Essays
and Reviews
by
Archibald Lampman
Edited
by D.M.R. Bentley
Lyrical
Translations*
Not
often in a country like this, which is yet in the struggling
and money-getting stage, and where intellectual
and literary efforts are apt rather to take the so-called
practical turn, shall a man be found who has had the
heart to devote the best of his hours to the study of
poets in foreign and even dead languages. Still rarer
will be the man who has had the industry and ability
to render these poets in any highly acceptable manner
into English verse. The office of the translator, too,
albeit rather [a] thankless one, and not often rewarded
with a very high degree [of] fame, is nevertheless so
rare, so useful, and so honourable in the eyes of the
eager student of letters, that the latter will hardly
rank him below the original creator, if his work be
at all freely and faithfully done. For these reasons
this very small and unpretentious work by Mr. Charles
J. Parham is deserving of much more than a passing notice,
and should be greeted kindly by the lovers of good books,
not only for what is in it but because it must be the
first fruit of better things in the future. It is only
a little book, but it contains translations of single
short lyrics from no less than thirty-one authors in
the Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Provençal tongues.
Here the reader will find tensons from the old
troubadours, a famous sirvente of Bertrand de
Born, the warrior-poet of Cœur de Lion’s time; madrigals
and letrillas from the Prince of Esquilache,
Camoëns, Melo, and others of the Spanish and Portuguese;
lyrics, playful or serious, from Metastasio and various
Italians; canciones from Riojo, Calderon, Gil
Vicento [sic] and so on. It is very little, but the
promise is good, for Mr. Parham does not translate after
the manner of those who think that it is sufficient
to have transferred an approximation to the meaning
and feeling of the original into some common set form
of English verse; the result being nothing more than
a very commonplace English poem. He has aimed at retaining
in his translation the genuine sense, flavour, form,
and rhythm of the original, and in many cases he has
completely succeeded. His translation of the famous
"Address to the Nightingale", "Pajarillo
que Cantas", of the Prince of Esquilache,
is a beautiful and charming poem, and must retain a
great part of the excellence of the original Spanish.
Mr. Parham has appended two or three poems of his own,
one of which, "The Siesta", breathes
the spirit of his translation, and proves him to be
thoroughly saturated with the luxurious fancy and feelings
of the South.
* Lyrical Translations.
By Charles J. Parham, Ottawa. [back]
|
