Chap. XI.
TRANSLATION.
173
which is a proverbial mode of speech, we have nothing that corresponds in English. To translate the phrase literally would have a poor effect: "Give me a penny, and take a golden story, or a story worth gold." Mr Melmoth has given the sense in easy language: "Are you inclined to hear a story? or, if you please, two or three? for one brings to my mind another."
But this resource of translating the idiomatic phrase into easy language must fail, where the merit of the passage to be translated actually lies in that expression which is idiomatical. This will often occur in epigrams, many of which are therefore incapable of translation: Thus, in the following epigram the point of wit lies in an idiomatic phrase,and
