The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-11-23
TRANSLA TIONa.

There IS no more thanklcss, and indeed al
toecther unproftablc task than that Of trans
hitting books for publication. The qualifica-
tions for n thorough discharge Of the work are
such as arc seldom possessed by the poor hacks
who have to resort to this drudgery for q ivcli-
hood They must be perfectly conyersant with
both languages, must at the same time be good
scholars; and furthermore possess the faculty
of expressing themselves with ease, fuency
and elegance both in prose and verse These
are few of the postulates. Still, after all,
none but u man Of genius can translate works
of genius, o#as 10 make them readable we
iIaYe.a5 few such transiations SGHLEGe1zs
:huIspearc. CoLHRIDGE's Wnilelstan, Bull
1rrR's Sc,lcr's Poems, and {. few noyc. s'icil
work cannot in reason be expected ut q dollar
u page and yet the public will carp at bad
translationa.
Certainly, the work is very often performed
by persons altogether incompetent. A trans
lator should rarely have to resort to dicton~
ary: otherwise, he will find that dictionaries
are=likc Sam. Weller'B= =widows-dangerous
Some years ago we read a translation Of HEN
RVS Life of Caluin, in which blunders in1iu-
morahle occurred.. One of these we happen to
rclnember lust now. The word hederl;chcs
W,cdehru occurred in the original, which the
translator, misled by his dictionary, rendered
"snging girl" Itslould have been, IA girl Of
Ind character" This is Of u piece with the oft
onocd oLa dernsere chemisc dc lamour,' for
"LoYcs Last Shift.
The @tranBators of VlcroR HUoos Travail
lcurs de- Ia lfcr have had much fault found with
thcn This is hard, for if translator does
h;s work ever 30 we'll, he receives no credit; his
name is not even mention. Let him fail ever
40 little and he incurs the censure of publish
crs and nlnlic. There were SO many Nbsurdl-
tins in this book of VICTOR HuGo's, unqueston-
nbly the authors own handiwork, and they
were so frequently held up to ridcule, that his
friends and partisans found it necessary to at
tcmnt to avert SOME of this ccnsure from the
author to his transat ors. Some Of these crltl-
cisn,s are just, others are puerile. These un-
fortunntcs have, at length, been tnken oa the
wheel, and a new victim placed there in their
stead. translator of the ''Clcmencea1
Trapedy," of ALEXANDER DUMAS, Jr, now oc-
ounes this unenyiable position; and from the
anccimens we have seen we must confess that
hc has taken some unWarrantable liberties with
his nuthor's text.For instance, Dumas hero
saws: "Ces Jeuncs files me gataient de Ia m'cu1. "
rrhese girls did their best to spoil me. 1nthe
New York edition this simple sentence reads:
"Thesc young ladies treat cd me with candies from
their earnings" Again, the boys mother pur-
choscs for him "un couueyt ct timbale d'argent;
fa knife. fork and silver cup, rendered by the
translator, ia small silver lockct. ',="C'esf M
ntozitei Accepte Ia !' is rendered:I"Thc cards
come out so, and there is no new deal. y" But
thc following, VIC think, caps the climax of, the
yee-und-casy style of translation: I'D an de
,os cumaraaes, qtti III as dome an 5olt coup dt
,,,oo.n rendered: Gone Of our comrades, the
challly- chap you tapped the earet Of so prize
ring1y. One more and we arc done: rue esl
;ole wcis Lien npoins Jolie qu'Iso" "she is pref
tvzb hut cannot hold candle to 1za. .
We strongly suspect that our friend=pr1cK
po.nroy had a hand in this travesty of the
"Clcmcnccau Tragedy
r-rrxsx,.s,.zn1szzzu z.ezssrsss.1'n
#s1rocE1ao. -Wo lavohad rotated Ito US a case which
ghocks aIl the finer feelings of or nature In an