A DANTE TRANSLATION.

New Zealand Tablet, 8 September 1921, Page 19

A DANTE TRANSLATION.

To the Editor

Sir? —I was looking through some of last year’s Tablets and I was much interested in your remarks on “Dante.” Especially when you wrote stating that that Italian work had not yet been successfully translated into English. Well, it may interest you to know that you do not require to look outside New Zealand, or your own Church, to find out the correct translator. The work, as, you know, is composed of a multitude of verses in four-line Italian poetry. The late Francis Philip O’Reilly, the learned southern barrister and solicitor, translated the whole of the work into four-line English poetry and in rhyme. A copy of a portion of the translation was sent to that severe critic the editor of the Sydney Bulletin, and he pronounced it to be the best and only correct translation he had ever read. Another copy of a portion was taken to Canada by a Southland doctor. The whole translation was supposed to have been posted to the Old Country, as Mr. O’Reilly thought at that time that they could make a better job of it there. The ship carrying the mails was supposed to have been wrecked. However, so far as I know, nothing has since been heard of the translation. Mr. O’Reilly would have translated it just as well had it been written in Chinese : this language he read and wrote well and spoke fluently, and he was considered to be a linguist. He had a wonderful memory. The Southland papers stated that he narrowly escaped genius, and that his head contained a veritable storage of learning. This may interest you.— I am, etc., A. Burke. Pahiatua, August 12,