The Poems and Fragments of Catullus | Page 4

my friends, discern,_
whatever its defects, is at least a pretty exact representation of a pure iambic line. xxix. 6-8, are thus translated by Heyse:--
_Und jener soll in Uebermuthes Ueberfluss?Von einem Bett zum andern in die Runde gehn?_
by me thus,
_Shall he in o'er-assumption, o'er-repletion he,?Sedately saunter every dainty couch along?_
The difference is purely negative; I have bound myself to avoid certain positions forbidden by the laws of ancient prosody. To some I may seem to have lost in vigour by the process; yet I believe the sense of triumph over the difficulties of our language, the satisfaction of approaching in a novel and perceptibly felt manner one of those excellences which, as much as anything, contributes to the permanent charm of Catullus, his dainty versification, will more than compensate for any shortcomings which the difficulty of the task has made inevitable. The same may be said of the elaborately artificial poem to Camerius (c. lv.), and the almost unapproachable Attis (c. lxiii.). Here, at least half the interest lies in the varied turns of the metre; if these can be represented with anything like faithfulness, the gain in exactness of prosody is enough, in my judgment, to counterbalance the possible loss of freedom in expression.
There is another circumstance which tends to make modern rules of prosody necessarily negative. Quantity, in English revivals of ancient metre, depends not only on position, but on accent. But accent varies greatly in different words; _heavy level ever cometh any_, have the same accent as _empty evil either boometh penny_; but the first syllable in the former set of words is lighter than in the latter. Hence, though accented, they may, on occasion, be considered and used as short; as, on the same principle, _dolorous stratagem echoeth family_, usually dactyls, may, on occasion, become tribrachs. But how lay down any positive rule in matter necessarily so fluctuating? We cannot. All we can do is to refuse admission as short syllables to any heavier accented syllable. Here, then, much must be left to individual discretion. My translation of the Attis will best show my own feeling in the matter. But I am fully aware that in this respect I have fallen far short of consistency. I have made _any_ sometimes short, more often long; _to_, usually short, is lengthened in lxi. 26, lxvii. 19, lxviii. 143; _with_ is similarly long, though not followed by a consonant, in lxi. 36; _given_ is long in xxviii. 7, short in xi. 17, lxiv. 213; _are_ is short in lxvii. 14; and more generally many syllables allowed to pass for short in the Attis are elsewhere long. Nor have I scrupled to forsake the ancient quantity in proper names; following Heyse, I have made the first syllable of _Verona_ short in xxxv. 3, lxvii. 34, although it retains its proper quantity in lxviii. 27. Again, _Pheneos_ is a dactyl in lxviii. 111, while _Satrachus_ is an anapaest in xcv. 5. In many of these instances I have acted consciously; if the writers of Greece and Rome allowed many syllables to be doubtful, and almost as a principle avoid perfect uniformity in the quantity of proper names, a greater freedom may not unfairly be claimed by their modern imitators. If Catullus could write _Phars(a)liam coeunt, Phars(a)lia regna frequentant_, similar license may surely be extended to me. I believe, indeed, that nothing in my translation is as violent as the double quantity just mentioned in Catullus; but if there is, I would remind my readers of Goethe's answer to the boy who told him he had been guilty of a hexameter with seven feet, and applying the remark to any seeming irregularities in my own translation would say, _Lass die Bestie stehen_.
It would not be difficult to swell this Preface by enlarging on the novelty of the attempt, and indirectly panegyrising my own undertaking. I doubt whether any real advantage would thus be gained. If I have merely produced an elaborate failure, however much I might expatiate on the principles which guided me, my work would be an elaborate failure still. I shall therefore say no more, and shall be contented if I please the, even in this classically trained country, too limited number of readers who can really hear with their ears--if, to use the borrowed language of a great poet, I succeed in making myself vocal to the intelligent alone.
[Footnote A: The translation follows this edition (Oxford, 1867), in the constitution of the text, as well as in the sectional division of the poems.]
CATULLUS.
I.
Who shall take thee, the new, the dainty volume,?Purfled glossily, fresh with ashy pumice?
You, Cornelius; you of old did hold them?Something worthy, the petty witty nothings,
While you venture, alone of all Italians, 5 Time's vast chronicle in three books to circle,?Jove! how arduous, how divinely learned!
Therefore welcome it,