“You know, of course, the many charges against the unfaithfulness of translators, and against their frequent destruction of all the force, power, tenderness, sublimity, wit, &c., of the original; but I have never seen yet any
* Alas! also poor Finish! in times to come some new Cockney Greybeard may arise to do justice to the gay scenes I have witnessed in thee, in the days of Sheridan and Westminster Elections. |
| 94 | AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. |
“I have begun on Horace, he being a jocose and handy author, and I send you a specimen of my labours.
“You will perceive that my plan is to give lines alternately English and Latin, the former my own, the latter from my friend Flaccus. We are both thus fairly represented, just as in divided counties a Whig and Tory member are returned to satisfy both parties without giving trouble. If the public approve, I shall publish a translation of all the odes in this style; and if the public be a person of any taste, I am sure of general approbation. Meanwhile, Sir, believe me to be
“P.S.—Mind to pronounce my Latin lines with Latin accents, not Anglically. Thus, do not say,
Apros in ob-stántes plágas |
Aprós in ób-stantés plágas |
| DR. MAGINN. | 95 |
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Blest man! who far from busy hum,
Ut prisca gens mortalium,
Whistles his team afield with glee
Solutus omni fœnore:
He lives in peace, from battles free,
Neq’ horret iratum mare;
And shuns the forum, and the gay
Potentiorum limina.
Therefore to vines of purple gloss
Alta maritat populos,
Or pruning off the boughs unfit
Feliciores inserit;
Or in a distant vale at ease
Prospectat errantes greges;
Or honey into jars conveys,
Aut tondet infirmas oves.
When his head decked with apples sweet
Autumnus agris extulit
At plucking pears he’s quite au-fait
Certant, et uvam purpuræ.
Some for Priapus, for thee some
Sylvane, tutor finium!
Beneath an oak ’tis sweet to be
Mod’ in tenaci gramme:
The streamlet winds in flowing maze;
Queruntur in sylvis aves;
The fount in dulcet murmur plays
Somnos quod invitet leves.
But when the winter comes (and that
Imbres nivesque comparat)
With dogs he forces oft to pass
Apros in obstantes plagas;
Or spreads his nets so thick and close,
Turdis edacibus dolos;
Or hares, or cranes, from far away
Jucunda captat præmia:
The wooer love’s unhappy stir
Hæc inter obliviscitur.
His wife can manage without loss
Domum et parvos liberos;
(Suppose her Sabine, or the dry
Pernicis uxor Appuli.)
Who piles the sacred hearthstone high
Lassi sub ad-ventúm viri.
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| 96 | AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. |
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And from his ewes, penned lest they stray,
Distenta siccet libera;
And this year’s wine disposed to get
Dapes inemptas apparet.
Oysters to me no joys supply,
Magisve rhombus, aut scari.
(If when the east winds boisterous be
Hyems ad hoc vertat mare)
Your turkey pout is not to us,
Non attagen Ionicus.
So sweet as what we pick at home
Oliva ramis arborum;
Or sorrel, which the meads supply,
Malvæ salubres corpori—
Or lamb, slain at a festal show,
Tel hædus ereptus lupo.
Feasting, ’tis sweet the creature’s dumb,
Videre prop’rantés domum,
Or oxen with the ploughshare go,
Collo trahentes languido;
And all the slaves stretched out at ease,
Circum renidentes Lares.
Alphius the usurer, babbled thus,
Jam jam futurus rusticus,
Called in his cash on th’ Ides—but he
Quærit Calendis ponere.
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