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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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. ; < 5 an -teach all people to translate , Thoagtuamt off languages in which Tfcey saderstand ao part of speecha N ' achhlang , or resonance , perhaps , of the famous legend ^ abou t those early tra nslators , the Seventy who turned the Old Testament into Greek , which legend tells bow Bfcailemy shut them up in separate c * Us to do their work , and how , wfcen they came to compare their renderings , there was perfect agreement ! We are convinced , however , that the translators of the Septua < nnt had some "understanding of their business to beg-in with , or ^ bis supernatural uid -would not have been given , for in the matter of translation , at least , we fcaye observed , that ** God helps them who help themselves . " A view ' of the-case , which -we commend 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 3 cad -exceptional knowledge . Among books of this latter kind , Kant ' s Critique of Pure Reason is perhaps the very hardest nut — the peaohstone—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 ishe 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 —« o far , we must again observe , as we have examined itindicates a real mastery of his author , and , for the first time , makes Kant ' s ¦ Critik der reinen Vemunft 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 we are concerning ourselves here simply with translation—not at all with Kant ' Philosophy or with German JLyrics considered in themselves , and these two volumes happen to he the specimens of translation most recently presented to our notice . With regard to prose , wemay very generally Tise Goldsmith ' s critical recipe , and say that the translation would have been better if the translator had taken more pains ; but of poetical attempts we 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 JPoets . 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 . Ooethe sings with divine feeling and music—Fur andre w&chst in mir das edle Gut , Ich Jcann und will das Pfund nicht mehr vergraben , Warum sucht' ich den Weg so selmsuchtsvoll , Wenn ich ihn nicht den Brudern 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 , I € 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 gentlemen they misrepresent ; and considering how often we hear opinions delivered on foreign poets by people who only know those poots at second band , it becomes the reviewer ' s duty to insist again and again on the inadequacy o > f poetic translations . The Germans render our poetry better than we render theirs , for their language , asi&Low and unwieldy as their own post-horses in prose , becomes in poetry . graceful and strong and flexUile as an Arabian war-horse . Besides , translation among them is more orten undertaken by men of genius . We remember , for example , some translations of Burns , by Freiligrath , which would have arrested iis by thoir beauty if we had seen the poems , for the first time , in this language . It is true the Germans think a little too highly of their translations , and especially are under the illusion , encouraged by some silly English people , that Shak ^ pearo according to Schlegel is better than Shakspeare himself—not simply better to a German as being easier for him to understand , but absolutely Letter as poetry . A very close and admirable rendering Schlegel ' a assuredly is , and it is a high pleasure to track it in its faithful adherence 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 . Hut more frequently the German is a feeble echo , and here and Tthere it breaks down in u supremely fine passage An instance of this kindooouTBin the 'famous speech of Lorenzo to Jessica . Shakttpeare says—Soft stillness and the night Become the touohea of aweet harmony . 3 Hib Sohlegel renders— Sjrafto Still und Nacht Sto Warden S ' astmt BiiaBor Harmonic . £ bai , (^ 8 to , aay , " Soft stillness and the night are the Jingor-hoard of sweet harmony / ' A , still worse blunder is nmrlo by Tiock ( whoau translation is the rival of Schlegel ' a . ) in the monologue of Macbeth , in the
lines—That but this blow -. Might fee the be-all and the end-all here— ' But here upon this bank and shoal of time , I'd . jump the life to come—Tieefcrenders , " Upon this bank and shoal of time , " *« Auf dieser SdiV $ er ± bank der Gegen wart , " that is , " On this school ^ bench of the present ! " These « re cases of gross inaccuracy 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 Tolscians in Corioli . For the admirably descriptive word " fluttered , " Schlegel gives * schltujf , " which simply means slew . Weak renderings of this kind are abundant . Such examples of translators' fallibility in men like Schlegel and Tieek 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 morarqualities 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 .
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A BATCH OF BOOKS . Recollections of the Eventful Life of a Soldier . By the late Joseph Donaldson , Sergeant in the Ninety-Fourth 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 Jeliuger Symons , Esq . Koutledge . The Wild Tribes of London . By Watts Phillips . With Numerous Illustrations . Ward and Lock . 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 p laces 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 . VVruxC a schoolboy , he ran away from home in company with another young insms gent , 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 hy 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 regi ment received the order to embark for Britain ; and in the same year , during his stay in Ireland , he married the irresistible Mary M'Cartby of hia " Scenes and Sketches . " After many changes of fortune he became recruiting sergeant to the East India Company ' s service , and employed his leisurein 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 he never prospered in his adopted profession , and after many unsuccessful struggles , ho died of puland her
monary disease at the early age of thirty-seven . Mrs . Donaldson daughter are still living , and have no other resources to depend upon than the precarious profits of this collected edition . Mr . Jelinger Symons ' s Collection of Papers is one calculated to be especially useful just now . It orig inated with a lecture read by Mr . Symons at a meeting of the Society of Arts , but to , that is added a num ber of letters and papers by Mr . M . D . Hill , JVJr . Sydney Turner , Mr . Barwick Lloyd Baker , Mr . Kobert Hall , Mr . Bengough , 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 , Floinish , and French reformatories . The whole subject is now under active discussion ; and there ia every probability that the discussion will assume ft 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 compact introduction to the subject , while those who are already informed will find
in it a very good note of progress . The sketches contained in The Wild Tribes of London \ rere written under the pressure of that very modern innovation , a " Mission . " We thought that " missions" only belonged to women ; but this being a young author ' s first book , he may be excused for sheltering under the feinimfie p lea . His " mission" too , if ho poiaibts in having one , is not of the worst kind , for he proposes to force upon tlio public nnnd the necessity of educating the poor . This has been attempted before in many a serious speech « nd easay , and in many a practical suggestion . In the present instance we are invited to follow Mr . Phillips through a few of the worst districts inhabited by those strange and neglected tribes . A guide ia hardly wanted , for quitting any of the decent thoroughfares eyes or ears are certain to ho aaoanod , anti uio rtxtravjurunt , iiw-mmlif w > h in human conditions nrOSS foroihly "P . , /
" witching hour of night , " the time when narrow courts and ftitiyr auay * give up their aqualid population , is the moment cLoflcn hy our < ££ « £ " § and we or . successively Introduced to the inmate . ° f , ^" liffi ^ ISSiWv St the refined purlieus of &rays-inn-I « ne , *<> Tower-hill , lintel ' ^ g ^^ g Giles ' s , Southward Claro-market , and then to the ^^^ ZImoIo coat-lane . The painful panorama onfbrcpfl the old adage tlmt one nail tuo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1855, page 1015, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2111/page/19/
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