THE ART OF TRANSLATING

THE CHOICE OF WORDS. 41

English, no, not even our own German, which must

rid itself of many imperfections before it proves itself

equal to its possibilities."

l

If it be true that ideas in a foreign word and in

an English word overlap, how much more true is it

in the case of the finished sentence. The effort of

the translator is to bring the original and the English

sentences into such coincidence as his skill will allow.

I doubt if absolute coincidence except in sentences

of simple meaning is possible, for the work of the

translator, like that of the painter, is toward an infinite

goal. No painter, however skilful, can reproduce

a landscape perfectly true to nature. The best

painter is not the one who paints the scene with exactness

in color and detail ; but the best painter is

he who, overmastered by the greatness of the vision

and realizing the limitations of his art, paints the

scene most true to nature. So the best translator is

not he who exactly reproduces the original in English,

for that is impossible, but he who mpst nearly reproduces

it. In saying this I do not depreciate the

work of translating ; on the other hand, I emphasize

the infinite possibilities of the art. Look at the picture

of a mother's love in the beautiful lines of

Simonides :

8rs Idpvaxt xeTr'

av[j.6<i r iy>6f)i JMV itviiov ztvyffetffd TS

Setfj.a itpoffelpKe TOT oux ddtdvrotffi

1 Ueber den Ursprung der Spracke.

42 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

t TS Uspffl'i ftaXXe <p{Xav %lp\ eTrev "i" u>

otov e^a* /royov ffb 3' fitocrs??'

yaAaffrjvui Idds'i

doopart x

vuxri dlafjixei xuavlui TS 8vb<pip

'

urtepffev reav xofj.dv fta

oux

, nopyvpla.

ei d TO: SIVQV TO ye dsivbv TJV,

xat x

L>dlr(u S' O./JLOTOV xaxov

Ix aldzv orrt 5e Oapaakiov e'/roy

i fj.ot.

Note how Symonds has given us that picture with

its pathos and its tenderness, but still we feel how

far short of the original his translation, artistic as it

is, really comes :

When, in the carven chest,

The winds that blew and waves in wild unrest

Smote her with fear, she, not with cheeks unwet,

Her arms of love round Perseus set,

And said : O child, what grief is mine !

But thou dost slumber, and thy baby breast

Is sunk hi rest,

Here in the cheerless brass-bound bark,

Tossed amid starless night and pitchy dark.

THE CHOICE OF WORDS. 43

Nor dost thou heed the scudding brine

Of waves that wash above thy curls so deep,

Nor the shrill winds that sweep,

Lapped in thy purple robe's embrace,

Fair little face !

But if this dread were dreadful too to thee,

Then wouldst thou lend thy listening ear to me ;

Therefore I cry, Sleep, babe, and sea be still,

And slumber our unmeasured ill !

Oh, may some change of fate, sire Zeus, from thee

Descend, our woes to end !

But if this prayer, too overbold, offend

Thy justice, yet be merciful to me !

44 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

PRIMITIVE SIGNIFICATION.

The ignoring of the primitive signification of a word,

which is encouraged by the unambitious method of

searching the vocabulary for that meaning which may

fit the context, cannot be too severely condemned.

Where is the mental discipline of independent discrimination,

if one is to turn to the vocabulary for a

eady-made selection ? I believe that the dictionaries

often become a mere mental crutch, and a slavish

dependence upon them is as stultifying as the use of

a translation. Special dictionaries which emphasize

special meanings tend to increase this evil. Nothing

can be more apt than the following figure of Cauer :

" The derived signification of words are like cut

flowers which soon wither, whereas one who has fixed

upon the primitive meaning possesses a living stem

from which with fostering he can secure blossoms

which are always new. The teaching of the primitive

signification is that branch of philology which

can be most productive of good results to the pupil,

for it furnishes him little problems which his youthful

mind investigates with success, and also helps toward

the understanding of his own language." 1

No task is more delicate than the choice of an

1 Cauer, Die Kunst des Uebersetzens, p. 21.

PRIMITIVE SIGNIFICATION. 45

English word to convey the idea of the orginal ; it

is, as I have said, precisely like the selection of color

by the artist. Take that Homeric word which wellnigh

baffles the translator, that is, Satpdvios. "Our

dictionaries seek in vain," says Cauer, " to give a

suitable rendering of it." Lehrs' explanation is a

good one, namely,

" That person whose manner of

action is so different from what is usual or expected

that we can explain it only through the theory of a

divine interference." Let us take some of the examples

cited by Cauer: 8. 774, "Are you crazy?" or

perhaps better,

" What is the matter with you ?

"

i/r. 165, "I don't understand you." Z. 407, Acu/ioW,

<f>0iaei ae TO <rov /ieW, " You infatuate man, your

courage will be your destruction."

As a general rule, the same English word should be

used to represent the same foreign word. But often,

as we have illustrated by the intersecting but noncoincident

circles, the idea of the English word corresponding

to the idea of the foreign word in one

application may be entirely at variance with it in

another. The policy of Rothfuchs in translating

Homer is excellent, that is, to translate the ornamental

epithets by the same word when they recur in

reference to the same person or thing. The idea in

OaXepds which is applicable in the phrase 6a\pbs

ydfjio? is entirely different from that in 6a\epov

8d/cpv (cf. Cauer, p. 48). No one English word

can be found whose circle of ideas can coincide with

46 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

the circle of the widely divergent ideas which are

concentrated about the primitive meaning of 6a\.epd<>.

Now what shall the translator do ? He must not sin

against his own language by crowding into an English

word a lot of unnatural meanings. He has no right

to say

"

blooming marriage

" and "

blooming tear,"

lest the epithet become but a meaningless sound. He

must select an English word which will cut the circle

of 0a\epds sufficiently to allow a common idea to lie

within both circumferences. In whatever application

the Greek epithet contains this idea, the English word

will adequately reproduce it. In the same way, the

circle of another English word must intersect the

circle of 0a\epd<; at other points, in order that a

common idea may be found for a different application.

In the translation of the same foreign word by the

same English word in the same application, and in

the translation by a consistently different word in different

applications, the translator is faithful to his

real task, that is, the reproduction of the feelings

kindled by the use of the words in the original.

SYNONYMS. 47

SYNONYMS.

When a foreign writer repeatedly uses the same

word, the translator has no right to attempt the socalled

refinement of his style by seeking to avoid

repetition. The superb diction of Matthew Arnold

is a standing contradiction to the old theory that the

same word or phrase must not recur in too close connection.

When a writer has occasion to express

exactly the same idea, there is no reason why he

should not repeat his former expression, instead of

studiedly endeavoring to run a synonym into its

place. For example, in Od., e. 217, el8os aKtSvore'pr)

Heyedds r ela-avra l&ea-0ai, we ought with Cauer to

translate elBos and l&e<?6ai by words of the same root.

Very effective is the repetition in nigris oculis nigroque

crine of Horace's stanza :

Liberum et Musas Veneremque et illi

Semper haerentem puerum canebat ;

Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque

Crine decorum.

Of Bacchus and the Muses sung,

And Cupid, still at Venus' side,

And Lycus, beautiful and young,

Dark-haired, dark-eyed.

Conington.

48 THE AKT OF TRANSLATING.

On the other hand, when synonyms exist in the

original, great care should be used in reproducing

them. Cauer suggests that the distinction between

Se/Lta?, (f>vrj, eZSo? (Od., e. 212 fg.) should be preserved

by translating "form," "stature," "look" (Grestalt,

Wuchs, Ausseheri). So the translator should differentiate

ius and/as in Persius' striking lines :

Quin damus id Superis, de magna quod dare lance

Non possit magni Messallae lippa propago :

Compositum ius fasque animo, sanctosque recessus

Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto.

Give we to the gods such offerings as great Messalla's

blear-e}red son cannot give, be his dish never so ample,

duty to God and man well blended in the mind, purity in

the heart's shrine, and a bosom full of the inbred nobility

of goodness. Tyrrell.

Right here I wish to apply the words of Cauer

respecting Homeric phraseology :

"A certain uniformity of expression is essential

not to the thought, but to the style. It may seem to

us strange, and many times tedious, that the same

turns of expression so constantly recur ; that morning

and evening, eating and drinking, question and

answer, wound and death, are always found with the

same delineations ; that the day is always designated

'divine,' the sea always '

gray,' the ships always 'swift,'

even though they lie in the harbor, the sky always

SYNONYMS. 49

'starry,' even in the bright day; that Zeus calls

Clytaeinnestra's seducer 'a [hero] without blemish'

at the very moment when he is speaking of his crime.

" But such outgrowth belongs to the very body of

the old epic, and the translator who strips it off mars

it. Two German translators have done this. Hermann

Grimm expressly boasts that he has omitted the

customary high-sounding epithets. Wilhelm Jordan,

on the other hand, has sought to keep alive the

standing epithets by translating them differently in different

places. He has for TroSwfcea HrjXet'owa six expressions,

'the swift Achilles,' 'the swift Pelides,'

* the swift son of Peleus,' ' the swift-rushing Achilles,'

' Pelides, master in the race '

; and finally, omitting

the epithet as Grimm has done, he translates

simply 'Pelides.' Both scholars have injured where

they intended to help, especially Jordan, since he not

only ignores an element of epic style, but puts a

false one in its place. A charm of Homer's recital

lies in this, that it lets us share for a moment in that

higher world-vision in which all things appear bathed

in a golden luster, a vision whose reality the Greek

people so clearly recognized and so charmingly set

forth in the belief that it could have lived only in

the memory of a blind old bard." l

The translator ignores the author's use of synonyms

when he renders rfav tacov as r&v avr&v

(" GEdipus Tyrannus

"

of Sophocles, 1. 1498, KOLK T>V

1 Cauer, Die Kunst des Uebersetzens, pp. 48-50.

50 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

wvrrep auro? ee0v), "from the

same source whence he sprang

"

; rather let him translate

with Jebb, "from a source which was even as that

whence he sprang." The frequent empty English

translation of such Greek words as epyov, Trpay/jia,

/ca/co? is slovenly in the extreme. How we should

render epyov depends largely on the point of view.

If we look forward, epyov becomes a "

duty

"

or

" task

"

; if we look backward, it becomes a " deed "

(cf. Cauer, p. 50). How often does discrimination

suffer in the rendering of Trpa^^a. The context

alone must determine the exact English word to be

employed ; for example,

" Seven against Thebes "

of

jJEschylus, 1. 689, eVel TO Trpa^iia icdpr eTriaTrep^ei

0eo9, "since God mightily urges on the crisis."

The remarks of Cauer respecting the Latin res are

significant and contain a broad application to the

class of words we are discussing.

" The reason for

the multiplicity of meanings in such a word lies, not

in the rich content of the Latin conception, but in

its emptiness. The word is like a vessel into which

is thrown the idea that is gained from the surrounding

clauses. The simple and concise Roman method

of thought made it possible for such an implied idea

to depend upon the context ; our more complex, but

at the same time more loosely joined, lines of thought

demand an outward help to grasp correctly the idea.

When the Roman read Tiaee res or eius rei or quam

remt he knew of himself whether it was a deed or a

SYNONYMS. 51

thought, a demand or a concession, a theory or a fact,

a purpose or an action, a hope or a fear, a design or

a result, an object or a relation ; whereas an (English)

author is forced continuously to remind his reader of

what he is treating. Translations, as those here indicated,

must not be avoided in the belief that they

do not correspond closely enough to the original ; itis

not the words but the thought that we must translate.

The distinction lies only in this, that to the

foreign author it did not seem necessary, as in the

case of res, or it was not practicable, as in many

Homeric conceptions, Avhere we must differentiate to

show in language that which to the author stood

clearly enough before his mind." l

1 Cauer, Die Kunst cles Uebersetzens, pp. 53, 54.

52 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

ETYMOLOGY.

What part should etymology play in the work of

translation ? I believe it is very easy for one interested

in philology to import too much of this into a

realm which lies quite distinct from it. As a general

thing the etymology of a word is of little service to

the translator. The province of the philologist is one ;

that of the translator is another.1 Cauer suggests

that the translator should not concern himself with

etymologies which were not apparent to the authors

themselves.

On the other hand, all etymologies, whether real

1 1 have often been asked how far the teacher should make use of

etymology. There are some cases, I believe, when it may be made

the instrument of fixing in the mind the root meaning of the word.

But when once introduced, it should be made as plain as is practicable.

The teacher may assert that the Latin fingo, for example, is the same

word as our English dough. The pupil will believe the assertion, but

at the same time he will wonder at such a seemingly strange connection.

On the other hand, if the teacher should lead him to the primitive

DHEIGH, and explain how initial dh, through an intervening stage of

a sound like our th in thin, became /in Latin, the student will begin to

see that there have been at work great phonetic laws, and that what

seems strange is after all very regular. This treatment when used with

discretion is stimulating, while the result will be that the pupil, with

the English cognate before him, can never fail to associate Jingo

with the idea of " work in plastic material." But philological matter,

for the mere sake of philology, should have no place in the younger

classes. To immature students the subject can only be distracting and

confusing.

ETYMOLOGY. 53

or fanciful, of which the writer was conscious, should

not only be recognized, but carefully reproduced,

since these have to do with the translator's art. No

translation, for example, preserves the spirit of the

original which does not render the etymological play

on words : Av/cet ava%, \viceios yevov (" Seven against

Thebes," 145), "Wolf-lord, prove thy wolfish power"

(Verrall). The sense of many a passage in Dante

rests on just such a turn of the sentence ; for example,

Qui vive la pietd quancTe ben morta,

" Here can live

piety [pietd~] when pity [pietd~\ is dead." The translator

can easily observe etymology in such words as

<rvvTop(i)<t, "concisely," eV^e'Sco?, "constantly"; or,

better still, to use an Anglo-Saxon word, "steadfastly."

Etymology demands the rendering of all

negative ideas by negative ideas. It is a frequent

sin of the translator to substitute a positive for the

negative. He often translates, for example, cm/Ao?,

"

shameful," where he ought to give the negative

" unhonored "

; again he translates immemor, " forgetful,"

instead of "unmindful."

The figurae etymologicae are characteristic of an

author's style; they strike the reader or hearer as

two similar sounds strike the ear : it is unpardonable

in the translator if he ignores them. We should not

render pr) drja-avpi^ere vplv Orjcravpovs 7rl TT)? 777?

OTTOV K\e7rrai KXCTTTOVO-LV (Matt. 6:19), "Do not

lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth . . .

where thieves , , , steal." In such a translation the

54 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

effect of the repetition of similar sounds through

the recurrence of the same root is entirely lost. Etymology

requires,

" Do not treasure for yourselves

treasures upon earth . . . where robbers . . . rob."

The etymological figure, important as it is, has been

so frequently slighted in translation that there is need

of a word of caution against its neglect. How effective

is it in the familiar passage, Ad senem senex de

senectute scripsi,

" I wrote to an old man, being an

old man myself, about old age

"

I Again we see its

power in the equally well-known words of Ennius'

tragedy :

Ego deum genus esse dixi et dicam caelitum :

Sed eos non curare opinor, quid agat humanum genus

Nam si curant bene bonis sit, male malis, quod nunc

abest.

"I maintain and always shall maintain that there is a

race of gods up in heaven, but they don't bother, I guess,

about what men do here, for if they did, it would go justly

with the just and badly with the bad, which is now fai

from the case."

THE ORDER OF WORDS. 55

THE ORDER OF WORDS.

If translation were the rendering of the foreign

words or the foreign constructions into the corresponding

English, then literalness would have to be

insisted upon. But since translation is nothing less

than the reproduction of the impressions, the feelings,

and the emotions that were aroused in the native mind

as the thought of the sentence first came to it, the translator,

as far as his art and the idiom of his language

will allow, must unfold the idea in his English just

as the original sentence unfolded it ;

1 for example,

1 Christ, in commenting on the word-order (raft?) of Demosthenes,

Cites Olynthiac, iii, 13 : fir' ole<rO' O.VTOV, oi e7ronj<ra>' liev oiiSev a.v KO.K.OV, fx>}

wa.6elv &' e<j>v\davT' a.v icrcu?, TOUTOVS fnev efaira.Tai> atpcurdat jioAAof ^ irpoAeyovTO

j3tde<r0at, Vfj.lv S'fK irpopprjaftas TroAe/a.ijrrtii' Kal rav9' tiu? a.v fKOvrts efajraTa<70e.

His observations on the above passage are very fine. " Wir haben

hier ein konditionales Sachverhaltnis, aber das bringt der Rednernicht

in der langweiligen Form der Logik mit Vorder und Nachsatz vor

(weun. . . . so),sondern in kraftvoller Nebeneinanderstellung der

Gegensatze und mit wirksamstem Appell an das eigene Urteil der

Zuho'rer (oW0' ainov iroAMr,<reiv) . Gestellt sind die Worte so, dass nicht

ein nichtssagendes Pronomen dem Relativsatz vorangeht, soudern das

Relativum ol mit dem Demonstrativum TOU'TOUS wirkungsvoll aufgenommen

wird, dass ferner die entgegengesetzten Pronomina TOUTOVS und

vii.lv an der Spitze stehen und dass die Gegensatze efan-arii/ und ^tafflrffat

die nichtsbedeutenden Worte alpfltrdeu vpoXeyovra in die Mitte nehmen.

Um dem Zweifel, ob die Duodezstaaten sich tiberhaupt zur Wehr

setzen wiirden, kraftigeren Ausdruck zu geben, ist von der gewOhnlichen

Stellung lo-w? av i<t>v\dfavro Umgang genommen und das zweifelnde

56 THE AST OF TRANSLATING.

Samnitium caesi tria milia duoenti (Livy, x, 34, 3),

" The Samnites were slain to the number of three

thousand two hundred." The vigor of the famous

expression of Louis XIV, L'etat c'est moi,

" The

state it is I," is altogether lost in the customary

but tame rendering,

" I am the state." I recall how

this inversion of order, a thing seemingly so trivial,

has become a grievous fault in the translation of

several Sanskrit philosophical treatises by a distinguished

German scholar. Professor Whitney's

criticism concerning it applies equally well to all

translation : " The difference in order, it may be said,

is very small, like that between a= b and b = a ; yet

there is a real difference whether one starts from

the one point or from the other in making the comparison

; this is evidenced by the care which is taken

almost everywhere (not quite without exception)

by the translator to cast the predication into this

form, inverting, as I think, the true relation, and

sometimes against very distinct evidence to the

contrary" (Review of Bohtlingk's

"

Upanishads").

In the normal order the writer or speaker starts

with the known, or, as Weil puts it, the "initial

notion," and proceeds to the unknown, or "goal of

discourse." It is not always the emphatic word

l<rw? mit nachdruck an den Schluss gesetzt; um endlich den anstossigen

Hiatus <uper<r0<u jj irpoAeyovra zu vermeiden, erlaubt sich der Eedner ein

tiberfliissiges oder doch nicht notwendiges na\\ov zwischen die klaffenden

Vokale zu schieben." Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur,

p. 345.

THE ORDER OF WORDS. 57

which stands first. Precision demands that the

speaker begin with the word most intimately connected

with the thought of the preceding sentence.

Take the common example, Romulus Romam condidit,

and note the following comments : " The order of

words in this proposition will depend on the context,

on the thread of the discourse. If the subject under

discussion is the founding of cities, the * initial

notion ' or ' psychological subject

' will be the founding,

and the order will be, condidit Romam Romulus,

'the founder of Rome was Romulus.' If, on the

contrary, the subject in hand is the founder, the

order will be, idem Romulus Romam condidit, ' the

same Romulus founded Rome.' If the subject is

the city's founding, the order will be, Jianc urbem

condidit Romulus, ' this city was founded by Romulus.'

In each instance the principle of connection

operates ; the idea connecting with what precedes,

comes first the new idea comes last. In other

words, the progression is from the known to the

unknown. Or, expressed in still different terms,

the 'psychological subject' comes first in each instance

; the ' psychological predicate

'

last." 1

We need to note the differentiation of principal

and subordinate sentences. In the principal sentence,

as Wunderlich (" Der deutsche Satzbau ") shows,

thought and speech cooperate at the same time, the

1 McKnight, Primitive Teutonic Order of Words. The Journal of

Germanic Philology, Vol. I.

58 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

sentence consisting of individual parts treated as a

unity. But in the subordinate sentence, language

follows thought, and deals with a finished concept.

Emphasis of course changes the word-order, but

how it shall be changed rests entirely upon the nature

of the sentence and the character of the language.

This has been well expressed by McKnight :

" To form a more accurate notion of the influence

of emphasis in determining word-order, you must bear

in mind that this influence is an indirect one. The

desire to emphasize first influences the accentuation,

and only indirectly, through the accentuation, influences

the order of words. The principle of emphasis,

then, influences word-order only in this way, that

a writer or speaker always endeavors to place the

word to be emphasized in the position that naturally

has the stress, the next most important word in the

position that naturally has the secondary stress, and

so on, thus placing the ideas in perspective.

" To determine the principles of accentuation,

then, is necessary before one can understand the influence

of the principle of emphasis on word-order.

This has not yet been satisfactorily done. In making

such a determination, the unit of language considered

must be, not the logical unit, the sentence,

but the spoken unit, the breath group. At present

we know only that the accentuation is different in

different kinds of clauses, the interrogative clause

differing in this respect from the affirmative clause,

THE ORDER OF WORDS. 59

and that different languages have peculiar modes of

accentuation. For example, in French the accent

seems to fall naturally at the end of the breath

group ; in Irish it seems to fall naturally at the beginning.

Note the peculiar influence of the different

national modes of accentuation on the word-order

in the following sentences :

' At such a time as this I

would n't tell you a lie

'

; 'It 's not a lie that I 'd be

tellin' you now.' '

We see that the translator must so arrange his

words as to preserve emphasis even at the sacrifice,

if needs be, of grammatical construction; for

example, Persuasit nox, amor, vinum adulescentia

(Terence, "Adelphoe," 470), "The witchery was

night, flirtation, wine and youth" (Lane); o>Se yap

Kparel yvvaiicbs av8pd/3ov\ov \TTIOV fceap (JEschylus,

"Agamemnon," 10), "For such power has a woman's

fancying heart." The English emphatic order is entirely

at variance with that of the language we are

translating in the case of "

Lucretius," ii, 145 : Et

variae volucres nemora avia pervolitantes |

aera per

tenerum liquidis loca vocibus opplent. The strong

emphasis that falls on liquidis is brought over into

English only through the postposition of the adjective.

" And motley birds, in pathless woods, that

flit through lither sky, fill space with carols clear"

(Lane). In the same way the emphasis on the last two

words in Nulla placere diu nee vivere carmina possunt,

i quae scribuntur aquae potoribus (Horace, Epis60

THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

ties, i, 19, 2) is brought out by the English order,

" No

verse can take or be long-lived that by teetotalers is

writ

"

(Lane). The emphatic genitive preceding its

noun, for example, Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui

primus ab oris Italiam . . . venit, is brought out in

the translation,

" Arms and the man I sing from Troy's

shores the first to come to Italy

"

(Lane). In jEschylus,

" Seven against Thebes," 338, 339, TroAXa yap,

VT TTTO'XI? 8afJ,acrdr) ', er;, Svarv^rj re Trpdcrcrei, don't

translate, "When a city is taken, it has great and

hapless sufferings," since the clause evre TTTO'TU?

Sapaady is comparatively unemphatic and simply

describes the situation. The emphasis is on TroXXa and

Svarrvxfj. Render " Many and hapless are the woes

a city suffers when once it is captured." In Thucydides,

i, 1, the force of the original order tcivrja-LS

avrrj fjieyia-rrj can be reproduced by the English,

" Of

all movements this was the greatest." The awful

situation pictured in the "

(Edipus Tyrannus

"

of

Sophocles, 456, is intensified by the position of the

words which Symonds has well imitated :

de i:atff\ T<>7? aoroo

ros xai xaTijp, xd;- rj

dz ulo~ xai 7TO(Tt9, xai TOU

6fi6ffxop6t; re xa} yovetx;.

He shall be shown to be with his own children

Brother and sire in one, of her who bore him

Husband at once and offspring, of his father

Bedmate and murderer.

THE ORDER OF WORDS. 61

The following points must be observed in the effort

to imitate the original order of words or to preserve

emphasis.

Change in Construction. The translator should

never hesitate to vary the construction, if by so doing

he can bring out the thought more nearly in the

order in which the foreign sentence presented it ; for

example, ^Eschylus, "Agamemnon," 255: b<? Be\ei

e/9/co9, "as is the wish of this defense." A most

frequent variation is the conversion of the active

voice into the English passive, and vice versa; for

example, Uon me dit tant de mal de cet homme, et j'y

en vois si peu, que je commence a soupconner qu'il n'ait

un me'rite si importun, qui Steigne celui des autres (La

Bruyere), "I am told so much evil of that man and

I see so little of it in him, that I begin to suspect

that he has some inconvenient merit which extinguishes

that of others."

So in the translation of Goethe's vivid lines :

Harrend auf des Morgens Wonne,

Oestlich spahend ihren Lauf,

Ging auf einmal mir die Sonne

Wunderbar un Stiden auf.

Zog den Blick nach jener Seite,

Statt der Schluchten, statt der Hoh'n,

Statt der Erd und Himmelsweite,

Sie, die Einzige, zu spahn.

62 THE AKT OF TRANSLATING.

Eastward was my glance directed,

Watching for the sun's first rays ;

In the south oh, sight of wonder !

Rose the bright orb's sudden blaze.

Thither was my eye attracted ;

Vanished bay and mountain height,

Earth and heaven unseen and all things,

All but that enchanted light.

Anster.

This conversion of voice is often demanded in the

translation of Latin and Greek. If we should desire

to put even into modern Greek the ordinary English

sentence,

" A new, attractive edition of the Anabasis

has recently been issued by an American publishing

house," we should say, NeW eXi/cm/e^y etcboanv rfjs

'Avafidcrecos eSrj/jLCxrievcrev ecr^arco?

''

K^epiKaviKrj

eraipia 777309 eKTinroxriv (Tvyypa^/jLdTQ)v.

Antithesis. Antithesis in language is the same

principle as that in the painter's art which brings out

a white object with greater intensity when placed before

a dark background ; for example, Ben Jonson's

" All concord 's born of contraries." Note the German

proverb, Kleine Diebe lidngt man, grosse Id'sst

man laufen, "The petty thief we hang, the great

we let go free." Splendid are the antitheses of Simonides,

in his eulogy on Sparta's dead :

rwv iv 0epfj.oxrjJ.ats Oavovratv

[j.kv d T'j^a, xaAo? <J' 6 -077109,

5' 6 Td<po$, itpb yowv 5e [ivaaris, 6 6"

THE OKDKB OF WORDS. 63

ivrd<ftov 8s TOIOUTOV our'

ou0' 6

"Of those who at Thermopylae have fallen, glorious

their fate and fair their lot. An altar is their tomb, instead

of tears undying memory, their requiem a hymn of

praise. Such sepulchre nor rust nor all-subduing time

shaU dim."

Contrast makes more dismal the gloomy picture of

Catullus :

Soles occidere et redire possunt :

Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux

Nox est perpetua una dormienda.

v, 4-6.

Suns will rise and set again :

But for us, when once doth wane

This poor pageant's little light,

We must sleep in endless night.

Tyrrell.

The grouping of the antitheses ought to be as close

in English as in the original ; for example, Euripides,

"Alcestis," 635, Tra/aei? a\\a> davelv

|

veo) yepauk,

"

permitting another to die, one who was young,

though thou wert old

"

; .^Eschylus,

" Seven against

Thebes," 740, TTOVOI SO/MOW veot 7ra\aioi(ri cru/u/u7et9

/ca/coi?,

" sorrows of the home mingled with woes,

the new with the old." " To extirpate antithesis from

literature altogether would be to destroy at one stroke

about eight tenths of all the wit, ancient and modern,

now existing in the world" (author of "Lacon'').

64 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

Collocation. The placing together of words of

similar sound or etymology must be made as effective

in a translation as it was in the foreign text; for example,

JEschylus, "Agamemnon," 641, TroXXow 8e TTO\-

\(t)v ea<yi<r0VTa<; SO/AWV,

" many from many homes "

;

Euripides, "Alcestis," 799, 6Vra? 8e OVTJTOW Ovrjra /cat

<f>poveiv xptvv, "for a mortal mortal thoughts are becoming";

Lucretius, "De Rerum Natura," i, 272,

casta inceste,

" a stainless maid with stain of blood "

(Munro). Collocation becomes very forceful in the

despairing words of Cassandra :

xai vuv 6 [j.dvTt$ fidvTiv IxnpdS-a? ifie

$ roidads ffavafftfiouy

Now he who made me prophetess, the prophet,

Himself hath brought me to these straits of death.

Symonds.

Chiasmus. It is just as much demanded of the

translator that he should conserve such a figure in

the style of the original as that the artist should

faithfully portray the alternation of shades in the

landscape ; for example, Sophocles,

"

CEdipus Tyrannus,"

1250, e av8po<; avSpa /cal TGKV etc TCKVODV re/coi,

" from a husband a husband, and children from children."

Hyperbaton. The bold hyperbata of many classic

writers for example, Pindar, TO> jiev elire- <$>i\t,a Swpa

THE ORDER OF WORDS. 65

Kf7T/3ta9 ay' ei ri e? ^dpiv I reXXerat (Ol., i, 75)

cannot be imitated in English without making the sentence

ridiculously awkward and obscure. Yet we

are obliged to confess that such transposition of

words gave to the original a power and variety of

which we feel something in our English sentence,

" He wanders earth around."

Tmesis. As is weH known, there was no tmesis in

Homer, since the preposition had simply its historic

adverbial force. Later writers, however, felt that

there was a real "cutting asunder" of words, and

through false imitations introduced this so-called

figure of etymology. Ennius' famous line, cere saxo

comminuit brum, gives us a vocal picture of the rock

crushing the skull which baffles reproduction. The

impression conveyed by tmesis on the mind of Greek

or Roman is similar to that made upon us in our

rendering of Horace's quo me cunque rapit tempestas,

" what way soever the storm drives me."

Alliteration. Since translation is the effort to

reproduce impressions corresponding to those of the

original, it is the translator's duty to imitate intentional

alliteration wherever the English vocabulary

may allow it without affectation; for example, ^Eschylus,

" Agamemnon," 295, fypvicrov </>&><?,

" beacon's

blaze

"

; so in the rather tasteless lines of Ennius :

Septingenti sunt paulo plus aut minus anni

Augusto augurio postquam inclita condita Roma est.

66 THE AKT OF TRANSLATING.

Years seven hundred, more or less, have passed

Since Rome with auguries august arose.

Tyrrell.

Every one is familiar with his notoriously alliterative

verse :

Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tyranne tulisti.

In fact, so great is the influence of alliteration that

we ought not to hesitate to change lacrimis decoret of

Cicero's transmission so that the epitaph of the poet

may read :

Nemo me dacrumis decoret, nee funera fletu

Faxit.

Asyndeton. - - The lively succession of events

pictured in the original by the omission of the conjunction

must be reproduced with corresponding abruptness

; for example, Le Bramin me dit un jour : je

voudrais n'etre jamais ne. Je lui demandai pourquoi.

11 me repondit; fetudie depuis quarante ans ; ce sont

quarante annees de perdues ; j'enseigne les autres, et

fignore tout (Voltaire,

" Histoire d'un bon Bramin

"),

" The Brahmin said to me one day :

' I could

wish that I never had been born '

; I asked him why.

He answered me :

4 1 have studied for forty years ;

they are forty years lost ; I teach others and I am

ignorant of everything.'

" Chassez les prejuges par la

porte, Us rentreront par la fenetre (Frederick to Voltaire),

" Drive prejudices out the door, they come

THE ORDER OF WORDS. 67

back by the window." There is no place for superfluous

words in the following : Caesari omnia uno ternpore

erant agenda : vexillum proponendum, signum tuba

dandum, ab opere revocandi milites, acies instruenda

milites cohortandi, signum dandum (Caesar, Gallic

War, ii, 20),

" Caesar was obliged to attend to everything

at the same moment; the flag had to be displayed,

the bugle sounded, the soldiers called in from

work, the battle line formed, the soldiers encouraged,

the signal given." Note Cicero, "Pro Roscio Amerino,"

60 : Peroravit aliquando, adsedit. Surrexi ego.

Respirare visus est, quod non aKus potius diceret.

Coepi dicere. Usque eo animadverti, indices, eum alias

res agere, antequam Chrysogonum nominavi; quern simul

atque attigi, statim homo se erexit, mirari visus est. Intellexi

quid eum pupugisset.

" After a while he wound

up, took his seat ; up rose your humble servant. He

seemed to take courage from the fact it was nobody

else. I began to speak. I noticed, gentlemen, that

he was inattentive all along till I named Chrysogonus

; but the moment I touched on him, the creature

perked up at once, seemed to be surprised. I knew

what the rub was" (Lane). Beautiful is Sappho's

picture of the rest of evening :

Hesper, thou bringest back again

All that the gaudy day-beams part,

68 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

The sheep, the goat, back to their pen,

The child home to his mother's heart.

Frederick Tennyson,

Polysyndeton. When the foreign text avoids

swift transition through the repetition of conjunctions,

thus enabling the mind to linger at will on

each thought as a unity, the translator is compelled

to do the same. Well is this illustrated in the

strong and familiar passage: TreTreia-pai yap ori ovre

ddvaros, ovre far), ovre ayyeXoi, ovre ap^al, ovre

ei>eo-TWTa, ovre [ie\\ovra, ovre 8iwa/iei<?, ovre v^to^a,

ovre /3a#o9, ovre ns KTIO-IS erepa Swrjaerai r)fj.a<;

Xwpio-ai cnro -n}9 a^dir^ rov eov (Rom. 8 : 38, 39),

"I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor

angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor

things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

nor any other creature shall be able to separate us

from the love of God."

It often happens, on the other hand, that the idiom

of the foreign tongue joins sentences in chainlike

fashion, while the English rather avoids such connection.

Cumbersome, indeed, would it be to render

the conjunction in Sappho's stanza,

fiiv a

dk ;j.6va xareudta.

THE ORDER OF WORDS. 69

The silver moon is set ;

The Pleiades are gone ;

Half the long night is spent, and yet

I lie alone.

Merivale.

The moon hath left the sky :

Lost is the Pleiad's light ;

It is midnight

And time slips by;

But on my couch alone I lie.

Symonds.

70 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

FIGURES OF SPEECH.

Do not strip off any figurative ornament from the

style of a foreign author. In avoiding this the skill

of a translator is brought to its severest test. It often

happens that a metaphor in one language becomes

unbearable in another. The translator, it is true,

may be forced to change the figure, yet he is faithless

to his task if he destroys it altogether. The

metaphor in K\v0t /j,ev, apyvporo^', 65 Xpv<njv a/ji<f)i~

Pefyxa? |

Kt\\av re &8&iv (II., A, 37, 38) is that of

one bestriding another to shield him from harm, a

wonderfully expressive figure, yet one which becomes

gross when brought over into English. Should we

translate "protect," the strength, the boldness, as

well as the tenderness of the original are gone. Let

us turn the tables and note how the modern Greek

translators of Shakespeare have struggled with one or

two of our own metaphors : "

Aye, there 's the rub "

Damirale l renders, 'A ! I8ov 6 TbpSios Seo-/i09 ; again,

" The time is out of joint, O cursed spite that ever

1 Damirale remarks,

" There 's the rub " = 'iSoir TO Trpdo-KOMMa.

" To

mb," At'yei 6 (Wright) elve b'pos Te\V{.nos, crrjjuaiVui' -rrfv vvyKpovaiv i) TO

ifjivoSioVf oirep trvvavra ri <rcf>atpa Tpe\ov<TOL. 'Epo/uVa/uci' on ajroStSonev TO Trvivfta

rov TTott/Tou epHTivevovTfs Sia TOV : TopSioi Seo-/ids.

" To rub," Says Wright,

" is a technical term signifying the friction or the resistance which a

rolling ball encounters. I believe that I render the spirit of the poet

by translating

' Gordian knot.' "

FIGURES OF SPEECH. 71

I was born to set it right," one attempts, 'O xpovos

rfi<f o8ov avrov e^eVecre. 'A.\\otfj,ovov (JLOL OTL r)\6ov

et<? rr]v ^rfv Iva opicro) rovrov TrdXiv (Pervanoglos) ;

another, OI Katpol e^rjpBptaBija-av. KarrjpafMevij fiolpal

'E7re7r/)a>TO va <yevvrj0S) eycu, ei? rd^iv va TOW <f>e'pa>

(Damirale) ; a third,

6 xuff/jLoy jraef ffra ffrpafid. Q\ Aev dnefjiSt'S akko

xapd tya) va. fzvvj]Qib ffrd \aia vd ruv ^dXu>\

Vikelas.

And a fourth,

xatpo*;- rrt <s fj.otpay neifffjia at

vd Y^vvrjOw vd rov dtopO<t)ff(u.

Polylas.

There is a beautiful metaphor, avasdna, in one of

the Hindu burial hymns which we spoil when we

translate, as is so often done,

"

resting place." The

Sanskrit word means literally "an unyoking," the

yoke is taken from the neck and the weary cattle are

turned into the pasture land. So the dead has

reached the "bound of life where he lays his burdens

down."

Again, the translator too frequently ignores that

rhetorical device (synecdoche) which singles out a

leading part or characteristic (pars pro toto, materia

pro re, etc.). It is not required that the specific part

mentioned be thrust into the translation. The usage

of our language may have settled on stereotyped

phrases differing from those of the foreign tongue.

It is the effect of the figure, and not the literal ren72

THE ART OP TRANSLATING.

dering of a word, that should be the translator's purpose.

We should not hesitate, for example, to render

in jEschylus, "Agamemnon," 116, <az/eWe9 iicrap

/j,\d0pci)v,

" seen near the palace walls," regardless

as to what part of the building pekdOpwv technically

referred.

Frequently a modest and restricted form of statement

(diminutio~) carries with it far greater force

than a positive, bold expression of fact. The translator

should be very careful to bring this over into

English; for example, Pindar, OL, i, 53, atcepSeia

\e\oy%ev Oafjuva KaKaydpovs.

" Little gain comes to

those who tell bad tales." When cause is expressed

in the guise of a condition, the English sentence

should be true to the original; for example, II., A.

3942, 4 Trore TOL %apivr' eVt vqov epei/ra, |

ria-eiav

Amo! efjia Sdicpva aolffi /3e\e<ra-iv. "If I have

roofed for thee a pleasing shrine may the Danai

atone for my tears by thy shafts." Here the reason

for the answer to the prayer is shifted to the responsibility

of the god. It is as if the old priest had

said,

" Look over the past, Apollo ; see if I have

been faithful in my office." Apollo draws the conclusion.

Such rhetorical device makes the hearer do

his own reasoning. How much more emphatic than

if Chryses had said,

" Since I have roofed a shrine

for thee, thou must hear my prayer." So in Latin,

the translator should avoid rendering si qmdem by a

causal conjunction. The condition " if in fact

"

FIGURES OF SPEECH. 73

shows that cause was clearly in the mind of the

writer, but the responsibility of the conclusion is put

upon the reader.

Often a word takes its coloring from the context.

Exactness requires that the English word be in itself

equally colorless. It is the same principle that requires

the painter to give to objects, themselves clear

and colorless like the surface of a lake for example,

the light and shadows imparted by their environment.

In Euripides,

"

Alcestis," 771, 772, icaicayv yap pvpfov

eppvero, opyas /j,a\d(rcrov(T' avBpds, the Greek 0/37015

does not mean "

anger

"

; such a notion enters it only

by association. So our English temper takes its

shade of meaning from the surrounding thought.

Translate : " She rescued me from a thousand ills by

softening her lord's temper." It is true that words,

like individuals, can receive a character, more or less

fixed, from the company they keep.

A figurative meaning often displaces the primitive

signification. As Cauer remarks :

" A frequent metaphorical

expression loses its figure. This process is

like the transition from the crude metal to the

stamped bars, from them to the stamped coin, and

finally to the paper currency. The ancients were

richer in concrete, but poorer in abstract, expressions

than we are ; or, to put it better, there was in

their abstract ideas a concrete element more strongly

felt than in ours." l

1 Cauer, Die Kimst des Uebersetzens, pp. 31, 32.

74 THE ART OF TRANSLATING.

The taking of words from foreign languages into our

vocabulary has helped to make the English abstract.

For example, comprehend carries to the mind, indifferent

to its etymology, simply the abstract idea,

while the Anglo-Saxon grasp forces its metaphor upon

us. In Latin and Greek, as well as German, the words

are formed from native roots, and consequently carry

on their face the origin of the metaphor ;

1 for example,

German antJieil as contrasted with English

sympathy. The effort of translation being to make

the same impression upon the English as was made

upon the native mind, a careful choice of words of

Anglo-Saxon origin will often preserve the figure with

the clearness of the original.

2 For example, rogo

atque oro te colligas virumque praebeas (Cicero, Fam.,

5, 18, 1), "I beg and entreat you, pull yourself together

and quit you like a man "

(Lane).

The preposition in Greek and Latin frequently

holds within itself a figurative meaning, which we

cannot bring out except by using a much fuller expression.

For example, e/c davdrov should not be

rendered " from death," but " out of the grasp of

death." So Cauer suggests that we can easily preserve

the figure in Vergil's sub nocte silenti by translating

" under the mantle of the silent night

"

(unter

* Cf. Thomas, Zur Historischen Entwickelung der Metapher im

Griechischen, Erlangen, 1891.

2 The authorized translation of the Bible contains the largest per

cent, of Saxon words, the estimate being that only about one third of

its vocabulary is derired from other languages.

FIGURES OF SPEECH. 75

dem Mantel der schweigenden Nachf) ; also the figure

in sub casu (potes hoc sub casu ducere somnos? Vergil,

^Eneid, iv, 560) by rendering, "Canst thou sleep

in peace while this fate hangs over thee ?

"

(Kami du

ruliig schlafen, wahrend dieses Schicksal iiber dir

schwebt?).

" In the course of time," says Cauer, " it must

often result that individual expressions always occur

in definite relation, and by association and use take

into themselves an idea which was foreign to them.

So facinus became (mis) deed, potestas became (official)

power. How often xa>pa or %ip is omitted !

For 8e|ia we have a correspondingly short (English)

expression, the right; but we are forced to render

afjufroTeprjaiv

' with both hands.'

" The greater maturity of our modern thought in

the province of abstract nouns often makes our (English)

expression shorter than the foreign ; for example,

de rebus bonis et malis (TuscuL, v, 4, 10),

' concerning good and bad '

; quae tamen omnia dulciora

fiunt et moribus bonis et artibus (Cato Maior,

xviii, 65),

' through character and culture.' On the

other hand, such abstract substantives as satietates

(Lselius, xix, 67), 'moments of satiety,' and excellentiae

(69),

' prominent personal characteristics,'

require in (English) the circumlocutions given

above." :

1 Cauer, Die Kunst des Uebersetzens, pp. 70-73.

76 THE ART OP TRANSLATING.

THE GREEK PARTICLES.

Just a few hints for the rendering of Greejs particles

will not be out of place. In this the translator

has a task as delicate as that of the artist in his endeavor

to reproduce the exact light and shade in the

scene before him. In no case should he think of the

literal meaning of the particle. The first and only

question which the translator must ask is, "What

coloring does it give to the idea ?

"

Then, by any

word or words in his power, he should endeavor to

transfuse this coloring into his English sentence.

I translate in abridged form the comments of

Cauer :

l

" The particles have nothing but empty meaning.

Into them is forced a fullness of ideas which accompany

the thoughts of the speaker, and which form in

his mind the framework for his successive sentences.

These from time to time show their influence in the

significant gesture or in a pair of correlated expressions.

Of special importance are those little words

which serve to join sentences. A well chosen conjunction

achieves something similar to that which a

1 Cauer appropriately selects as the superscription of his chapter

" Partikeln" the words of Schiller: " Im kleinsten Punkte die hOchste

Kraft."

THE GREEK PARTICLES. 77

fortunate turn of the passage achieves on a higher

scale ; in both there enters an inner relation of preceding

and following thoughts ; both are disjunctive,

while at the same time they connect; they are the

joints in the body of the language.

" It often happens that a particle cannot be translated

except by a word which is much stronger than

the original. When this is so, we had better omit it

entirely and preserve the force by the tone of the

voice. Such is frequently the case in regard to the

Greek ye.

" Of the Homeric expletives, apa is especially untranslatable

by any single word. It expresses a harmony

between thought and fact, so that either the

result corresponds to one's expectations or, on the

contrary, the thought is made to fit the reality.

These ideas are expressed in our two short sentences,

' As one might think,' As one must admit.'

" How can the same sentence contain antithesis

and confirmation ? Yet how often we meet a\\d

yap; for example, Od., K. 202, aX\' ov yap ri<t Trprjgis

eyiyvero pvpopevoia-iv. In this passage it requires no

imagination to hear and see Odysseus as he pauses

after the ' but ' and with resignation shrugs his shoulders

or raises his hands, indicating with half sad, half

scornful look, that the lamentation did not last long,

for it was no use for them to weep. As we read, we

can feel this force, although we mar the sentence if

we attempt to express it in words. As in the case