Mr. Melmoth, in a very entertaining book, Fitzosborne’s Letters, has many criticisms on Pope’s translation of Homer. However great its merit—and a most admirable work it undoubtedly is—he sometimes praises it injudiciously. It has been often said that Pope’s version is beautiful, but not sufficiently Homerick. The following passage is a remarkable instance of the peculiar force and energy of the original being lost in the graces of the translation. “It is quoted” (says Melmoth) “by a celebrated author of antiquity as an instance of the true sublime. I will leave it to you” (he adds) “to determine whether the translation has not, at least, as just a claim to that character as the original.”
Ες μισγαλκειαν συμβαλλετον οβριμον νδῶρ,
Κρουνων εκμεγαλων, κοιλης εντοσθε χαραδρης,
Των δε τε τηλοσε δουπον εν ουρεσιν εκλυεποιμην,
Ως των μισγομενων γενετο ιαχη τε φοβος τε.
With rage impetuous down their echoing hills,
Rush to the vales, and pour’d along the plain,
Roar through a thousand channels to the main;
The distant shepherd trembling hears the sound;
So mix both hosts, and so their cries rebound.
Pope.
It is observable, as an ingenious friend remarked to me, that Pope has here omitted some of the circumstances that give peculiar force and propriety to this simile, and introduced others that are inconsistent with Homer’s idea.
In the original, two torrents are particularly mentioned (as is marked by the dual number being used), corresponding with the two armies described. Pope has lost this propriety by using a general term,
