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New Zealand Tablet, 2 September 1920, Page 26

NOTES

Translations There is one good translation of a poem into another language; that there is one shows it can be done ; that there is, in our opinion, only one, is to us conclusive proof that it can hardly be clone. The good translation is Fitzgerald’s Omar. Straightway many will say, “Oh, that’s not a translation at all. It is more Fitzgerald than Omar.” Yet do we hold that it is the one good translation, even though there be much of Fitzgerald in it; evenbecause there be much of Fitzgerald in it. When you pour a perfume from one bottle into another you have in the second what you poured into it from the first and nothing else. But you have not all that was in the first. In the same way when a poem is literally translated into another tongue you never get all that was in the original. But as it is possible to pour, on one’s own account, something into the second bottle which will even improve the perfume, so too it is possible to add, on one’s own account, something to a literal translation that may make it even better than the original. This is exactly what Fitzgerald did. To do that is harder than writing good original poetry, because the mind is bound down to a limited range and the imagination flies with clipped wings. Also, perhaps because it- requires a very good knowledge of two languages which is more than many translators have.' . x Heine Heine is the greatest German lyric poet. Indeed it is not certain that one could not leave out the adjective that restricts the praise to one Nationality. Readers of Heine will find him simple and clear IBs prose has somewhat of the spirit of French prose—not a little of its limpid grace. His poetry is as unpremeditated and as. elementaryto the reader as the song of a blackbird on a morn of spring. But just try to translate it! •> j Du, hist vie cine Blame So hold and schi'm and rein; Teh scho.u’ fhch an, and Wehmut ' Schleicht mir ins Tiers hinein.

Mir ist, als ob ich die Ildnde 'Aufs Haupt dir lehnen solW, Bet end, das) Gott dich erhalte So rein und schon mid hold.

.What could be simpler and more direct, and what more difficult to translate! A child in her innocent grace reminds him of a flower — hist' wie cine Mu me : dear, pure and beautiful as a flower — hold und sell bn und rein. Yet when he looks at her a wave of sadness comes upon —I eh seh aid dick, etc. He feels impelled to lay his hands on her brow and to pray that God may ever keep her as pure and as lovely and as dear as she is now in her childish grace and innocence. There it is in prose. Who will put it into verse that can compare with Heine’s ?

French For an example from the French we turn to an old song of Ronsard as matchless and as simple in its flawless beauty as an unset pearl. Don’t forget the mute "e’s” when reading: Miynonne, idiom voir si. la Nose Qni re matin... avail desc lose Sa robe de pourpre air soled .1 point perdu cc*te vespree Las pi is de sa- robe pourjirec. Et son feint an vast re pared. das ! 1 ope.: mine en pea tEe-spare , Mii/nonne , elle a. dessus la place , das ! das ! ses beaute : laisse ehenir ! O patent tn a east re nature, Puist/u line telle jlenr ne dure Que da 'matin jasipaes an soir\ Done, si vans me rrope , Miynonne, Landis que vast re aye f/euronne b n sa plus verte no uvea ate, Lucille:, I uedfex vast re jean esse: Com me a. eeste fleuy , la veillesse b era ternir vast re. bcaute.

Some Clerical Yarns 1 loin Fathei Baethin s Bag of Jokes we select a few good stories which our readers can take with as much salt as they desire. We read that once upon a time Archbishop By of Philadelphia reproved an old priest for wearing a hat that had seen better day* and yiany of them. The old sayart said ; ’ "Your Grace, I would not give up that old hat for twenty new ones. It belonged to my father, who fell in the Rising of ’48." "That would have been all right,” replied his Grace, if he had only not fallen on the hat.”* After the marriage of a Presbyterian minister an anxious reporter was informed that the happy couple wouid take up their residence "at the old Manse.” When he had done with the item it read in the next morning’s paper as follows: f 'After ' the honeymoon the happy couple intend to live at the old man’s !’’

On Sinners Two old friends were walking on a patch of ice when one of them slipped and fell. "Ah,” said the erect one, "'sinners stand on slippery places." "So X see, said the prone one, "I could not manage to do An Irish priest found himself among a number of Americans who were boasting of the respective States vviiicn they nad honored by their births. One asked the Irishman in which State he was borm “T u the state of original sin, I think,’? he replied. It is told of a certain bishop that once while travelling he was pestered by a lady for his autograph. He good-naturedly wrote his name in the album of torture. But that was not enough. : "Please, won’t

you sign - all your titles?” she said. Whereupon the bishop took the book and added the words "Miserable Sinner,” to the lady’s great disgust/

Scottish Philosophy Of Scottish stories the number is legion, but as a rule they have a true Attic flavor, and even when ben trovati are credible enough. The following is new to us, though it may not be to our readers : ; Sandy deemed it his duty to administer sound advice to a youth placed under his care. "Keep your temper always, Donal,” he said. "Never quarrel wi’ an angry mon, and never quarrel wi’ a woman be she anr .y or no. And mind ye, lad, a saft answer turneth aways wrath. It’s always best. It’s commanded, ye knae, — and for by it makes them madder' than anythin y else you could think to say to them.” We desire our readers to observe carefully that we have not mentioned bagpipes this time. Of course we are now convinced that it was on the pipes Orpheus played when according to Shakespere he drew trees and floods and stones after him. Shakespere does not

mention eggs. ob An Up-to-Date Pastor Most priests need not be reminded that the contents of the collection boxes need careful watching in tins lair Dominion of ours. The poor-box thief is by no means unknown in New Zealand, which tolerates several mean specimens of humanity of which it had as little reason to be proud as the P.P.A. has of its official calumniator of dead women. The following notice is posted over the alms box in the Church of the English Martyrs, Houston, Lancashire, England: "To the burglar No money in box. Cleared this morning. Please don break the padlock. Put a penny in lor new church. Kneel down and say an Our Father and Hail Mary. Yours truly, the' Rector. PSDon’t take this card.”