Page:On translating Homer (1905).djvu/66

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advantage. He himself gives us several plausible reasons why this rhythm of his really ought to be successful: let us examine how far it is successful.

Mr Newman joins to a bad rhythm so bad a diction that it is difficult to distinguish exactly whether in any given passage it is his words or his measure which produces a total impression of such an unpleasant kind. But with a little attention we may analyse our total impression, and find the share which each element has in producing it. To take the passage which I have so often mentioned, Sarpedon's speech to Glaucus. Mr Newman translates this as follows:

O gentle friend! if thou and I, from this encounter 'scaping,
Hereafter might for ever be from Eld and Death exempted
As heavenly gods, not I in sooth would fight among the foremost,
Nor liefly thee would I advance to man-ennobling battle.
Now,—sith ten thousand shapes of Death do any-*gait pursue us
Which never mortal may evade, though sly of foot and nimble;—
Onward! and glory let us earn, or glory yield to someone.

Could all our care elude the gloomy grave
Which claims no less the fearful than the brave.

I am not going to quote Pope's version over again, but I must remark in passing, how much more, with all Pope's radical difference