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for the English language;
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Εννῆμας μὲν ἀνὰ τρατὸν ᾤχετο κῆλα θεοῖο.

Il. lib. 1. 1. 53.

The

"For nine days the arrows of the god were darted through the army." elliptical brevity of Mr Macpherson's translation of this verse, has no parallel in the original; nor is it agreeable to the English idiom:

"Nine days rush the shafts of the God."

N 4

CHAPTER VIII.

Whether a Poem can be well translated into

Prose.

FROM

ROM all the preceding observations respecting the imitation of style, we may derive this precept, That a translator ought always to figure to himself, in what manner the original author would have expressed himself, if he had written in the language of the translation.

THIS precept leads to the examination, and probably to the decision, of a question which has admitted of some dispute, Whether a poem can be well translated into prose?

THERE are certain species of poetry, of which the chief merit consists in the sweetness and melody of the versification. Of these it is evident, that the very essence must perish in translating them into prose. What should we find in the following beautiful lines, when divested of the melody of verse?

She said, and melting as in tears she lay,
In a soft silver stream dissolv'd away.
The silver stream her virgin coldness keeps,
For ever murmurs, and for ever weeps ;
Still bears the name the hapless virgin bore,
And bathes the forest where she rang'd before.

POPE'S Windsor Forest.

BUT a great deal of the beauty of every regular poem, consists in the melody of its numbers. Sensible of this truth, many of the prose translators of poetry, have attempted to give a sort of measure to their prose, which removes it from the nature of ordinary language. If this measure is uniform, and its return regular, the composition is no longer prose, but blank-verse. If it is not uniform, and does not regularly return

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upon the ear, the composition will be more unharmonious, than if the measure had been entirely neglected. Of this, Mr Macpher son's translation of the Iliad is a strong example.

BUT it is not only by the measure that poetry is distinguishable from prose. It is by the character of its thoughts and sentiments, and by the nature of that language in which they are clothed *. A boldness of figures, a luxuriancy of imagery, a frequent use of metaphors, a quickness of transition, a liberty of digressing; all these are not only allowable in poetry, but to many species of it, essential. But they are quite unsuitable to the character of prose. When seen in a prose translation, they appear preposterous and out of place, because they are never found in an original prose composition.

* "C'est en quoi consiste le grand art de la Poësie, de dire "figurément presque tout ce qu'elle dit." Rapin Reflex, sur la Poëtique en général, § 29.

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