DAYMAN'S DANTE.

Or all the Italian poets, DANTE would seem susceptible of being most finely translated into English. His genius is not alien to that of our own clime. Though less laboriously straining after pomp of style than our own MILTON—though possessing a majesty of which Brairart, the author of what a stage-manager might term a " coat- and-waistcoat " epic, was destitute—the real lifelike aspect of his visions is not remote from the effect commonly ascribed to the homely English fabulist, and his exalted style exceeds in stern simplicity the lofty poet, while his subject is akin to that of both our popular writers. His manner is English : it is more direct, more concise, graver, than that of his countrymen in general; and though there are glimpses of passion, tender as well as fierce, his nature was less voluptuous and enjoying. He describes the reading, the tremours, the doom of Paolo and Francesca : ARIOSTO would have described their endearments. Thus the luxuriant redundancy, and the forms of style which depend on expression, or feeling as developed in its national aspect, do not embarrass the translator as in the romantic poets, and, though in a different way, still more in Ps- smallest—ultra-Italian in the particular fashion of his highly artificial effusions. The obscurities which have been a bugbear in the Florentine are of two kinds: the political allusions are not a difficulty incidental to the language, and they concern not the translator but only the commentator; they are matters of fact, not of form, and are as much obstacles to an Italian as to an English reader : the occasional obscurities of idea are in- cidental to the dreamy nature of the subject, not always to the

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i form of expression • as in the case of the first triplet, which starts at once from an abstraction, the " middle of the way of life," to its physical type, the " dark wood," without expressly warning the reader that the transition has taken place. In the Journey to the Other World, two disputing commentators on SHAJeSPERE are re- presented as appealing to the bard himself touching the meaning of a particular passage ; when he replies, that really he does not know himself. There are many ideas and feelings which occur to the mind that are in their nature vague and doubtful, and the poet is licensed to copy Nature in all her moods. The translator must copy his original: if the painting makes the outline lost in some deep shadow, the engraver must not venture to trace it, but must reproduce the ambiguous darkness. The real difficulty in handling DANTE'S text lies in the power and beauty of the idea, which a timid or feeble copyist may spoil. But the translator will find his greatest strength in the closest fidelity to his original. Such is the duty of every translator. Some, indeed, hold it to be his office to produce such a work as the original writer would have produced had he written in the different language : but that notion totally loses sight of facts. It must be, for instance, impossible to presume how DANTE would have written had he thought in English : the thoughts as well as the expression would certainly have been different. Moreover, translation is the representative of something which is already : it is not simply to mul- tiply the number of works in any tongue • the translated Italian literature is not an addition to English literature, but a means of enabling the English people at large to possess the ideas of great Italian writers, and furthermore as vivid a conception as possible how they think and write in that quarter. To come back to the particular, a translation of DANTE should as nearly as pos- sible let the English reader know what DANTE is—for that is what the English reader wishes to know—not what the poet might have been had he been our own countryman. In this _respect, Mr. DATMAH lets gone rightly to work. He has endeavoured to keep. as close to bis author as two dissimilar vocabularies would admit. He has very properly imitated DANTE'S terza rima; for though the endless weaving of that verse is in itself tedious, and the multiplication of rhymes is more difficult in English than Italian, DANTE did not write in blank verse, or any thing but terza rime; and metre is one characteristic of every poet's style. Mr. DAYMAN avails himself too of many licences, even to the literal translation of words not used in our language. This is not only fair, but useful, as bringing the translation closer to the text. It is, however, at times carried too far ; as where Virgil's " parlar" is rendered " parle,"—because that is not translation, and " speech " would in all respects have done quite as well ; and where " onda bruna " is translated "the waters brown,"—because with us brown means a particular colour, and not "dark," as DANTE means ; though we have a vague notion of some English authority for the translator's use of the word. Nor should a graduate of Oxford be guilty of such lapses as "from whence,"—which is more than a licence. These, however, are com- paratively trifles. Altogether, Mr. DAYMAN gives the English reader a better idea of DANTE, his matter and manner, than any previous translator. 'rake the celebrated description of the entrance to Hell, and the inscription over the gate ; which we compare with the original, and with the standard translation in our language, CART'S ; placing the newest version last.

DANTE.

" Per me si vs nella citth dolente: Per me si va nell' eterno dolore:

Per me si va Ira la perduta gente.

Givatizia mosse 'I mio alto fattore ; Fecemi la divine potestate, La somma sapienza, e'l primo amore.

Dinanzi a me non fur cose create Se non eterne, ed io eterno duro: Lasciate ogni aperanza, voi che 'ntrate."

Queste parole di colore oscuto Vid' io acritte al sommo d' una porta.

Perch' io : " Maestro, it sensolor m' a darn."

Quivi sospiri, pianti, ed altri guai, Risonavan per 1' acre setae atelle, Perch' io al cominciar ne lagrimai.

Diverse lingue, orribili favelle, Parole di dolore, accenti d' ira, Voci alte a tioche, e aeon di man con elle

Facevano un tumulto, it plat aggira Sempre in quell' aria senate tempo tiuta Come la reua 9uando it turbo spire. Ed io, ch' avea d error Is testa cinta, Dissi: " Maestro, the a quel ch' odo? E the gent' b, the par nel dual al vinta?"

Ed egli a me : "Questo misero modo Tengon snime triste di coloro, Che viaser sauza infamia e aanza lodo.

Miachiate sono a quel cattivo coro Degli Angell etas non furon ribelli, Ne fur fedeli a Dio, ma per se fora" GARY.

" Through me you pass into the city of wo: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. Befare me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure.

All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

Such characters in colour dim I mark'd Over a portal's lofty arch inscrib'd.

Whereat I thus : " Master, these words import Hard meaning." • • *

Here sighs with lamentations and loud moans Resounded through the air pieced by no star, That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues, Horrible languages, outcries of wo,

Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,

With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds, Made up a tumult, that fur ever whirls

Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd, Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.

I then, with error yet encompass d, cried: " 0 master ! what is this I hear ? what race Are these, who seem so overcome with wo ? "

He thus to me: " This miserable fate Suffer the wretched souls of those who lived Without or praise or blame, with that ill band Of Angels mix'd, who nor rebellious prov'd Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves Were only."

DAYMAN.

" Through me the path to city named of Wail;

Through me the path to wo without remove ; Through me the path to damned souls in bale I Justice inclined my Maker from above : I am by virtue of the Might Divine.

The Sitpreme Wisdom, and the Primal Love. Created birth none antedates to mine,

Save endless things, and endless I endure : Ye that are entering, all hope resign." These words charactered all in hues obscure Over a portal's arch I traced, and said,

" Too stern their legend, master, to allure." • • •

Sighs there, and moaning sobs, and shriller cries, Rebounded echoing through the starless air, And early forced the tear-gush from mine eyes : Tongues of all strain, dread language of despair, Words born of anguish, accents choked with ire, And voices loud and hoarse were mingling there, With sounds of hands to swell one uproar dire, That aye went eddying round that timeless gloom? As the sand eddieth in the whirlwind's gyre.

" Master, what would this din ?" asked I, to whom Error had blindfold bound the head " Say, who The tribe that thus lie vanquished by their doom ? " And he to me : " The miserable crew Of souls now lingers in this piteous mood, To whom, alive, nor praise nor blame was due : Commingled are they with that caitiff brood Of angel natures, which nor dared rebel, Nor yet kept faith, but selfish ends pursued."

In the foregoing passage, CARY has better rendered the difficult inscription ; and in DAYMAN, DANTE'S remark about it is a positive mistranslation : yet on the whole, the manner, especially in the descriptive part, is a much nearer approach to the original: the dizzy whirl, the storm of sounds dismal and confused, the bewilder- ment that encircles the poet's head and confounds his sense, are better conveyed. " Timeless gloom " is a hint of the idea " senza tempo tinta' —"untinged by time "—that is, the sun, which marks time in our world—altogether omitted, or rather perverted, by

CART.

Take the description of "the violent against God," and of the indomitable Capaneus. Dante and Virgil come to a sandy plain surrounded by a scorched wood-

DANTE.

D' anime nude vidi molta gregge, Che piangean tette assai miseramente, E parea poets for diverse Legge:

Supin giaceva in terra alcuna gente, Alcune si sedea tutta raccolta, Ed altra andava contionamente.

• • •• Sorra tutto '1 eabbion d'un ceder lento Piove 'n di facie° dilatate falde, Come di neve in Alpe sauza veuto.

• • • • Tale scendeva eternale ardore; Onde la rena s' accendea, corn' esca Sotto focile, a doppiar lo dolore.

Sense riposo mai era Is treaca Delle misere mani, or quindi or quinci lscotendo da se l'arsura fiesta.

I' cominciai : "Maestro, to che vinci Tutte le coae fuor che i dimon duri, Ch' all' entrar della porta incontro uscinci, CM fi quel grande che non par che cari Lo 'ncendio, e giace dispettoso e torto SI che la pioggia non par che '1 matnri? " E noel medesmo, che si foe accorto Ch' dimandava 'I mio duca di lui, Gridh: "Quale fu' vivo, tal sou morto."

CARY.

Of naked spirits many a flock I saw, All weeping piteously, and to different laws Subjected ; for on the earth some lay supine, Some crouching close were seated, others pac'd

Incessantly around ; the latter tribe,

More numerous, those fewer who beneath The torment lay, but louder in their grief • • • O'er all the sand fell slowly waiting down Dilated flakes of fire, as flakes of snow On Alpine summit, when the wind is hushed. • * So fell the eternal flood, wherewith The merle glow'd underneath, as under stove The viands, doubly to augment the pain. Unceasing was the play of wretched hands, Now this, now that way glancing, to shake off The beat, still falling fresh. I thus began : "Instructor I thou who all things overcom'st, Except the hardy daemons, that rush'd forth To stop our entrance at the gate, say who Is you huge spirit, that, as seems, heeds not The burning, but lies writhen in proud scorn, As by the sultry tempest immatured ?"

Straight he himself, who was aware I ask'd My guide of him, exclained: " Such as I was When living, dead such now I am."

DAMAN.

Of naked spirits many a herd I saw; And plaiuing all and pitiful their sound, Yet seemed the servants of divided law ; For some supine lay stretched upon the ground, And some to sit their shrinking limbs up-drew, And other some went everlasting round. • • • • Of fiery flakes deliberate slow rain Fell aye dilating o'er the parched sands, Like snow without a wind on Alpine chain. • • • • Such of eternal burnings fell the shower, From which that sand, as tinder from the steel, Kindling, tormented them with double atour.

In dance, but not of mirth, their hands they wheel From aide to side, and hopeless of repose,

Brush off the fresh flakes, scorching as they feel.

" Master," I prefaced, " thou whose help o'erthrows All hindrance but the obdurate daemon host To bar our entry at the gate who rose, Say, whose yon haughty bulk, that, careless tost And twisted, seems the plague-fires to defy, As if on him that ripening rain were lost ? ' And he, that unknown, when he marked how I Did Of my guide his earthly state inquire, Cried, "As of old I lived, such dead I lie."

Here the triplet describing the burning shower will illustrate the difference between the two translations. DAYMAN, with DANTE, speaks of the fiery flakes as rain—D ANTE says they do rain, DAY- MAN that they are rain : CARY speaks of them as flames falling like Bakes of snow, the idea of rain omitted. Cagy says the wind is

hushed : DArsrAtl and•DAIST$, that-there is no wind: CARY raises

the idea of a breeze, and a lull in that breeze. The snow-like stillness and slowness of the fire, which so much aggravate the awfulness of the infliction, not only because more deliberate, but as seeming more passionless and inexorable in the inflicter, are much better rendered by DAYMAN. Here too CARY is guilty of positive mistranslation. His author describes the sandy ground as taking fire,—thus reflecting by a creeping fire the falling torment ; not (as being cooked like victuals. The translator was misled by the word " esca"—primarily " food," whence it came to mean fond for fire- fuel—Wider. The precise sense is indicated by "focile," a shin- bone or fire-steel. The mistake is not only in the words, but it mars the coherency and keeping of a vivid picture. The spirit of the triplet describing Capaneus is weakened in CARY'S " as by the sultry tempest inn-natured"; "matured" with us having a much vaguer and weaker signification than in the text ; while it is doubly diluted by being put negatively. " Writhen" suggests a show of physical agony, not implied in " torto"—twisted. Upon the whole, if CARY'S version is the more even composition as a piece of English writing, and less chargeable with incorrect- nesses that additional pains might have removed from the other, DAYMAN'S convey a to the English reader a more spirited copy of the poet's images and a more vivid representation of his manner. To the poem are appended the explanatory notes which are so necessary to the elucidation of the text, with references to parallel passages ; in which Mr. DAYMAN appears to have availed himself of the labours of previous annotators, but with original remarks and extended references.