Post 1: Compare Translations

Alyssa Kraus

John Dryden’s Translation of “The Georgics”: A Sustainability Success

In John Dryden’s translation of Virgil’s Book IV from “The Georgics,” Dryden utilizes rhymed couplets and vivid word choice to portray the importance of the bees as both a symbol of sustainability and a model for a successful society. Dryden’s creative choices and striking imagery are crucial for translating Virgil’s sustainability concerns and his overall infatuation with bees. In comparison, H.R. Fairclough, a modern translator of “The Georgics,” fails to underscore the significance of Virgil’s concerns at the level of Dryden’s success due to a lack of textual flow and appropriate word choice.

Firstly, Dryden’s rhymed couplets promote a natural flow for readers to follow throughout the text, cultivating the serene tone of nature within his poetry. Each line carries into the next, moving from one beautiful scene to another. For example, Dryden writes, “Then stooping on the meads and leafy bowers, they skim the floods, and sip the purple flowers” (Dryden 75-76). This rhymed couplet moves readers through the images, the words flowing like the water in the floods or swarming like the bees to their flowers. However, in Fairclough’s translation, the lack of rhyme scheme presents a choppy and structured excerpt that lacks the emphasis on the charming qualities of nature that Virgil wanted to promote and protect. Readers do not grasp the “buzz” for the bees or the environment in this translation that Virgil prioritized in his work and Dryden incorporated in his own.

Secondly, Dryden’s distinct word choice captures readers’ attention and generates an image of the bees as an army – something that was crucial in Virgil’s original work. For example, Dryden calls the bees a “winged nation,” emphasizing their unity and promoting their powerful demeanor (Dryden 73). Dryden’s word choice continues to create this strong image when he describes how the bees “labour” over their work and “march” through nature (Dryden 82, 86). Dryden crafts this resilient military persona for the bees in order to highlight Virgil’s original argument – the bees are a perfect model for a strong society. In the original text, Virgil wanted men of his time to be loyal citizens to the king and unwavering soldiers for their land; thus, this imagery in Dryden’s translation is significant. Not to mention, Virgil’s sustainability concerns are also promoted through the glorification of the bees, since it calls upon a mundane example of nature that requires our protection. On the other hand, Fairclough is much less descriptive in his translation of the bees, referring to the bee colony mainly as “they” instead of powerful descriptors and interchanging Dryden’s language with milder substitutes (Fairclough 54). The lack of imagery and word choice in Fairclough’s translation only underscores the power that Dryden’s piece manifests to convey Virgil’s ideas.

Thus, Dryden’s translation utilizes rhymed couplets and bright imagery to promote sustainability and to call upon Virgil’s preferred model for society. Falling short of this success, Fairclough’s translation misses many of the persuasive components of Dryden’s work.

Works Cited

Dryden, John. “Virgil’s Georgics.” John Dryden, edited by Keith Walker, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 523.

Fairclough, H.R. “VIRGIL, GEORGICS 3 - 4.” Theoi Classical Texts Library, www.theoi.com/Text/VirgilGeorgics2.html.