New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1845-11-18

T,,xsIATlNo Dante is indeed n labor OF love.
/, is one in which even moderate degree OF sue
cess is impossible No great poet can be well trans
lated The form of his thought is insepnrabe from
his thought, The births Of his genius are perfect
beings: body and soul are in such perfect harmony,
tha, Won cannot Ut MI utter the one without yelling
the other The variation in cadence and modula-
ton even where the words are exactly rendered,
takes not only from the form of the thought, but
from The though; itself its most delicate charm
| TranSlaiions come 10 us message 10 the lover
from the lady of his love, through the lips of con.
fdaat or menal--we are obliged 10 imagine wha;
was mos, vital in the original u,;crancc.
These difficulties, always insuperable, are accu-
/ muiatcd hundred fold in the case OF Dante, both
bv the extraordinary depth and subtcty OF his
though, and his no less extraordinary power of con
ccu,ra,ing its expression, till every verse is Ike
blade of thoroughly tempered steel You might as
well attempt TO translate glance OF fire from the
human eye into any other languagc-evcn music
cannot do thot.
We think, then, that the use of Cary's transa-
ton or any other can never be to diusc know
ledge OF Dante This is Tin its difiusible;
S''4N'S 4'SN $500
he cannot be brought to them. He has no superb
cial charm cheat the reader into belief that he
knows him. without entrance into tine same sphere
| These transations can be OF use only 70 Inc
trenslalors, as a means OF deliberate study OF the
original or 10 others who arc studying the original
and wish TO compare their own version OF doubtful
passages with that of an older disciple highly quail
fled. both BY devotion and mental development for
| the study
We must say a few words to the pedanlic folly
with which this study has been prosecuted In this
country, and, we believe, in England. Not only the
tragedies of Alicri and the Faust OF Goethe but
! the Divine Comedy OF Dante-a work which 1t is
no, probable there are upon earth at any one time
hundred miads able 10 appreciate, are turned INTO
school books for little girls who have just left their
hoops and dolls, and boys whose highest ambition it
is 10 ride horse that will away, and brave the
! tutor in "A college fro!ic.
This is done from the idea that, in order to get
acquainted with foreign language, the student
| must read books that have attained the dignity OF
classics and also which are hard. HARD, indeed,
il must be for the MUSES. their yres thus turn
ed into gridirons for preparation of schoolgirls
lunch; harder still for the youngngs to be called to
chew and digest thunderbolts in lieu Of their natural
! bread and butter.
Are there not classics enough which would not
suffer by being put TO such uses? In Greek, Homer
! is book for boy must you civ e him Plato because
I it is harder! Is there choice among the Latlns
are all who wrote in the Lain tongue equally fit for
! the appreciation of sixteen Yankee years in ltal'
ian have you not Tasso, Arosto and other writers
who have really great deal that the immature mind
can enioy without choking them with the stern poll
tics of Alfieri or ping UPON brain still soft, the
mountainous meanings of Dante. Indeed, they are
saved from suffering by the perfect ignorance of all
meaning in which they leave these great authors,
fancyinc to their lifelong misfortune, that they have
read them. have been reminded by the remarks
of nv Young friends these subjects, OF the Irish
peasant who having been educated on book pre-
pared for his use called Reading Made Easy,
besses through life the kindness that taught him his
i" Padamadasy,'' and of the child, who, hearing her
father quote Horace, observed, "Shc thought Latin
was even slier than French"
No less pedantic is the style in which the grown
up lin stature at least undertake to become acqualnl-
ed with Dante They get the best Italian Dictlona-
ry all the they can find, amounting IN them
selves TO library for his countrymen have not been
less external and benighted in their way of regard
ing him Painfully they study through the book,
seeking with anxious attention TO know who Signor
this is and who was the cousin OF Sgnora that and
whether any deep papal or anti-papal meaning was
! couchSd by Dante under the remark tina, such an
one wore great coat. a mind whose small cham
| bers look yet smaller from being crowded with fur
niure from all parts of the world, bought by labor
| II. l,,- ln,.n car's
that he must understand Dante we'll bctterihan any
other person probably, because he has studied him
through in this way thirty or forty times As well
declare you have better appreciation OF Shakespeare
than any one else because you had Identified the
birthplace of Dame Quickly, or ascertained the
church yard where the ghost of the royal Dane hid
from the sight of that far celestial spirit, his
son.
oh, pains taking friends, shut your books, clear
YOUR minds from artificial nonsense. and feel that
only by spirit can spirit be discerned. Dante like
each other great one, took the stuff that lay around
him and wovc it TO garment OF light. 1t Is not by
raveling that you will best appreciate lis tissue or
design Ii is not by studying out the petty srlies
or external relations Of his time that You can become
acquainted with the thought Of Dante To him these
things were only soil in which to plant himself
figures by which to dramatic and evolve his ideas
Would you learn him. so listen in the forest of hui
man passions 10 all the terrible voices he heard with
,ormented bu! never TO be deafencd ear go down
into the bells where each thai mars the har-
nony of nature punished by the sinner finding no
food except from his own harvest pass through the
purga,ories of speculation OF struggling hope and
iai,h never quite quenchcd, bat smouldcrins often
and long beneath the ashes. Soar il thou canst but
if thou cans, not clear thiae eye 10 see this great
eagle soar into the higher region where forms ar
range themselves for stellar dance and sphera mel
ody aud thought, with constantly accelerated mo-
ton, raises itself spiral which end only in the
heart Of the Supreme.
He who finds in himself no fitness to study Dante
in this way should regard himself in the position