Essay on the Principles of Translation (Tytler)/Chapter 10

by Alexander Fraser Tytler

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CHAP. X.

 

It is less difficult to attain the ease of original composition in Poetical, than in Prose translation.—Lyric poetry admits of the greatest liberty of translation.—Examples distinguishing Paraphrase from Translation,—from Dryden, Lowth, Hughes.

 

It may perhaps appear paradoxical to assert, that it is less difficult to give to a poetical translation all the ease of original composition, than to give the same degree of ease to a prose translation. Yet the truth of this assertion will be readily admitted, if assent is given to that observation, which I before endeavoured to illustrate, viz. That a superior degree of liberty is allowed to a poetical translator in amplifying, retrenching from, and embellishing his original, than to a prose translator. For without some portion of this liberty, there can be no ease of composition; and where the greatest liberty is allowable, there that case will be most apparent, as it is less difficult to attain to it.

For the same reason, among the different species of poetical composition, the lyric is that which allows of the greatest liberty in translation; as a freedom both of thought and expression is agreeable to its character. Yet even in this, which is the freest of all species of translation, we must guard against licentiousness; and perhaps the more so, that we are apt to persuade ourselves that the less caution is necessary. The difficulty indeed is, where so much freedom is allowed, to define what is to be accounted licentiousness in poetical translation. A moderate liberty of amplifying and retrenching the ideas of the original, has been granted to the translator of prose; but is it allowable, even to the translator of a lyric poem, to add new images and new thoughts to those of the original, or to enforce the sentiments by illustrations which are not in the original? As the limits between free translation and paraphrase are more easily perceived than they can be well defined, instead of giving a general answer to this question, I think it safer to give my opinion upon particular examples.

Dr Lowth has adapted to the present times, and addressed to his own countrymen, a very noble imitation of the 6th ode of the 3d book of Horace: Delicta majorum immeritus lues, &c. The greatest part of this composition is of the nature of parody; but in the version of the following stanza there is perhaps but a slight excess of that liberty which may be allowed to the translator of a lyric poet:

Motus doceri gaudet IonicosMatura virgo, et fingitur artubusJam nunc, et incestos amoresDe tenero meditatur ungui.

 

The ripening maid is vers'd in every dangerous art, That ill adorns the form, while it corrupts the heart;Practis'd to dress, to dance, to play,In wanton mask to lead the way, To move the pliant limbs, to roll the luring eye; With Folly's gayest partizans to vie In empty noise and vain expence;To celebrate with flaunting airThe midnight revels of the fair; Studious of every praise, but virtue, truth, and sense.

Here the translator has superadded no new images or illustrations; but he has, in two parts of the stanza, given a moral application which is not in the original:

"That ill adorns the form, while it corrupts the heart;" and "Studious of every praise, but virtue, truth, and sense." These moral lines are unquestionably a very high improvement of the original; but they seem to me to transgress, though indeed very slightly, the liberty allowed to a poetical translator.

In that fine translation by Dryden, of the 29th ode of the 3d book of Horace, which upon the whole is paraphrastical, the version of the two following stanzas has no more licence than what is justifiable:

Fortuna sævo læta negotio, etLudum insolentem ludere pertinax,Transmutat incertos honores,Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna.

Laudo manentem: si celeres quatitPennas, resigno qua dedit: et meaVirtute me involvo, probamquePauperiem sine dote quæro.

 

Fortune, who with malicious joyDoes man, her slave, oppress,Proud of her office to destroy,Is seldom pleas'd to bless.Still various, and inconstant still,But with an inclination to be ill,Promotes, degrades, delights in strife,And makes a lottery of life.I can enjoy her while she's kind;But when she dances in the wind, And shakes her wings, and will not stay,I puff the prostitute away: The little or the much she gave is quietly resign'd,Content with poverty, my soul I arm, And Virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.

In the following poem by Mr Hughes, which the author has intitled an imitation of the 6th ode of the 2d book of Horace, the greatest part of the composition is a just and excellent translation, while the rest is a free paraphrase or commentary on the original. I shall mark in Italics, all that I consider as paraphrastical: the rest is a just translation, in which the writer has assumed no more liberty, than was necessary to give the poem the easy air of an original composition.

I.Indulgent Quiet! Pow'r serene,Mother of Peace, and Joy, and Love,O say, thou calm, propitious Queen,Say, in what solitary grove,Within what hollow rock, or winding cell,By human eyes unseen,Like some retreated Druid dost thou dwell?And why, illusive Goddess! why,When we thy mansion would surround,Why dost thou lead us through enchanted ground,To mock our vain research, and from our wishes fly?

II.The wand'ring sailors, pale with fear,For thee the gods implore,When the tempestuous sea runs high,And when through all the dark, benighted sky,No friendly moon or stars appear,To guide their steerage to the shore:For thee the weary soldier prays,Furious in fight the sons of Thrace,And Medes, that wear majestic by their sideA full-charg'd quiver's decent pride, Gladly with thee would pass inglorious days,Renounce the warrior's tempting praise,And buy thee, if thou might'st be sold,With gems, and purple vests, and stores of plunder'd gold.

III.But neither boundless wealth, nor guards that waitAround the Consul's honour'd gate,Nor antichambers with attendants fill'd,The mind's unhappy tumults can abate,Or banish sullen cares, that flyAcross the gilded rooms of state,And their foul nests like swallows buildClose to the palace-roofs and tow'rs that pierce the sky?Much less will Nature's modest wants supply:And happier lives the homely swain,Who in some cottage, far from noise,His few paternal goods enjoys;Nor knows the sordid lust of gain,Nor with Fear's tormenting painHis hovering sleeps destroys.

IV.Vain man! that in a narrow spaceAt endless game projects the daring spear! For short is life's uncertain race;Then why, capricious mortal! whyDost thou for happiness repairTo distant climates and a foreign air?Fool! from thyself thou canst not fly,Thyself the source of all thy care:So flies the wounded stag, provok'd with pain,Bounds o'er the spacious downs in vain:The feather'd torment sticks within his side,And from the smarting wound a purple tideMarks all his way with blood, and dies the grassy plain.

V.But swifter far is execrable CareThan stags, or winds, that through the skiesThick-driving snows and gather'd tempests bear;Pursuing Care the sailing ship out-flies,Climbs the tall vessel's painted sides;Nor leaves arm'd squadrons in the field,But with the marching horseman rides,And dwells alike in courts and camps, and makes all places yield.

VI.Then, since no state's completely blest,Let's learn the bitter to allay With gentle mirth, and, wisely gay,Enjoy at least the present day,And leave to Fate the rest.Nor with vain fear of ills to comeAnticipate th' appointed doom.Soon did Achilles quit the stage;The hero fell by sudden death;While Tithon to a tedious, wasting ageDrew his protracted breath.And thus, old partial Time, my friend,Perhaps unask'd, to worthless meThose hours of lengthen'd life may lend,Which he'll refuse to thee.

VII.Thee shining wealth, and plenteous joys surround,And all thy fruitful fields aroundUnnumber'd herds of cattle stray;Thy harness'd deeds with sprightly voice,Make neighbouring vales and hills rejoice,While smoothly thy gay chariot flies o'er the swift-measur'd way.To me the stars with less profusion kind,An humble fortune have assign'd, And no untuneful Lyric vein,But a sincere contented mindThat can the vile, malignant crowd disdain^[1].

1. Otium divos rogat in patentiPrensus Ægeo, simul atra nubesCondidit Lunam, neque certa fulgentSidera nautis.
   

   Otium bello furiosa Thrace,Otium Medi pharetrâ decori,Grosphe, non gemmis, neque purpurâ venale, nec auro.
   

   Non enim gazæ, neque ConsularisSummovet lictor miseros tumultusMentis, et curas laqueata circumTecta volantes.
   

   Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternumSplendet in mensâ tenui salinum:Nec leves somnos Timor aut CupidoSordidus ausert.
   

   Quid brevi fortes jaculamur ævoMulta? quid terras alio calentesSole mutamus? Patriæ quis exul,Se quoque fugit?
   

   Scandit æratas vitiosa navesCura, nec turmas equitum relinquit,Ocyor cervis, et agente nimbosOcyor Euro.
   

   Lætus in præsens animus, quod ultra estOderit curare; et amara lentoTemperat risu. Nihil est ab omniParte beatum.
   

   Abstulit clarum cita mors Achillem;Longa Tithonum minuit senectus:Et mihi forsan, tibi quod negârit,Porriget hora.
   

   Te greges centum, Siculæque circumMugiunt vaccæ: tibi tollit hinnitumApta quadrigis equa: te bis AfroMurice tinctæ.
   

   Vestiunt lanæ: mihi parva rura, etSpiritum Graiæ tenuem CamœnæParca non mendax dedit, et malignumSpernere vulgus.Hor. Od. 2. 16.