CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Odes, Epodes, Carmen Seculare, and the First Satire of Horace Translated into English Verse. By Christopher Hughes. (Longmans.) —What has induced Mr. Hughes to publish this translation ? It might have stood some chance of acceptance fifty years ago, but now it is quite unnecessary. The utmost praise we can give it is that sometimes it is fairly done, but there is nothing to take hold of in the way of merit, and much to take hold of in that of imperfection. Sometimes Mr. Hughes mistranslates, at other times he misapprehends. Test lines are slurred over. Test odes are treated without an effort. It is unpardon- able to translate " dejectum " in the second ode of the first book "bowed," and to make a supine into an adjective. But tho whole force of that stanza is lost, and the end of the same ode is equally mutilated.
Again, the conclusion of the sixth ode in the same book is an instance of utterly bad translation for which a schoolboy would have to rend his garments. Why is "vine liques " rendered "filter your wines ?" Why does the "Maura nada" grow warm in the sun, instead of boiling ? But when we come to passage's which need genius to translate them, to single lines which if successful would confer a reputation, and to odes which have occupied generations of poets, we find Mr. Hughes below mediocrity.
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