original, but they are implied in the word αέκυσα ; for fhe who goes unwillingly, will move flowly, and oft look back. The amplification highly improves the effect of the picture. It may be incidentally remarked, that the pause in the third line, Paft filent, is admirably characteristic of the flow and hesitating motion which it defcribes. In the poetical verfion of the 137th Pfalm, by Arthur Johnfton, a compofition of claffical elegance, there are feveral examples of ideas fuperadded by the tranflator, intimately connected with the original thoughts, and greatly heightening their energy and beauty. Urbe procul Solyme, fufi Babylonis ad undas Sacra Sacra Sion toties animo totiefque recurfans, Materiem lachrymis præbuit ufque novis. Defuetas faliceta lyras, et muta ferebant Te nifi tollat ovans unam fuper omnia, lingua Ne tibi noxa recens, fcelerum Deus ultor! Idumes Vertite, clamabant, fundo jam vertite templum, Te quoque poena manet, Babylon! quibus aftra lacessis Felicem, quifquis fcopulis illidet acutis Dulcia materno pignora rapta finu! I pafs over the fuperadded idea in the fecond line, lachrymæ fluminis inftar erant, because, bordering on the hyperbole, it derogates, in fome degree, from the chafte fimplicity of the original. To the fimple fact, "We hanged our harps CC on the willows in the midst thereof," which is moft poetically conveyed by Defuetas faliceta lyras, et muta fercbant nablia, is fuperadded all the force of fentiment in that beautiful expreffion, which fo strongly paints the mixed emotions of a proud mind under the influence of poignant grief, heightened by fhame, fervili non temeranda manu. So likewife in the following stanza there is the noblest improvement of the fenfe of the original. Imperat et lætos, mediis in fletibus, hymnos, THE THE reflection on the melancholy fi lence that now reigned on that facred hill, once vocal with their fongs," is an additional thought, the force of which is better felt than it can be conveyed by words. AN ordinary tranflator finks under the energy of his original: the man of genius frequently rifes above it. Horace, arraigning the abuse of riches, makes the plain and honest Ofellus thus remonstrate with a wealthy Epicure, (Sat. 2. b. 2.) Cur eget indignus quifquam te divite? A question to the energy of which it was not eafy to add, but which has received the moft fpirited improvement from Mr Pope : How dar'st thou let one worthy man be poor? AN An improvement is fometimes very happily made, by fubftituting figure and metaphor to fimple fentiment; as in the following example, from Mr Mason's excellent tranflation of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting. In the original, the poet, treating of the merits of the antique ftatues, fays: -queis pofterior nil protulit ætas Condignum, et non inferius longè, arte modoque. This is a fimple fact, in the perufal of which the reader is ftruck with nothing elfe but the truth of the affertion. Mark how in the translation the fame truth is conveyed in one of the finest figures of poetry: -with reluctant gaze To these the genius of fucceeding days Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories fpread, Hides in his mantle his diminish'd head. IN |