полная версияПолная версия
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867
The following is distinguished from all that we have cited thus far by softness and delicacy of touch.
"Vago già di cercar dentro e d'intorno La divina foresta spessa e viva Ch'agli occhi temperava il nuovo giorno,Senza più aspettar lasciai la riva Prendendo la campagna lento lento Su per lo suol che d'ogni parte oliva.Un'aura dolce senza mutamento Avere in se, mi feria per la fronte, Non di più colpo che soave vento:Per cui le fronde tremolando pronte Tutte quante piegavano alla parte U'la prim' ombra gitta il santo monte;Non però dal loro esser dritto sparte Tanto, che gli augelletti per le cime Lasciasser d'operare ogni lor arte;Ma con piena letizia l'ore prime Cantando ricevieno intra le foglie Che tenevan bordone alle sue rime,Tal qual di ramo in ramo si raccoglie Per la pineta in sul lito di Chiassi, Quand'Eolo scirocco fuor discioglie.Gia m'avean trasportato i lenti passi Dentro all'antica selva tanto, ch'io Non potea rivedere ond'io m'entrassi;Ed ecco il più andar mi tolse un rio Che'nver sinistra con sue picciol'onde Piegava l'erba che'n sua ripa uscio.Tutte l'acque che son di qua più monde Parrieno avere in se mistura alcuna Verso di quella che nulla nasconde,Avvegna che si muova bruna bruna Sotto l'ombra perpetua, che mai Raggiar non lascia sole ivi nè luna.Co' piè ristetti e con gli occhi passai Di là dal fiumicel per ammirare La gran variazion de'freschi mai;E là m'apparve, si com'egli appare Subitamente cosa che disvia Per maraviglia tutt'altro pensare,Una donna soletta che si gia Cantando ed iscegliendo fior da fiore Ond' era pinta tutta la sua via." Purgatorio, XXVIII. 1-42."Eager already to search in and round The heavenly forest, dense and living-green, Which tempered to the eyes the new-born day,Withouten more delay I left the bank, Taking the level country slowly, slowly Over the soil that everywhere breathes fragrance.A softly-breathing air, that no mutation Had in itself, upon the forehead smote me No heavier blow than of a gentle wind,Whereat the branches, lightly tremulous, Did all of them bow downward toward that side Where its first shadow casts the Holy Mountain;Yet not from their upright direction swayed, So that the little birds upon their tops Should leave the practice of each art of theirs;But with full ravishment the hours of prime, Singing, received they in the midst of leaves, That ever bore a burden to their rhymes,Such as from branch to branch goes gathering on Through the pine forest on the shore of Chiassi, When Eolus unlooses the Sirocco.Already my slow steps had carried me Into the ancient wood so far, that I Could not perceive where I had entered it.And lo! my further course a stream cut off, Which tow'rd the left hand with its little waves Bent down the grass that on its margin sprang.All waters that on earth most limpid are Would seem to have within themselves some mixture Compared with that which nothing doth conceal,Although it moves on with a brown, brown current Under the shade perpetual, that never Ray of the sun lets in, nor of the moon.With feet I stayed, and with mine eyes I passed Beyond the rivulet, to look upon The great variety of the fresh may.And there appeared to me (even as appears Suddenly something that doth turn aside Through very wonder every other thought)A lady all alone, who went along Singing and culling floweret after floweret, With which her pathway was all painted over."Longfellow. "Through that celestial forest, whose thick shadeWith lively greenness the new-springing dayAttempered, eager now to roam, and searchIts limits round, forthwith I left the bank;Along the champaign leisurely my wayPursuing, o'er the ground, that on all sidesDelicious odor breathed. A pleasant air,That intermitted never, never veered,Smote on my temples, gently, as a windOf softest influence: at which the sprays,Obedient all, leaned trembling to that partWhere first the holy mountain casts his shade;Yet were not so disordered, but that stillUpon their top the feathered quiristersApplied their wonted art, and with full joyWelcomed those hours of prime, and warbled shrillAmid the leaves, that to their jocund laysKept tenor; even as from branch to branch,Along the piny forests on the shoreOf Chiassi, rolls the gathering melody.When Eolus hath from his cavern loosedThe dripping south. Already had my steps,Though slow, so far into that ancient woodTransported me, I could not ken the placeWhere I had entered; when, behold! my pathWas bounded by a rill, which, to the left,With little rippling waters bent the grassThat issued from its brink. On earth no waveHow clean soe'er, that would not seem to haveSome mixture in itself, compared with this,Transpicuous clear; yet darkly on it rolledDarkly beneath perpetual gloom, which ne'erAdmits or sun or moonlight there to shine. My feet advanced not; but my wondering eyesPassed onward, o'er the streamlet, to surveyThe tender May-bloom, flushed through many a hue,In prodigal variety: and there,As object, rising suddenly to view,That from our bosom every thought besideWith the rare marvel chases, I beheldA lady all alone, who, singing, went,And culling flower from flower, wherewith her wayWas all o'er painted."—Cary.We give a characteristic passage from the Paradiso.
"Fiorenza dentro dalla cerchia antica, Ond'ella toglie ancora e terza e nona, Si stava in pace sobria e pudica.Non avea catenella, non corona, Non donne contigiate, non cintura Che fosse a veder più che la persona.Non faceva nascendo ancor paura La figlia al padre, che il tempo e la dote Non fuggian quinci e quindi la misura.Non avea case di famiglia vote; Non v'era giunto ancor Sardanapalo A mostrar ciò ch'in camera si puote.Non era vinto ancora Montemalo Dal vostro Uccellatoio, che com'è vinto Nel montar su, così sarà nel calo.Bellincion Berti vid'io andar cinto Di cuojo e d'osso, e venir dallo specchio La donna sua senza'l viso dipinto:E vidi quel di Nerli e quel del Vecchio Esser contenti alla pelle scoverta, E le sue donne al fuso ed al pennecchio:Oh fortunate! e ciascuna era certa Della sua sepoltura, ed ancor nulla Era per Francia nel letto deserta.L'una vegghiava a studio della culla, E consolando usava l'idioma Che pria li padri e le madri trastulla:L'altra traendo alla rocca la chioma Favoleggiava con la sua famiglia De'Trojani e di Fiesole e di Roma.Saria tenuta allor tal maraviglia Una Cianghella, un Lapo Salterello, Qual or saria Cincinnato e Corniglia.A così riposato, a così bello Viver di cittadini, a così fida Cittadinanza, a così dolce ostello,Maria mi diè, chiamata in alte grida; E nell'antico vostro Batisteo Insieme fui Cristiano e Cacciaguida." Paradiso, XV. 97-135."Florence, within the ancient boundary From which she taketh still her tierce and nones, Abode in quiet, temperate and chaste.No golden chain she had, nor coronal, Nor ladies shod with sandal shoon, nor girdle That caught the eye more than the person did.Not yet the daughter at her birth struck fear Into the father, for the time and dower Did not o'errun this side or that the measure.No houses had she void of families, Not yet had thither come Sardanapalus To show what in a chamber can be done;Not yet surpassed had Montemalo been By your Uccellatojo, which surpassed Shall in its downfall be as in its rise.Bellincion Berti saw I go begirt With leather and with bone, and from the mirror His dame depart without a painted face;And him of Nerli saw, and him of Vecchio, Contented with their simple suits of buff, And with the spindle and the flax their dames.O fortunate women! and each one was certain Of her own burial-place, and none as yet For sake of France was in her bed deserted.One o'er the cradle kept her studious watch, And in her lullaby the language used That first delights the fathers and the mothers;Another, drawing tresses from her distaff, Told o'er among her family the tales Of Trojans and of Fesole and Rome.As great a marvel then would have been held A Lapo Salterello, a Cianghella, As Cincinnatus or Cornelia now.To such a quiet, such a beautiful Life of the citizen, to such a safe Community, and to so sweet an inn,Did Mary give me, with loud cries invoked, And in your ancient Baptistery at once Christian and Cacciaguida I became."Longfellow "Florence, within her ancient limit-mark,Which calls her still to matin prayers and noon,Was chaste and sober, and abode in peace,She had no armlets and no head-tires then;No purfled dames; no zone, that caught the eyeMore than the person did. Time was not yet,When at his daughter's birth the sire grew pale,For fear the age and dowry should exceed,On each side, just proportion. House was noneVoid of its family: nor yet had comeSardanapalus, to exhibit featsOf chamber prowess. Montemalo yetO'er our suburban turret rose; as muchTo be surpassed in fall, as in its rising.I saw Bellincion Berti walk abroadIn leathern girdle, and a clasp of bone;And, with no artful coloring on her cheeks,His lady leave the glass. The sons I sawOf Nerli, and of Vecchio, well contentWith unrobed jerkin; and their good dames handlingThe spindle and the flax: O happy they!Each sure of burial in her native land,And none left desolate abed for France.One waked to tend the cradle, hushing itWith sounds that lulled the parent's infancy:Another, with her maidens, drawing offThe tresses from the distaff, lectured themOld tales of Troy, and Fesole, and Rome.A Salterello and Cianghella weHad held as strange a marvel, as ye wouldA Cincinnatus or Cornelia now. In such composed and seemly fellowship,Such faithful and such fair equality,In so sweet household, Mary at my birthBestowed me, called on with loud cries; and there,In your old baptistery, I was madeChristian at once and Cacciaguida."—Cary.It would be easy to extend our quotations; but we have given enough of Mr. Longfellow's translation to show with what conceptions of duty to the original he came to his task, and how perfectly that duty has been performed. According to his theory, then, as we gather it from these volumes, translation is not paraphrase, is not interpretation, is not imitation, but is the rigorous rendering of word for word, so far as the original difference of idioms permits. Its basis is truth to the form as well as to the thought, to the letter as well as to the spirit, of the text. The translator is like the messengers of the Bible and Homer, who repeat word for word the message that has been confided to them. He, too, if he would be true to his office, must give the message as it has been given to him, repeat the story in the words in which it was told him. Every deviation from the letter of the original is a deviation from the truth. Every epithet that is either added or taken away is a falsification of the text. The addition or the omission may sometimes be an improvement, but it is an improvement which you have no authority to make. It is not to learn what you think Homer or Dante might have said that the reader comes to your translation, but to see what they really said. When Cesarotti undertook to show how Homer would have written in the eighteenth century, he recast the Iliad and called it "The Death of Hector," and in this he dealt more honestly with his readers than Pope; for, although he failed to make a good poem, he did not attempt to pass it for Homer.
The greatest difficulty of the translator arises from his personality. He cannot forget himself, cannot guard, as he ought, against those subtle insinuations of self-esteem which are constantly leading him to improve upon his author. His own habits of thought would have suggested a different turn to the verse, a different coloring to the image. He finds it as hard to forget his own style, as to forget his identity. It demands a vigorous imagination, combined with deep poetic sympathies, to go out of yourself and enter for a time wholly into the heart and mind, the thoughts and feelings, of another; and it is not to all that such an imagination and such sympathies are given. There is scarcely a great failure in poetical translation, which may not be traced to the want of this power.
It may seem like the grave enunciation of a truism to say that another indispensable qualification of the translator is perfect familiarity with the language from which he translates, and a full command of his own. It is not by mere reading that such a familiarity can be acquired. You must have learnt to think in a language, and made it the spontaneous expression of your wants and feelings, if you would find in it the true interpretation of the wants and feelings of others. Its words and idioms must awaken in you the same sensations which the words and idioms of your own language awaken; giving pleasure as music, or a picture, or a statue, or a fine building gives pleasure, not by an act of reflection under the control of the will, but by an intuitive perception under the inspiration of a sense of the beautiful. The enjoyment of a thought is partly an intellectual enjoyment; you may even reason yourself into it; but the enjoyment of style and language is purely an æsthetic enjoyment, susceptible, indeed, of culture, but springing from an inborn sense of harmony. To extend this enjoyment to a foreign language, you must bring that language close to you, and form with it those intimate relations between thought and word which you have formed in your own. The word must not only suggest the thought, but become a part of it, as the painting becomes a part of the canvas. It must strike your ear with a familiar sound, awakening pleasant memories of actual life and real scenes. Idioms are often interpreters of national life, giving you sudden glimpses, and even deep revelations, of manners and customs, and the circumstances whence they sprang. They are often, too, brief formulas, condensing thought into its briefest expression, with a force and energy which the full expression could not give. To mistake them, is to mistake the whole passage. Not to feel them, is not to feel the most characteristic form of thought.
The preposition da is one of the most versatile words in Italian. Its literal meaning is from; it is daily used to express to. Da me may mean from me: it may also mean to me. Fit or deserving to be done is a common meaning of it; and it is in this sense that Dante uses it in the following passage from the fourth canto of Paradiso, fifty-fifth line:—
"Con intenzion da non esser derisa,"—With intention not (deserving to be) to be derided.Cary, though a good Italian scholar, translates it to shun derision; and, giving it this sense, quotes Stillingfleet to illustrate the thought which, for want of practical familiarity with the language, he attributes to Dante.
We believe, then, that the qualifications of a translator may be briefly summed up under the following heads:—
He must be conscientiously truthful, studiously following his text, word by word and line by line.
He must possess a thorough mastery over both languages, feeling as well as understanding the words and idioms of his original.
He must possess the power of forgetting himself in his author.
And, lastly, he must be not merely a skilful artificer of verses, or a man of poetic sensibility, but a poet in the highest and truest sense of the word.
We would gladly enlarge upon this interesting subject, which not only explains the shortcomings of the past, but opens enticing vistas into the future. We cannot doubt that Mr. Longfellow's example will be followed, and that from time to time other great poets will arise, who; not content with enriching literature with original productions, will acknowledge it as a part of what they owe the world, to do for Homer and Virgil and Æschylus and Sophocles what he has done for Dante. It is pleasant to think that our children will sit at the feet of these great masters, and, listening to them in English worthy of the tongues in which they first spake, be led to enter more fully into the spirit of the abundant Greek and the majestic Latin. It is cheering to the lovers of sound study to feel that every faithful version of a great poet extends the influence of his works, and awakens a stronger desire for the original. We never yet looked upon an engraving of Morghen without a new longing for the painting which it translated.
We have not left ourselves room for what we had intended to say about the notes, which form half of each of these three volumes. Those who know what conscientious zeal Mr. Longfellow brings to all his duties need not be told that they bear abundant testimony to his learning, industry, and good taste. They not only leave nothing to be asked for in the explanation of real difficulties, but, as answers to a wide range of philosophical, biographical, and historical questions, form in themselves a delightful miscellany. Dante has been overladen by commentators. In Mr. Longfellow he has found an interpreter.
