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    ©e*0BB»3Oi 185^1 THE LMDEB. 1015

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    A BATCH OF BOOKS. Recollections of the E...

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    Translations And Translators. Critique Q...

    ,. , - Cm * teach aH * people to translate , . , . Tbough eat of languages in < which ) They muierstanii no paxt of speech . - — a NacKklangt or resonance , perhaps , of the famous legend about those early translators , the Seventy who turned the Old Testament into Greek , which legend ! tells , tew Etolemy shut therm up in separate cells to < do their work , iiua how ,, when , they eame tp > compare their renderings ^ there was , perfect agreement I We are convinced , kowever , that the translators of the Sep _ - tuagint had some understanding of their business to begin with , or this supernatural aid-wtmld not have been given , for in the matter of translation , atleast , wefcave observed , that " Crod helps them who help themselves . " A view of the case , which ) we eonamend to all young ladies and some middleaged gentlemen ^ who consider a very imperfect acquaintance with their own language , and an anticipatory acquaintance with the foreign language , quite a sufficient equipment for the office of translator . It is perfectly true that , though geniuses have often undertaken translation , translation does not often demand genius . The power required in

    the translation , varies with the power exhibited in the original work : very modest qualifications will suffice- to enable a person to translate a book of ordinary travels , or a slight novel , while a work of reasoning or science can be adequately rendered only by means of what is at present exceptional -faculty and . exceptional knowledge . Among books of this latter kindi , Kant ' s ; Critique of Pure Reason ra perhaps the very hardest nut—the peachstone—for a translator to crack so as to lay open the entire uninjured kernel of meaning , and we are glad at last to believe that a translator of adequate power has been employed upon it . For so far as we have- examined the . version placed at the head of our article , it appears to us very different indeed from the many renderings of German metaphysical works , in which the translator ^ having ventured into deep waters without learning to swim , clings to the dictionary , and commends himself to Providence . Mr . Meiklejohn ' s ; translation . —s © far , we must again observe , as we have examined itindicates : a real mastery of his author , and , for the first time , makes Kant ' s Gritik der reinen Vernunft accessible to English readers .

    It may- seem odd ; that we should associate with this mighty book—this terrible ninety-gun ship—such a little painted pleasure-boat as Miss ( or Mrs . ) Burt ' s miscellaneous collection of translations from German lyric poets . But w-e are concerning ourselves here simply with translation—not at all with Kant ' s Philosophy or with German Lyrics considered in themselves , and ! these two volumes happen to be the specimens of translation auost recently presented to our notice . With regard to prose , we may very generally use Goldsmith ' s critical recipe , and say that the translation would liave been better- if the translator- had taken more pains ; but of poetical

    Attempts w ^ are often sure that no amount , of pains would produce a satisfactory result . And so it is with Miss Burt ' s Specimens of the German Poets . She appears- to have the knowledge and the industry which many translators want , but she has not the poetic power which makes poetical translations endurable to those acquainted with the originals . Amongst others , however , who have no such acquaintance , Miss Burt ' s translations seem to have been in some demand , since they have reached a second edition . She has been bold enough to attempt a version of Goethe ' s exquisite Zueignung ( Dedication ) , and here is a specimen of her rendering . ¦ Goethe sings with divine feeling and

    music—Fur andre wilchst in mir das edle Gut , Ich . kann und will das Pfund nicht mehr vergraben , Warum sucht' ich . dem Weg so selmsuchtsvoll , Wenn ich ihn nicht den Briidem zeigen soil ? Miss Bart follows him much as a Jew ' s harp would follow a piano—Entombed no longer shall my talent be , That treasure I amass , shall other ' s share ? To find the road—oh , why such , zeal display , If I guide not my brethren , on their way ? A version like this bears about the- same relation _ to- the original as the portraits in an illustrated newspaper bear to the living face of the distinguished gentleme n they misrepresent ; and considering how often we hear opinions delivered on foreign poe £ » by people who only know those poets at second handy it becomes the reviewer's duty to insist again , and again on the inadequacy of poetic translations . The Germans render our poetry better than we render theirs , for their

    language ,, as slow and unwieldy as their own post-horses in prose , becomes in poetry graceful and strong and flexible as an Arabian war-horse . Besides , translation among them is more oftea undertaken by men of genius . We remember , for example , some translations of Burns , by Freiligrnth , which would have arrested us by their beauty if we had seen the poems , for the first time , ia . this language- It is true the Germans think a little too highly of their translations , and especially are under the illusion , encouraged by some sill y English people , that Shakspeare according to Schlegel is better than Shakspearo himself— not simply better to a German as being easier for him to understand , but absolutely better as poetry . _ A very close and admirable rendering Schlegel ' s assuredly is , and it is a high pleasure to track it in its faithful udlierence to the original , just as it is to examine a fine engraving of a favourite picture . Sometimes the German is as good as the English—the same music played on another but as good an instrument . But more frequently the German is a feeble echo , and hero tank there it breaks down in a supremely fine passage . An instance of this kind occurs in the famous speech , of Lorenzo , to Jessica . ShakspeaTo

    says—Soft stlllojoas ami the night Became the touchy of uweot harmony . Vm » SaUegel renders — Saufte Still und Nacht Sie \ rcvden Tartan sltueer Harmonic . That , is , to » say , " Soft , stillness wui tho night are the finger-hoard of aweet harmony . " A still worse blunder is mtulo by Ticok ( whose translation ia the rival of Schlegel ' s ) in the monologue of Macbeth . In the

    linos—That but this blow > . Might be- the be-aff and the end-all ( hero—Bttt bere upon this bank and shoal of time * I'd jnsap the life to come—Tiecfe renders , " Upon this bank and shoal of time , " " Auf dreser ScK & ferbank derOegenwart , " that is , "On this school-bench of the present ! " These are cases of gross inaceuraey arising from an imperfect understanding of the original . Here is an instance of feebleness . Coriolanus says—And like an eagle in the dovecote , I Flutter'd the Volscians in Corioli . For the admirably descriptive word " fluttered , " Schlegel gives " schlug , " which simply means slew . Weak renderings of this kind are abundant . Such examples of translators' fallibility in men like Schlegel and Tieck might well make less accomplished persons more backward in undertaking the translation of great poems , and by showing the difficulty of the translator ' s task , might make it an object of ambition to real ability . Though a good translator is infinitely below the man who produces good original works , he is infinitely above the man who produces feeble original works . We had meant to say something of the moral qualities especially demanded in the translator—the patience , the rigid fidelity ,, and the sense-. of responsibility in interpreting another man ' s mind . But we have gossiped on this subject long enough .

    ©E*0bb»3oi 185^1 The Lmdeb. 1015

    © e * 0 BB » 3 Oi 185 ^ 1 THE LMDEB . 1015

    A Batch Of Books. Recollections Of The E...

    A BATCH OF BOOKS . Recollections of the Eventful Life of a Soldier . By the late Joseph Donaldson , Sergeant in the Ninety-Eourth . Scots Brigade . A Collection of Papers , Pamphlets , and Speeches on Reformatories , and the Various Views held on , the Subject of Juvenile Crime and its Treatment . Edited , by Jelinger Symons , Esq . Ilautledge . The Wild Tribes of London . By "Watts Phillips . With Numerous IlLuatrationa . Ward and Look Thought and Language : An Essay having in View the Revival , Connexion ^ and Exclusive Establishment of Locke ' s Philosophy . By B . H . Smart . Longman and Co .

    The Eventful Life of a Soldier is a reprint in one volume of three separate works published a good many years ago . In most respects the original text is preserved - where it is altered , it is only to supply the names of persons and places which were left blank in the early editions . The narrative embraces a period of about twenty-one years , fifteen of which relate to the author ' s boyhood , the remaining six to his career in the army . Joseph Donaldson was a Glasgow man , who , like young Norval , after having , read of " battles , " became disgusted with the commonplaces of life . While a schoolboy , he ran . away from home in company with another young : insurgent , and embarked on board a vessel for the West Indies . He returned safe and sound from this adventure , but presently he began to think it a very fine thing to put into practice the words addressed by the Vicar of Wakefield to his son , " Go my boy , and if you fall , though distant , exposed , and unwept by those who love you , the most precious tears are those with

    which Heaven bedews the unburied head of the soldier . " These immortal words by the man " who wrote like an angel , " made a soldier of Donaldson . He enlisted on the first opportunity , and embarked with his regiment for Portugal . From this point may be dated the commencement of the simple and faithful descriptions of Peninsular warfare , which have since been , so frequently cited . After the battle of Toulouse , in 1814 , Donalson ' s regiment received the order to embark for Britain ; and in the same year , during his stay in Ireland , he married the irresistible Mary M'Carthy of his " Scenes and Sketches . " After many changes of fortune he became recruiting sergeant to the East India Company ' s service , and employed hia leisure in literary pursuits . He studied anatomy and medicine , and having procured his discharge by close application and rigid economy , he was enabled to take the degree of surgeon . But ho never prospered in Ins adopted profession , and after many unsuccessful struggles , ho died of pulmonary disease at the early age of thirty-seven . Mrs . Donaldson and her to than to tuan

    daughter are still living , and have no other resources depend upon daughter are still living , and have no other resources depend upon the precarious profits of this collected edition . Mr . Jelinger Symons ' s Collection of Papers is one calculated to be especially useful just now . It originated with a lecture read by Mr . Symons at a meeting of the Society of Arts , but to that is added a number of letters and pape / fl by Mr . M . J > . Hill , Mr . Sydney Turner , Mr . Berwick Lloyd Bakery Mr . Kobert Hall , Mr . Bcngough , Miss Carpenter , and others , who are peculiarly versed on the subject of reformatory discipline for the young , The papers elucidate the actual state of the English , Dutch , Flemish , and French reformatories . The whole subject is now under active discussion ; and there is every probability that the discussion will assume a yet more animated and practical turn ; and in this little volume , the reader who finds himself at a loss coming in at so late a stage , will here find a very corn-pact introduction to the subject , while those who are already informed will find

    mi it a very good note of progress . The sketches contained in The Wild Tribes of London were written under the pressure of that very modern innovation , a " Mission . " We thought that " miasions" only belonged to women ; but this being ^ a young authors first book , he may be excused for sheltering under the feminine p lea . His ? l mission" too , if he persists , in having one , ia not of the worst kind , for ho proposes to force upon the public mind the necessity of educating the poor . This has been attempted before in many a serious speech and ettaay , and in nrany a practical suggestion . In the present instance we are io ^ ttof ™ follow Mr . Phillips through a few of the worst districts inhabited ; by tnene » trange and neglected tribes . A guide is hardly wanted , for } l mttl " 8 "JJJ of the decent thoroughfares eyea or ears ; are certain to be aaauiioa , ttl '" .. j ^ ¦^

    OALIUVUIIUHL 1 I 1 CUUUUUIVE 1 111 UU . UUUI ViUUVilwiw »» o j *» wm- „ - / SlfliV nlluVfl " witching hour of night , " the time when narrow courts and WgTJJJJJ " givouptneir squalid population , is the moment ¦ cho « cn by ou ^ C ^ erone , and we are eucccssively introduced to the in mutes ° ^^ nff " ^ ahvra ° Sfc the refined purlieus of brays-inn lnnc , to Towe ^ h . gJJ * ^ f ^ gjj « fi * ^ Giles ' s , Southward Clare-market , and then l ? *» % ^ X ° o that one half the coat-lane . The painful panorama enforces the oia uuu

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20101855/page/19/