ITALIAN POEMS - TRANSLATED An Anthology of Italian Lyrics, from the

Thirteenth Century to the Present Day. Chosen and translated by Romilda Bernie!. (John Lane. Os. net.) Ir we may believe the English novelists of the early nineteenth century, a knowledge of Italian poetry was then an essential accomplishment of all elegant young ladies and, necessarily, of their male admirers. Indeed, on the same authority, we may say daleotidfu it libro ; for if bante was still voted " Gothiek " and obscure, Ariosto and Tasso appears to have played a considerable part in polite courtships. At present there is but too much reason to think that Miss Rendel is" right when she says Italian literature is " accessible only to a very limited extent to many English people." Possibly, English literature has absorbed so much of the Italian influence - through the two channels of the Elizabethans and the Roman- :- that curiosity has for some time reached its saturation point. In any case, it seems obvious that French, Russian and Oriental literatures are at present more popular than the , traditional studies of the classics and Italian and Spanish. But if there is a lull in our Italian -studied; the reason is, no doubt, that so much has been done in the past. Certainly, there is no lack of interest among scholars ; as one instance among many may be cited Professor G. L. Bickersteth's admirable Poems of Leopardi; published only two years ago.

Miss Rendel's anthology of lyrics with verse translations cannot and does not pretend to compete with a work of pro- found scholarship like Professor Bickersteth's Leopardi. In a 'reface which is perhaps a little too modest she disclaims any but rather humble aims. Italian lyric poetry is very - abundant, and there is plenty of room for discoveries and personal tastes. A book like this is chiefly the record of a private excursion among Italian lyrics of six or seven centuries... So much Must inevitably be left out that a reviewer's btisiness: is to point out what is included as an indication of the. trans- lator's tastes.

ynfortunately-, it is always a little doubtful whether Much • service is done to foreign poems by rendering them into un- diptinguished verge which coinpletely iaters. the whole feeling of'the original by substituting a conventional," poetic diction " for an admirable simplicity. An excellent example of this -. unconscious falsification is provided by Miss Rendel's version of the-well-known In un .boschettce" poem of Guido Caval-"' canti. --T-bis,---ballata is closely related- to the early • French pastourelles, and their common virtue-is that a beautiful effect is achieved by the harmonious arrangement of simple and

munetaphorical words. Guido sayS of his shepherdess : " She,had. very fair and curling locks, eyes filled with love, a rosy face ; with a switch she pastured herlambs, and her feet were wet with dew "

" Capelli avea biondetti e ricciutelli, E gli ocehi pien d'amor, cera rogata Con sus verghetta pasturav' agnelli, E seal= di rugiada era bagnata." •

The diminutives cannot be imitated in English, but the simplicity and directness of the phrases can. The meta- phorical words (here given in italics) used by Miss Rendel falsify the poem by giving it a commonplace sentimentalism which is utterly foreign to the original :—

• " With golden tresses she was crowned, And in her eyes love gently dreamed. With little staff. her flock she led, Fresh dews caressed her naked feet."

That " crowned," that " gently dreamed," that " caressed " are the stock sentimentalities of the minor poet of a rapidly passing type ; they are desperate infidelities to Guido's clear, precise, unsentimental diction. Nor • does- the verse translation fare much better with Petrarch. " I am so weary 'neath the ancient load," writes Miss Rendel briskly ; but how the long " O's " bow down the poet's brow in :—

" fe son si stone() sotto it fascio antico" . .

In fact these, like so many verse translations, prove that the harmonies of the original verse are lost as much as in a prose 'translation, .Nehile the subtleties of _style, which can be, and sometimes are, reproduced in prose, are never even considered

by the verse translator. .

Miss Rendel shows a conventional and nineteenth-century taste in her choice. Two-thirds of her space are given up to the nineteenth century : more than one-fifth is occupied by Leopardi and Carducci. The important modem work of the

Futuristi is as much ignored as that of Marini and the Seicen- Iisti—even the delightful Metastasio does not appear. Ob- viously, Miss Rendel's explorations have been conducted with timidity and not much of an eye for any but obvious or rather sentimental values.. Dante is omitted on the grounds that " everyone is familiar " with .his works in translation.

Petrarch is represented by eleven sonnets (not his best) but

no canon;. Pre-Petrarchan poetry (among which Miss Rendel includes Boccaccio) is represented meagrely by " The Lament for the Cruaader" (in the French taste) by Rinaldo d'Aquino, a sonnet of Guido Guinicelli and Cino da Pistoia, the pastoral of Guido Cavalcanti and the " Anima benedetta " canzone by an unknown poet of the fourteenth century.

The great and varied poetic literature between Petrarch and Monti is also very scantily represented. Miss Rendel hat avoided giving any selections from long poems (which was Perhaps wise) but it is significant that she entirely ignores the satirists and burlesque writers. Lorenzo de' Medici is repro sented by two sonnets, but the delightful and much more racy Florentine _carnival songs are ignored. There are sonnets

of Boiardo, Ariosto, Michelangelo, Guidiccioni, della Cam, Tasso, Felicaia (the " fatal gift of beauty," a course), Mazza and Minzoni. (Two half-lines have accidentally dropped out

of the text of dells Casa's sonnet.) Bembo, Annibal Caro and Chiabrera are also represented.

After the great periods have been so rapidly passed over, the selection becomes fuller. A certain preference seems to have been given to religious poems and to those nationalist' exhortations which Italians feel bound to admire. Foscolo, Grossi, Prati, Tommaseo, Alcardi, Mercantini, lead up to Manzoni, Leopardi and Carducci. Four of Leopardi's poems are given, including the magnificent Canto Notturno and the short but most impressive L'Infmito. Miss Rendel is more successful in rendering Cardueci's romantic colouring than the compressed and profound thought of Leopardi. Pascoli and Fogazzam are perhaps the best known among the later poets given here, but there are also poems by Arturo Graf, Severino Ferrari, Mario R.apisardi, Olindo Guerrini, Roccatagliata- • Ceecardi, F. Pastonchi, Corrado Govoni and G. Marradi. This hasty enumeration will at least indicate the scope of this well-meaning little book ; enough also has been said of its

defects to allay any great expectations here and to encourage Miss Rendel to make further selections with less timidity. .--