Echoes from the Sabine Farm | Page 2

the original issue of the Odes, Field added, "in this charming guise," which places quite another construction upon the matter.
It may be that the enthusiasm displayed not only pleased Field, and incited him and his brother Roswell to perform that which, otherwise, might have been indefinitely deferred, but there is no question but that they intended to publish the Horatian odes at some time or another. Field was greatly delighted with the reception of this work, and I once heard him say it would outlive all his other books. He came naturally by his love of the classics. His father was a splendid scholar who obliged his sons to correspond with him in Latin. Field's favorite ode was the Bandusian Spring, the paraphrasing of which in the styles of the various writers of different periods gave him genuine joy and is perhaps the choice bit of the collection. The Echoes from the Sabine Farm was the most ambitious work Field had attempted up to the time of its issue. He was not at all sure that the public for whom he wrote, what following he then felt was his own, would accept his efforts in this direction with any sort of acclaim. Unquestionably, Field, at all times, believed in himself and in his power ultimately to make a name, as every man must who achieves success, but he was as far from believing that the public would accept him as an interpreter of Horatian odes as was Edward Fitzgerald with respect to Omar Khayyám. In short, he looked upon his work in the original publication of Echoes from the Sabine Farm as a labor of love--an effort from which some reputation might come, but certainly no monetary remuneration. It was because he so regarded it that he permitted the work to be first issued under the bolstering influence of a patron. It was, so he thought, an excellent opportunity to show his friends and acquaintances that his Pegasus was capable of soaring to classic heights, and he little dreamed that the paraphrasing of the Odes of Horace over which "Rose and I have been fooling" would be required for a popular edition. With the announcement of the Scribner edition of The Sabine Echoes came also the intelligence of Field's death.
I have found people who were somewhat puzzled as to the exact intentions of the Fields with respect to these translations and paraphrases. However, there can be no chance for mistake even to the veriest embryonic reader of Horace, if he will but remember that, while some of these transcriptions are indeed very faithful reproductions or adaptations of the original, others again are to be accepted as the very riot of burlesque verse-making.
The last stanza in the epilogue of this book reads:
Or if we part to meet no more?This side the misty Stygian river,?Be sure of this: On yonder shore?Sweet cheer awaiteth such as we--?A Sabine pagan's heaven, O friend--?And fellowship that knows no end.
FRANCIS WILSON.
January 22, 1896.
TO M.L. GRAY.
Come, dear old friend, and with us twain?To calm Digentian groves repair;?The turtle coos his sweet refrain?And posies are a-blooming there;?And there the romping Sabine girls?Bind myrtle in their lustrous curls.
I know a certain ilex-tree?Whence leaps a fountain cool and clear.?Its voices summon you and me;?Come, let us haste to share its cheer!?Methinks the rapturous song it sings?Should woo our thoughts from mortal things.
But, good old friend, I charge thee well,?Watch thou my brother all the while,?Lest some fair Lydia cast her spell?Round him unschooled in female guile.?Those damsels have no charms for me;?Guard thou that brother,--I'll guard thee!
And, lo, sweet friend! behold this cup,?Round which the garlands intertwine;?With Massic it is foaming up,?And we would drink to thee and thine.?And of the draught thou shalt partake,?Who lov'st us for our father's sake.
Hark you! from yonder Sabine farm?Echo the songs of long ago,?With power to soothe and grace to charm?What ills humanity may know;?With that sweet music in the air,?'T is Love and Summer everywhere.
So, though no grief consumes our lot?(Since all our lives have been discreet),?Come, in this consecrated spot,?Let's see if pagan cheer be sweet.?Now, then, the songs; but, first, more wine.?The gods be with you, friends of mine!
E.F.
The Contents of this Book
WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH ROSWELL MARTIN FIELD
TO M.L. GRAY E.F. AN INVITATION TO M?CENAS. Odes, III. 29 E.F. CHLORIS PROPERLY REBUKED. Odes, III. 15 R.M.F. TO THE FOUNTAIN OF BANDUSIA. Odes, III. 13 E.F.
TO THE FOUNTAIN OF BANDUSIA. R.M.F.
THE PREFERENCE DECLARED. Odes, I. 38 E.F.
A TARDY APOLOGY. I.