1 follows: "And beaming fires illumin'd all the ground, As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night! spirit that animates his translation, which is something like what one might imagine Homer himself would have writ before he arriv'd to years of discretion." 1 Pope's translation of the Iliad was published in 1715-20. It is said that the great Bentley (see § 14 d R.) remarked to Pope "that it was a very pretty poem but that he must not call it Homer." It is in such simple narrative as quoted above that Pope's style is worst; it is best in descriptions of action. Pope says in his preface: "That which in my opinion ought to be the endeavour of any one who translates Homer, is above all things to keep alive that spirit and fire which makes his chief character. In particular places, where the sense can bear any doubt, to follow the strongest and most poetical, as most agreeing with that character. To copy him in all the variations of his style and the different modulations of his numbers. To preserve in the more active or more descriptive parts, a warmth and elevation; in the more sedate or narrative, a plainness and solemnity; in the speeches, a fulness and perspicuity; in the sentences [sententiae], a shortness and gravity. Not to neglect even the little figures and turns on the words, nor sometimes the very cast of the periods. Neither to omit or confound any rites or customs of antiquity. . . . To consider him attentively in comparison with Virgil above all the ancients, and with Milton above all the moderns." And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene; "As when about the clear bright moon, the stars The groves, the mountain-tops, the headland-heights 1 Published in 1791. [§ 1, a. Cowper says in his preface: "My chief boast is that I have adhered closely to the original, convinced that every departure from him would be punished with the forfeiture of some grace or beauty for which I could offer no substitute. . . . It has been my point everywhere to be as little verbose as possible. ... In the affair of style, I have endeavoured neither to creep nor to bluster, for no author is so likely to betray his translator into both these faults as Homer, though himself never guilty of either. . . . The passages which will be least noticed... are those which have cost me abundantly the most labour. It is difficult to kill a sheep with dignity in a modern language, to flay and to prepare it for the table, detailing every circumstance of the process. Difficult also, without sinking below the level of poetry, to harness mules to a waggon, particularizing every article of their furniture, straps, rings, staples, and even the tying of the knots that kept all together. Homer, who writes always to the eye, with all his sublimity and grandeur, has the minuteness of a Flemish painter." The boundless blue, but ether open'd wide All glitters and the shepherd's heart is cheer'd ; Of Xanthus, blazing, and the fleet of Greece, Professor F. W. Newman's translation 1 follows:"And as around the shining Moon | the stars aloft in heaven Glister with radiance distinct, | when all the sky is breathless, And every lofty peak is shown, ❘ and headland edge and forest, And from behind the cloven sky | unfathom'd heaven gleameth; Nor hidden any star may be ; | and joyful is the shepherd; So many fires betwixt the streams | of Xanthos and the galleys, Shone then in front of Ilion, | by hands of Troians kindled. A thousand fires along the plain, | I say, that night were burning, And close to every glaring blaze | sat fifty men in armour. And by their chariots the steeds | rye and white barley munching, Stood waiting till the Queen of Morn | fair-thron'd should rise before them." Lord Derby's translation 2 follows: : "As when in Heav'n, around the glitt'ring moon The stars shine bright amid the breathless air; And ev'ry crag and ev'ry jutting peak 1 Published in 1856. This has received perhaps undue distinction from the criticisms of Matthew Arnold. The translator says: "To the metre which I have myself adopted, I was brought by a series of argument and experiment, and was afterwards gratified to find that I had exactly alighted on the modern Greek Epic metre. It is also the metre of the American Yankee Doodle, which some have ignorantly made an objection: as if the metre of the Frogs and Mice and of the Margites, were not that of the Iliad. Of course no metre can be popular, without being applicable to low treatment; indeed without being liable to degenerate into doggrel in unskilful hands." 2 Published in 1865. Stands boldly forth, and ev'ry forest glade; With store of provender before them laid, Bryant's translation 1 follows: "As when in heaven the stars look brightly forth And eddying Xanthus: on the plain there shone Sat in its light. Their steeds beside the cars Tennyson translates: "As when in heaven the stars about the moon 1 Published in 1870. |