Essay on the Principles of Translation (Tytler)/Chapter 6

by Alexander Fraser Tytler

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CHAP. VI.

 

Examples of a good taste in Poetical Translation.— Bourne's translations from Mallet and from Prior.—The Duke de Nivernois from Horace.—Mr Webb from the Anthologia.—Fragments of the Greek Dramatists by Mr Cumberland.

 

After these examples of faulty translation, from a defect of taste in the translator, or a want of a just discernment of his author's style and manner of writing, I shall now present the reader with some specimens of perfect translation, where the authors have entered with exquisite taste into the manner of their originals, and have succeeded most happily in the imitation of it.

The first is the opening of the beautiful ballad of William and Margaret, translated by Vincent Bourne.

I.
When all was wrapt in dark midnight,
And all were fast asleep,
In glided Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet.

II.
Her face was like the April morn,
Clad in a wintry cloud;
And clay-cold was her lily hand,
That held her sable shrowd.

III.
So shall the fairest face appear,
When youth and years are flown;
Such is the robe that Kings must wear,
When Death has reft their crown.

IV.
Her bloom was like the springing flower,
That sips the silver dew;
The rose was budded in her cheek,
And opening to the view.

V.
But Love had, like the canker-worm,
Consum'd her early prime;
The rose grew pale and left her cheek,
She died before her time.
 
I.
Omnia nox tenebris, tacitâque involverat umbrâ,
Et fessos homines vinxerat alta quies;
Cùm valvæ patuere, et gressu illapsa silenti,
Thyrsidis ad lectum stabat imago Chloes.

II.
Vultus erat, qualis lachrymosi vultus Aprilis,
Cui dubia hyberno conditur imbre dies;
Quaque sepulchralem à pedibus collegit amictum,
Candidior nivibus, frigidiorque manus.

III.
Cùmque dies aberunt molles, et laæta juventus,
Gloria pallebit, sic Cyparissi tua;
Cùm mors decutiet capiti diademata, regum
Hâc erit in trabeâ conspiciendus honos.

IV.
Forma fuit (dum forma fuit) nascentis ad instar
Floris, cui cano gemmula rore tumet;
Et Veneres risere, et subrubuere labella,
Subrubet ut teneris purpura prima rosis.

V.
Sed lenta exedit tabes mollemque ruborem,
Et faciles risus, et juvenile decus;
Et rosa paulatim languens, nudata reliquit
Oscula; præripuit mors properata Chloen.

The second is a small poem by Prior entitled Chloe Hunting, which is likewise translated into Latin by Bourne.

Behind her neck her comely tresses tied,
Her ivory quiver graceful by her side,
A-hunting Chloe went; she lost her way,
And through the woods uncertain chanc'd to stray.
Apollo passing by beheld the maid;
And, sister dear, bright Cynthia, turn, he said;
The hunted hind lies close in yonder brake.
Loud Cupid laugh'd, to see the God's mistake:
And laughing cried, learn better, great Divine,
To know thy kindred, and to honour mine.
Rightly advis'd, far hence thy sister seek,
Or on Meander's banks, or Latmus' peak.
But in this nymph, my friend, my sister know;
She draws my arrows, and he bends my bow.
Fair Thames she haunts, and every neighbouring grove,
Sacred to soft recess, and gentle Love.
Go with thy Cynthia, hurl the pointed spear
At the rough boar, or chace the flying deer:
I, and my Chloe, take a nobler aim;
At human hearts we fling, nor ever miss the game.

Forte Chloe, pulchros nodo collecta capillos
Post collum, pharetrâque latus succincta decorâ,
Venatrix ad sylvam ibat; cervumque secuta
Elapsum visu, deserta per avia tendit
Incerta. Errantem nympham conspexit Apollo,
Et, converte tuos, dixit, mea Cynthia, cursus;
En ibi (monstravitque manu) tibi cervus anhelat
Occultus dumo, latebrisque moratur in illis.

Improbus hæc audivit amor, lepidumque cachinnum
Attollens, poterantne etiam tua numina falli?
Hinc, quæso, bone Phœbe, tuam dignosce sororem,
Et melius venerare meam. Tua Cynthia longè,
Mændri ad ripas, aut summi in vertice Latmi,
Versatur; nostra est soror hæc, nostra, inquit, amica est.
Hæc nostros promit calamos, arcumque sonantem
Incurvat, Tamumque colens, placidosque recessus
Lucorum, quos alma quies sacravit amori.
Ite per umbrosos saltus, lustrisque vel aprum
Excutite horrentem setis, cervumve fugacem,
Tuque sororque tua, et directo sternite ferro:
Nobilior labor, et divis dignissima cura,
Meque Chloenque manet; nos corda humana ferìmus,
Vibrantes certum vulnus nec inutile telum.

The third specimen, is a translation by the Duke de Nivernois, of Horace's dialogue with Lydia:

Horace.
Plus heureux qu'un monarque au faite des grandeurs,
J'ai vu mes jours dignes d'envie,
Tranquiles, ils couloient au gré de nos ardeurs:
Vous m'aimiez, charmante Lydie.

Lydie.
Que mes jours étoient beaux, quand des soins les plus doux
Vous payiez ma flamme sincére!
Venus me regardoit avec des yeux jaloux;
Chloé n'avoit pas sçu vous plaire.

Horace.
Par son luth, par sa voix, organe des amours,
Chloé seule me paroit belle:
Si le Destin jaloux veut épargner ses jours,
Je donnerai les miens pour elle.

Lydie.
Le jeune Calaïs, plus beau que les amours,
Plait seul à mon ame ravie:
Si le Destin jaloux veut épargner ses jours,
Je donnerai deux fois ma vie.

Horace.
Quoi, si mes premiers feux, ranimant leur ardeur,
Etouffoient une amour fatale;
Si, perdant pour jamais tous ses droits sur mon cœur,
Chloé vous laissoit sans rivale———

Lydie.
Calaïs est charmant: mais je n'aime que vous,
Ingrat, mon cœur vous justifie;
Heureuse également en des liens si doux,
De perdre ou de paffer la vie^[1].

If any thing is faulty in this excellent translation, it is the last stanza, which does not convey the happy petulance, the procacitas of the original. The reader may compare with this, the fine translation of the same ode by Bishop Atterbury, "Whilst I was fond, and you were kind," which is too well known to require insertion.

The next specimen I shall give is the translation of a beautiful epigram, from. the Anthologia, which is supposed by Junius to be descriptive of a painting mentioned by Pliny^[2], in which, a mother wounded, and in the agony of death, is represented as giving suck to her infant for the last time:

Ελκε τάλαν παρα μητρος ὄν ουκ ἔτι μαζὸν ἀμελξεις,
Ελκυσον ύστατιον νᾶμα καταφθιμενης.
Ηδη γαρ ξιφέεσσι λιπὀπνοος· ἀλλὰ τὰ μητρος
Φιλτρα καὶ εν ἀϊδη παιδοκομειν ἔμαθον.

Thus happily translated into English by Mr Webb:

Suck, little wretch, while yet thy mother lives,
Suck the last drop her fainting bosom gives!
She dies: her tenderness survives her breath,
And her fond love is provident in death.

To these specimens of perfect translation, in which not only the ideas of the original are completely transfused, but the manner most happily imitated, I add the following admirable translations by Mr Cumberland^[3], of two fragments from the Greek dramatists^{[errata 1]} Timocles and Diphilus, which are preserved by Athenæus.

The first of these passages beautifully illustrates the moral uses of the tragic drama:

Nay, my good friend, but hear me! I confess
Man is the child of sorrow, and this world,
In which we breathe, hath cares enough to plague us;
But it hath means withal to soothe these cares;
And he who meditates on others woes,
Shall in that meditation lose his own:
Call then the tragic poet to your aid,
Hear him, and take instruction from the stage:
Let Telephus appear; behold a prince,
A spectacle of poverty and pain,
Wretched in both.—And what if you are poor?
Are you a demigod? Are you the son
Of Hercules? Begone! Complain no more.
Doth your mind struggle with distracting thoughts?
Do your wits wander? Are you mad? Alas!
So was Alcmæon, whilst the world ador'd
His father as their God. Your eyes are dim;
What then? The eyes of OEdipus were dark,
Totally dark. You mourn a son; he's dead;
Turn to the tale of Niobe for comfort,
And match your loss with hers. You're lame of foot;
Compare it with the foot of Philoctetes,
And make no more complaint. But you are old,
Old and unfortunate; consult Oëneus;
Hear what a king endur'd, and learn content.
Sum up your miseries, number up your sighs,
The tragic stage shall give you tear for tear,
And wash out all afflictions but its own^[4].

The following fragment from Diphilus conveys a very favourable idea of the spirit of the dialogue, in what has been termed the New Comedy of the Greeks, or that which was posterior to the age of Alexander the Great. Of this period Diphilas and Menander were among the most shining ornaments.

We have a notable good law at Corinth,
Where, if an idle fellow outruns reason,
Feasting and junketting at furious cost,
The sumptuary proctor calls upon him,
And thus begins to sift him.—You live well,
But have you well to live? You squander freely,
Have you the wherewithal? Have you the fund
For these outgoings? If you have, go on!
If you have not, we'll stop you in good time,
Before you outrun honesty; for he
Who lives we know not how, must live by plunder;
Either he picks a purse, or robs a house,
Or is accomplice with some knavish gang,
Or thrusts himself in crowds, to play th' informer,
And put his perjur'd evidence to sale:
This a well-order'd city will not suffer;
Such vermin we expell.———"And you do wisely:
"But what is that to me?"———"Why, this it is:
Here we behold you every day at work,
Living, forsooth! not as your neighbours live,
But richly, royally, ye gods!—Why man,
We cannot get a fish for love or money,
You swallow the whole produce of the sea:
You've driv'n our citizens to brouze on cabbage;
A sprig of parsley sets them all a-fighting,
As at the Isthmian games: If hare or partridge,
Or but a simple thrush comes to the market,
Quick, at a word, you snap him: By the gods!
Hunt Athens through, you shall not find a feather
But in your kitchen; and for wine, 'tis gold———
Not to be purchas'd.—We may drink the ditches^[5].

Of equal merit with these two last specimens, are the greatest part of those translations given by Mr Cumberland, of the fragments of the Greek dramatists. The literary world owes to that ingenious writer a very high obligation, for his excellent view of the progress of the dramatic art among the Greeks, and for the collection he has made of the remains of more than fifty of their comic poets^[6].

1. Hor. Donec gratus eram tibi,
   Nec quisquam potior brachia candidæ
   Cervici juvenis dabat;
   Persarum vigui rege beatior.
   
   

   Lyd. Donec non aliam magis
   Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloen;
   Multi Lydia nominis
   Romanâ vigui clarior Iliâ.
   
   

   Hor. Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit,
   Dulceis docta modos, et citharæ sciens:
   Pro qua non metuam mori,
   Si parcent animæ fata superstiti.
   
   

   Lyd. Me torret face mutuâ
   Thurini Calais filius Ornithi;
   Pro quo bis patiar mori,
   Si parcent puero fata superititi.
   
   

   Hor. Quid, si prisca redit Venus,
   Diductosque jugo cogit aheneo?
   Si flava excutitur Chloe,
   Rejectæque patet janua Lydiæ?
   
   

   Lyd. Quamquam sidere pulchrior
   Ille est, tu levior cortice, et improbo
   Iracundior Hadriâ;
   Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.
   Hor. l. 3. Od. 9.
   
   
2. Hujus (viz. Aristidis) pictura est, oppido capto, ad matris morientis e vulnere mammam adrepens infans; intelligiturque sentire mater et timere, ne emortuo lacte sanguinem infans lambat. Plin. Nat. Hist. l.35. c. 10.—If the epigram was made on the subject of this picture, Pliny's idea of the expression of the painting is somewhat more refined than that of the epigrammatist, though certainly not so natural. As a complicated feeling can never be clearly expressed in painting, it is not improbable that the same picture should have suggested ideas somewhat different to different observers.
   
3. Observer, vol. 4. p. 115. and vol. 5. p. 145.
4. The original of the fragment of Timocles:
   Ω ταν, ἂκασον ην τι σοι μέλλω λέχειν.
   Ανθρωπός ἐστι ζῶον ἐπίπονον φύσει,
   Καὶ πολλὰ λυπῆῤ ὸ βίος ἐν ἐαυτω φέρει.
   Παραψυχὰς ουν φροντίδων ανευρατον
   Ταυτας. ὁ γὰρ νoὕς των ἰδίων λήθην λαδὼν
   Πρὸς ἀλλοτριῳ τε ψυχαγωγηθεις πάθει,
   Μεθ΄ ήδονῆς ἀπῆλθε ωαιδενθείς ἃμα.
   Τοὺς γὰρ τραγῳδοὺς ωρῶτον ει βοὑλει σκόῶει,
   Ως ὠφελοῦσί παντας. ὁ μεν γὰρ ὤν πένης
   Πτωχότερον ὰυτοὓ καταμαθὼν τὸν Τήλεφον
   Γενόμενον, ἤδη την πενίαν ῤᾶον φέρει.
   Ο νοσῶν δὲ μανικῶς, Αλκμαίων᾽ εσκεψατο.
   Οφδαλμιᾶ τις; εἰσὶ Φινεῖδαι τυφλοί.
   Τέδνηκε τω παῖς; η Νιόβη κεκούφικε.
   Χωλός τίς ἐστι, τὸν Φιλοκτήτην ὀρᾶ.
   Γέρων τὶς ἀτυχεῖ; κατέμαθε τὸν ΟΙνέα.
   Απαντα γὰρ τὰμείζον᾽ ἤ πέωονθέ τις
   Ατυχήματ΄ ἄλλοις γεγονότ΄ ἐννοούμενος,
   Τὰς ἀυτὸς ἀυτοῦ συμφορας ῤᾷον φέρει.
   
   
   Thus, in the literal version of Dalechampius:
   Hem amice, nunc ausculta quod dicturus sum tibi.
   Animal naturâ laboriosum homo est.
   Tristia vita secum assert plurima:
   Itaque curarum hæc adinvenit solatia:
   Mentem enim suorum malorum oblitam,
   Alienorum casuum reputatio consolatur,
   Indéque fit ea læta, et erudita ad sapientiam.
   Tragicos enim primùm, si libet, considera,
   Quàm prosint omnibus. Qui eget,
   Pauperiorem se suisse Telephum
   Cùm intelligit, leniùs sert inopiam.
   Insaniâ qui ægrotat, de Alcmeone is cogitet.
   Lippus est aliquis, Phinea cæcum is contempletur.
   Obiit tibi filius, dolorem levabit exemplum Niobes.
   Claudicat quispiam, Philocteten is respicito.
   Miser est senex aliquis, in Oeneum is intuetor.
   Omnia namque graviora quàm patiatur
   Infortunia quivis animadvertens in aliis cùm deprehenderit,
   Suas calamitates luget minùs.
   
   
5. The original of the fragment of Diphilus:
   Τοιοὕτο νόμιμόν ἐστὶ βέλτις᾽ ενθαδε
   Κορίνθίοις, ἴν᾽ έαν τιν᾽ όψωνοῦντ᾽ ἀεί
   Λαμπρῶς ὀρωμεν, τοῡτον ἀνακρινείν ῶόθεν
   Ζἤ, καὶ τί ῶοιῶν. κἄν μεν οὐσίαν εχη.
   Ης ἀι ῶροσοδοι λυουσι τ᾽ ἀναλώματἀ,
   Εᾶν ἀπὸλαὐειν. ἤδε τοῦτον τὸν βίον.
   Εαν δ΄ ὐῶὲρ την ἐοίαν δαπανῶν τύχη,
   Απειπον ἀυτῶ τοῦτο μὴ ποιειν ἔτι.
   Ος ἂν δὲ μή πείδητ᾽, ἐπέβαλον ζημίαν.
   Εάν δἒ μηδε ὀτιοῦν ἔχων ζῇ ῶολυτελῶς,
   Τῷ δημιῳ ῶαρέδωκαν ἀυτον. Ηράκλεις.
   ΟΥκ ένδἔχεται γὰρ ζῃν ἂνευ κακοῦ τινὸς
   Τοῦτον. συνίης; ἀλλ᾽ ἀναγκαίως ἔχει
   Ηλοποδυτεῖν τὰς νύκτας, ἣ τοιχωρυχεῖν,
   Η τῶν ποιουντων ταῦτα κοινωνεῖν τισιν.
   Η συκοφαντεῖν κατ᾽ ἀγορὰν, ἢ μαρτυρεῖν
   Ψευδῆ, τοιοῦτων ἐκκαδαίρομεν γενος.
   Ορδῶς γε νὴ Δί, ἀλλά δὴ τί τοῦτ᾽ ἐμοί;
   Ορῶμεν ὀψωνοῦνθ᾽ ὲκάστης ήμέρας,
   ΟΥχι μετριως βέλτιστέ σ᾽, ἀλλ᾽ ὐπερηφάνως·
   ΟΥχ ἔστιν ίχδυηρὸν ὐπὸ σοῦ μεταλαβεῖν·
   Συνῆκας ἠμῶν εἰς τὰλὰχανα την πόλιν,
   Περὶ τῶν σελινων μαχόμεδ΄ ὥσπερ Ισδμίοις·
   Λαγώς τις εἰσελὴλυδ᾽· ευθὺς ἥρπακας·
   Πέρδικα δ᾽ ἤ κιχλην; καὶ νὴ Δί᾽ οὐκ ἔτι
   Εστιν δί ὐμᾶς οῦδὲ πετομενην ίδεῖν,
   Τὸν ξενικὸν οινον ἐπιτετίμηκας πολύ·
   
   
   Thus in the version of Dalechampius:
   A. Talis istic lex est, ô vir optime,
   Corinthiis: si quem obsonantem semper
   Splendidiùs aspexerint, ilium ut interrogent
   Unde vivat, quidnam agat: quòd si facultates illi sunt
   Quarum ad eum sumptum reditus sufficiat,
   Eo vitæ luxu permittunt frui:
   Sin amplius impendat quàm pro re sua,
   Ne id porrò faciat interdicitur.
   Si non pareat, mulctâ quidem plectitur.
   Si sumptuosè vivit qui nihil prorsus habet,
   Traditur puniendus carnisici.B. Proh Hercules.
   A. Quod enim scias, fieri minimè potest
   Ut qui eo est ingenio, non vivat improbè: itaque necessum.
   Vel noctu grassantem obvios spoliare, vel effractarium, parietem suffodere,
   Vel his se furibus adjungere socium,
   Aut delatorem of quadruplatorem esse in foro: aut falsum
   Testari: à talium hominum genere purgatur civitas.
   B. Rectè, per Jovem: sed ad me quid hoc attinet?
   A. Nos te videmus obsonantem quotidie
   Haud mediocriter, vir optime, sed fastuosè, et magnificè,
   Ne pisciculum quidem habere licet caussâ tuâ:
   Cives nostros commisisti, pugnaturos de oleribus:
   De apio dimicamus tanquam in Isthmiis.
   Si lepus accessit, eum extemplo rapis.
   Perdicem, ac turdum ne volantem quidem
   Propter vos, ita me Juppiter amet, nobis jam videre licet,
   Peregrini multùm auxistis vini pretium.
   
   
6. It is to be regretted that Mr Cumberland had not either published the original fragments along with his translations, or given special references to the authors from whom he took them, and the particular part of their works where they were to be found. The reader who wishes to compare the translations with the originals, will have some trouble in searching for them at random in the works of Athenæus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Stobæus, and others.

Errata

1. Original: drammatists was amended to dramatists: detail