John Denham: Translation

John Denham was English poet and courtier. Explore interesting quotes on translation.
John Denham: 36   quotes 0   likes

“Nor ought a genius less than his that writ
Attempt translation.”

John Denham

To Sir Richard Fanshaw, Upon his Translation of Pastor Fido, line 9.

“I conceive it is a vulgar error in translating poets, to affect being fidus interpres… [for] poetry is of so subtile a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces and happinesses peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words… therefore if Virgil must needs speak English, it were fit he should speak not only as a man of this nation, but as [a] man of this age.”

John Denham

The Destruction of Troy (1656), Preface.

Life , Age , Error , Happiness

“That servile path thou nobly dost decline
Of tracing word by word, and line by line;
A new and nobler way thou dost pursue
To make translations, and translators too;
They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame,
True to his sense, but truer to his fame.”

John Denham

To Sir Richard Fanshaw, Upon his Translation of Pastor Fido, line 15.

Way , Sense

“Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate,
That few but such as cannot write, translate.”

John Denham

To Sir Richard Fanshaw, Upon his Translation of Pastor Fido (1648), line 1.

Fate