SIR.—Mr Hogg says (January 20) that Catullus 'can only be
treated effectively by the use of classical English verse forms and rhyme, in other words, the whole traditional box of tricks.' It may be that when Mr Hogg makes public the half a dozen translations on which, apparently, he has been working for the last forty years we shall see this exemplified. Mean- while it is an interesting but, I should have thought, improbable theory that what were originally 'con- tinental patterns of rhyme and verse' will best render the effect, because Catullus was 'imitating Calli- machus and earlier Greek models.' The literary situation in England in our days does not, on the face of it, afford much of a parallel with that of Rome in the time of Catullus. So, en attendant Mr Hogg's translations, may I recall that the great English translators—Golding, Chapman, Dryden—wrote in a contemporary idiom and in verse-forms which were in their prime when they used them?
Previous page
