Juvenal, Persius, Martial, and Cattalus; an Experiment in Trans- lation.
By W. F. Shaw, M.A. (Regan Paul, Trench, and Co.)— Prose translations, Mr. Shaw thinks, are not attractive, and trans- lations in rhymed verse are seldom faithful. The third course is to give verse that shall not be rhymed. Hence the present attempt, which seeks to utilise for the purpose the metre of "Hiawatha." Now, this metre has a certain "fatal facility" about it. A little practice can enable one almost to talk in it; but like all easy metres, it is very difficult to write well, and we cannot think that Mr. Shaw has over- come this difficulty. We shall take a specimen at random :—
" This is how your fancied patron Will avoid doing anything for yon. He will tell yon he's no time left For your public recitation.,
As he's now himself a poet, Greater e'en than Homer but for Prejudice in ant quity's favour."
Here the second and the seventh lines are wholly out of rhythm. But, however well Mr. Shaw might write the metre, it would not suit the dignified verse of Juvenal. Dignity, indeed, is wholly wanting to this experiment, and it must be said to have failed altogether. Martial is better suited to the purpose, and though we cannot con- gratulate Mr. Shaw on a success, we willingly allow that some of his work is passable. Here is an epigram (viii.) :—
" Wh.lt a nuisance i3 old Euctns,
With his fine old plate! I'd rather Eat off plain Saguntine platters ; Oh! bow very flat the wino gets While he's praising the decanter: This an. great Lsomedon's goblet, Aod for it Apollo built the Walls of Troy ; for this old punch-bowl Rho cus battled with the Lapithao; How it suffered in th' encounter!
This cup's sa d to have been No;tor's, How his thumb has rubbed the dove on't There's the bowl in which Achilles Had his grog mixed strong ; and here's the Lo‘iug cup in which sweet D:de, At the banquet given to Aenea., Drank to Bitten; when you've done your Best to admire this old silver, have wino quite up to keeping, Mere Astyanas out of Pi ism."
Some of these lines are sadly halting, but the effect of the whole
is passable. The last. line will be probably unintelligible to most readers. The original is, "In Priami cyatbis Astyanacta bibes." This is hard to put into good English, though the meaning is plain enough that the liquor was, indeed, a "petit yin." The subtlety of allusion in the Latin,— " Hie scyphus cot in quo tniscori jussit andel' Largius Alteitles vividiusque mertun,"
where the reference is to the,-
" MEICova ah tcpnripa, Meporriou tire, KaehrTR, Zwpd.repov ö rcipcuf,"
of " Iliad " ix., 202-3 (the embassy to Achilles) is wholly lost in Mr. Shaw's somewhat vulgar rendering.
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