CHAPTER IX.

Third General Rule-A Translation should have all the Ease of Original Composition. -Extreme difficulty in the observance of this Rule.-Contrasted Instances of Success and Failure.-Of the Necessity of sometimes sacrificing one Rule to another.

It now remains, that we consider the third general law of Translation.

In order that the merit of the original work may be so completely transfused as to produce its full effect, it is necessary, not only that the translation should contain a perfect transcript of the sentiments of the original, and present likewise a resemblance

of its style and manner; but, That the translation should have all the ease of original composition.

WHEN We consider those restraints within which a translator finds himself necessarily confined, with regard to the sentiments and manner of his original, it will soon appear, that this last requisite includes the most difficult part of his task *. It is not

*« Quand il s'agit de représenter dans une autre langue "les choses, les pensées, les expressions, les tours, les tons "d'un ouvrage ; les choses telles qu'elles sont, sans rien ajou"ter, ni retrancher, ni déplacer ; les pensées dans leurs cou"leurs, leurs degrés, leurs nuances; les tours, qui donnent le "feu, l'esprit, et la vie au discours; les expressions natu"relles, figurées, fortes, riches, gracieuses, délicates, &c. lę "tout d'après un modele qui commande durement, et qui "veut qu'on lui obéisse d'un air aisé; il faut, sinon autant de ❝ génie, du moins autant de gout pour bien traduire, que pour

composer. Peutêtre même en faut il davantage. L'auteur qui "compose, conduit seulement par une sorte d'instinct toujours

libre, et par sa matiere qui lui présente des idées, qu'il peut "accepter ou rejetter à son gré, est maître absolu de ses pen"sées et de ses expressions: si la pensée ne lui convient pas, "ou si l'expression ne convient pas à la pensée, il peut rejetter,

l'une et l'autre ; quæ desperat tractata nitescere posse, relin

easy

for one who walks in trammels, to exhibit an air of grace and freedom. It is dif ficult, even for a capital painter, to preserve in a copy of a picture all the ease and spirit of the original; yet the painter employs precisely the same colours, and has no other care than faithfully to imitate the touch and manner of the picture that is before him. If the original is easy and graceful, the copy will have the same qualities, in proportion as the imitation is just and perfect. The translator's task is very different: He uses not the same colours with the original, but is required to give his picture the same force and effect. He is not allowed to copy the touches of the original, yet is required, by

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"quit. Le traducteur n'est maître de rien; il est obligé de "suivre partout son auteur, et de se plier à toutes ses varia❝tions avec une souplesse infinie. Qu'on en juge par la va"riété des tons qui se trouvent nécessairement dans une "même sujet, et à plus forte raison dans un même genre.——— "Quelle idée donc ne doit-on pas avoir d'une traduction faite " avec succès ?”

BATTEUX, De la Construction Oratoire, Par. 2.

touches of his own, to produce a perfect resemblance. The more he studies a scrupulous imitation, the less his copy will reflect the ease and spirit of the original. How then shall a translator accomplish this difficult union of ease with fidelity? To use a bold expression, he must adopt the very soul of his author, which must speak through his own organs

The following observations by Cowper, though loosely thrown out, and a little deficient in precision of thought, contain much matter deserving of a translator's attention; "There are minutia in every language, which, transfused in"to another, will spoil the version. Such extreme fidelity " is in fact unfaithful. Such close resemblance takes away "all likeness. The original is elegant, easy, natural; the "copy is clumsy, constrained, unnatural: To what is this "owing? To the adoption of terms not congenial to your purpose, and of a context such as no man writing an original work would make use of. Homer is every thing that a poet should be. A translation of Homer so made will "be every thing a translation of Homer should not be. Be

cause it will be written in no language under heaven. It "will be English, and it will be Greek, and therefore it will "be neither. He is the man, whoever he be, (I do not pretend to be that man myself,) he is the man best qua❝lified as a translator of Homer, who has drenched, and steeped, and soaked himself in the effusions of his genius,

LET us proceed to exemplify this third rule of translation, which regards the attainment of ease of style, by instances both of success and failure.

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"till he has imbibed their colour to the bone, and who, "when he is thus dyed through and through, distinguishing "between what is essentially Greek and what may be ha"bited in English, rejects the former, and is faithful to the "latter, as far as the purposes of fine poetry will permit, " and no farther: this, I think, may be easily proved. Homer is every where remarkable either for ease, dignity, or energy of expression; for grandeur of conception, and a majestic flow of numbers. If we copy him so closely as "to make every one of these excellent properties of his absolutely unattainable, which will certainly be the effect of "too close a copy, instead of translating, we murder him.

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Therefore, after all******has said, I still hold freedom "to be indispensible. Freedom I mean with respect to "the expression; freedom so limited, as never to leave be"hind the matter; but at the same time indulged with a "sufficient scope to secure the spirit, and as much as pos "sible of the manner. I say as much as possible, because an English manner must differ from a Greek one, in order "to be graceful, and for this there is no remedy. Can an "ungraceful, awkward translation of Homer be a good one? "No: but a graceful, easy, natural, faithful version of him, "will not that be a good one? Yes! Allow me but this, and

"I insist upon it, that such a one may be produced on my "principles, and can be produced on no other."

COWPER'S Letters.