Georgics 2.102-115 (Sam Cohen)

Created By Samuel Cohen

Dryden's Translation:

But Various are the ways to change the state
Of plants, to bud, to grow, to inoculate,

For, where the tender rinds of trees disclose

Their shooting gems, a swelling knotter grows;

Just in that space a narrow slit we make,

Then other buds from bearing trees we take;

Instead thus, the wounded rind we close,

In whose moist womb the admitted infant grows.

But, when smoother bole from knots is free,

we make a deep incision in the tree,

And in the solid wood the slip enclose.

The battening bastard shoots again and grows;

And in short space the laden boughs arise,

With happy fruit advancing to the skies

In Dryden’s 1697 translation of Virgil’s Georgics, he really emphasizes the urgency of working with the land. We can see this by comparing his translation with Fairclough’s 1916 translation of the Georgics. When looking the two versions, we can see that Dryden’s use of tone and language highlights the importance and urgency of the message of the Georgics while Fairclough does not do this.

This use of tone and word choice can be seen in book two, lines 103 through 117 of Dryden’s translation and it’s equivalent in Fairclough’s translation, lines 73 through 82. This section of the Georgics focus on manipulating the land, and more specifically the growing of trees.

In Dryden’s version of the translation, he uses metaphors to compare the trees to humans. This can be seen line 109 where Dryden writes “In whose moist womb the admitted infant grows.” He also calls the tree a “battening bastard” (Dryden, line 112), a descriptor usually reserved for a person. We don’t see this in the Fairclough version. Instead, he uses more straightforward language like “and teach it to grow in the sappy bark” (Fairclough, lines 73-82). By comparing the tree to a person, Dryden is saying the need to care for the Earth is as important as the need to care for a human. He is bringing a greater sense of exigency to the issue.

The tone that Dryden uses in this section of the text also highlights the message about the importance of working land. When comparing the two texts, you can see that Dryden’s tone is much more violent while the tone Fairclough’s translation feels more subdued. Dryden’s use of phrases such as “wounded rind” (line 108) and “battening bastard” (1ine 112) really hit this point home. While this might seem like it works in contrast with the point of treating the trees like a person, I think the violent tone works in tandem with it. The violent tone just further highlights the importance and urgency of the message. This is not something that is seen in the Fairclough version.

In his translation of Virgil’s Georgics, Dryden uses metaphors where he compares the trees to people and language that creates a violent tone. He does this in order to highlight the urgency of the message of the importance of working the land. This is not something that is seen in Fairclough’s translation of the text.