Odes and Carmen Saeculare | Page 8

him from the
charge of having forgotten what is after all his native tongue. As one
instance out of many, I may mention the use of compound epithets as a
temptation to which the translator of Horace is sure to be exposed, and
which, in my judgment, he ought in general to resist. Their power of
condensation naturally recommends them to a writer who has to deal

with inconvenient clauses, threatening to swallow up the greater part of
a line; but there is no doubt that in the Augustan poets, as compared
with the poets of the republic, they are chiefly conspicuous for their
absence, and it is equally certain, I think, that a translator of an
Augustan poet ought not to suffer them to be a prominent feature of his
style. I have, perhaps, indulged in them too often myself to note them
as a defect in others; but it seems to me that they contribute, along with
the Tennysonian metre, to diminish the pleasure with which we read
such a version as that of which I have already spoken by "C. S. C." of
"Justum et tenacem." I may add, too, that I have occasionally allowed
the desire of brevity to lead me into an omission of the definite article,
which, though perhaps in keeping with the style of Milton, is certainly
out of keeping with that of the eighteenth century. It is one of a
translator's many refuges, and has been conceded so long that it can
hardly he denied him with justice, however it may remind the reader of
a bald verbal rendering.
A very few words will serve to conclude this somewhat protracted
Preface. I have not sought to interpret Horace with the minute accuracy
which I should think necessary in writing a commentary; and in general
I have been satisfied to consult two of the latest editions, those by
Orelli and Ritter. In a few instances I have preferred the views of the
latter; but his edition will not supersede that of the former, whose
commentary is one of the most judicious ever produced, within a
moderate compass, upon a classical author. In the few notes which I
have added at the end of this volume, I have noticed chiefly the
instances in which I have differed from him, in favour either of Hitter's
interpretation, or of some view of my own. At the same time it must be
said that my translation is not to be understood as always indicating the
interpretation I prefer. Sometimes, where the general effect of two
views of the construction of a passage has been the same, I have
followed that which I believed to be less correct, for reasons of
convenience. I have of course held myself free to deviate in a thousand
instances from the exact form of the Latin sentence; and it did not seem
reasonable to debar myself from a mode of expression which appeared
generally consistent with the original, because it happened to be
verbally consistent with a mistaken view of the Latin words. To take an

example mentioned in my notes, it may be better in Book III. Ode 3,
line 25, to make "adulterae" the genitive case after "hospes" than the
dative after "splendet;" but for practical purposes the two come to the
same thing, both being included in the full development of the thought;
and a translation which represents either is substantially a true
translation. I have omitted four Odes altogether, one in each Book, and
some stanzas of a fifth; and in some other instances I have been
studiously paraphrastic. Nor have I thought it worth while to extend my
translation from the Odes to the Epodes. The Epodes were the
production of Horace's youth, and probably would not have been much
cared for by posterity if they had constituted his only title to fame. A
few of them are beautiful, but some are revolting, and the rest, as
pictures of a roving and sensual passion, remind us of the least
attractive portion of the Odes. In the case of a writer like Horace it is
not easy to draw an exact line; but though in the Odes our admiration of
much that is graceful and tender and even true may balance our moral
repugnance to many parts of the poet's philosophy of life, it does not
seem equally desirable to dwell minutely on a class of compositions
where the beauties are fewer and the deformities more numerous and
more undisguised.
I should add that any coincidences that may be noticed between my
version and those of my predecessors are, for the most part, merely
coincidences. In some cases I may have knowingly borrowed a rhyme,
but only where the rhyme was too common to have created a right of
property.