New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-10-05
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
rAI.Ml.R,s Odyssey.

Toyi ana m rnasn version W nhg TIME rio,e Ivy
trnuoI IiIuni.uI pAiutu. Professor of Philosophy
IN Harvard Universally. $40. pp Mn, 40 '"'b"-
ton Minn a 60.
There is an interesting statement In Professor
pnlmcr'- preface which hears primarily upon the
history Of this publication. but has also significant
relation 20 the theory of his translation. Twelve
wears ago he undertook 10 supplement the ordinary
CLASSROOM drill ut Harvard by series OF readings
Of the Odyssey in which he went through wboc
book nj n sitting. giving close and almost lltefai
translation. in the simplest possible lanRunn''
while his pupils followed him text IN h9"n ,"o
cxpcrmcnt WINS so successful that the practice mas
been continued at Harvard ever SINCE ',h'' "'
thor. than Homer and other languages ,h'n 'no
Grcok mr., treated IN The same way. and the read
inas are open 10 all who choose 10 come. whether
student or not. In the cousc of these exercises.
Professor Palmer was led to try the eject of vari-
,u. modes Of translation Of prose. and OF the di'er-
ent varieties OF rhythm. and NJ last he adopted the
device of what he calls Rhythmic prose- which he
IN the first 10 uso deliberately and systcmh'lcaly
as an equivalent for the llomerc song aiihonsh
there is no good prose version OF Homer which "ocs
not from time to time fall naturally into rhyth-
mic swing "Thc loose iambcs," he remarks
are necessary for uttering the spell OF Homer;
and vet that spell invariably escapes the measured
cadence OF every form of English verse. MY near
ersr he adds, were never informed that used
that they were in general aware that did; but
they felt the influence Their understanding OF
what read was found largely proportional to
the fitness with which ! admitted the Rhythmic
movement Often it seemed To me that in these
readings we were coming close to the conditions
under which, if tradition Is true Homer was lirst
understood: a group of men, already somewhat
familiar with the august myth, gather from other
occupations and together listen to, not read ne
tached episode uttered in chanting recitatIve by
rhapsodstr 1t is an attractive picture when this
reminiscence sngC 'sts OF the enthusiastic schoir
recitng the immortal story only for the pleasure he
finds in telling II he has repeated the whole OF the
ODYSSEY in this way several times since Inc eX-
changed the chair of Greek for that OF philosophy,
and of enthusiastic students focking around hin
for the pleasure of listening again TO tale which
they have learned already. Professor Palmer Is
right He has reproduced the primitive conditions
Of the Ilomeric song nearly as onr age can nope
TO reproducethem.
And we are strongly of the opinion that in the
employment of rhythmic prose he at last has solved
the problem of transiating Homer That rdnary
prose is an inadequate medium hardly admits of
dispute Homcr'S thought, as Professor Palmer OBJ
serves is essentially poetic and is not ly accident
that il was originally cast in :eT,c. 1t seems to
mperatiyey demand rhythmic accompaniment.
The frequent repetition of favoritc phrases and
SMILES the recurrence of sOnorOus lines such rs
"Now when tne early rosy-rnceIcd dawn alpcared;'
or such a.
"Now the sun sank and all the ways grew dark
or such rs the formula with which the strange
wanderers are over and over again accoSted by
their various hosts " Are you upon some GRAND
Or do Won roam at random as the pirates roam the
seas rislling their lives and bringing i'll TO stran-
gers !'-thcse familiar rcfrans. and the occasional
clt
istc of the art of song which loves to turn back,
10 recall stirring figure TO round period with
some cherished cadence. and sound again the car
haunting music Of q wclrcmombcrcd line. There
is no song there is no music, without repctitiOns.
and the music which appeals most strongly to tie
simple and uncducatcd taste is always that which
leals most freely with familiar phrases.
Il IL not going too far 10 say that the multitude
slow to recognize "a music anything which lacks
refrain. lut the occurrences which some subtle
,ssociaton of ideas demand IN song ARE contrary
10 the On-nOying spirit of prose. In English prose,
Al all events. which in IFS noblcst form is terse,
direct. frcigntcd with regularly evolving sense
rather than balanced with musical accents, the ilo-
merle rcpctitons often seem unnatural and Obul-
live That in prose they wholly fail of the effect
which we may suppose belonged 10 them when
united with the car-satisiying beat OF the poetic
rhythm, any one may prove by reading few pages
Of the respectable Buckley, whose version, for n
reason TO be noted hereafter take the typical
prose translation Of Homer In preference to the
later and more elegant one of Mcssrs. Butcher and
Lang BIT after all, no experiment ~ necessary to
show that In II true poem the poetic form springs
from the same Impulse the poetic idea. strip
from the poem It's movement and It's music, aud
you have only sort Of dried specimen, Ike the
botanst who presses in his album few withered
petals, TO represent the bloom, the color the fra
GRANGE the grace and the pose Of the flower.
But If IL Is impossible 10 reproduce the effects OF
Homer IN prose, English verse appears to be almost
equally unavailable. That no metre of which our
language admits can preserve the swifness, the
variety the hcyibility, the ease and the simplicity
of the ancient hcXameter; that when we have cop
led most nearly the structure OF the Greek line we
seem 10 have lost most hopelessly the natural flow
Of the orginal-these unwelcOmc facts which
all metTica translators have felt obliged TO face;
and the most successful are those who have reduced
70 the minimum not merely the loss of poetic effect
but the change in the kind of poetic effect in
VOWED In the substitution. Professor Palmer does
not discuss the relative merits and defects of the
metres of translation; but In his admirable state
ment of certain characteristics of Homer to which
be has sought TO give especial prominence, he
makes IT clear why all English metres must be I'M
satisfactory. Homer, he says, "seems to confront
the world like child. turn to him, and escape
from our complicated and int ospectve world, and
am refreshed. Accordingly ave sought to draw at
tenton chiefly to his simplici his realism. his find
Ing JOY where & child finds it to his lack of self
cOnsc business. his interest In thing fact for no
NOR Interior than because it is n thing CT
fact" The nobleness Of his style is n nobleness
entirely without conscious dignity or conventional
tranlmels. The style is childlike and fresh like
his way of viewing human life and accepting emo
tions. Ii precedes literary form 1t is full of con-
structions which the grammarans of later day
would call faulty, rude and obscure the sentence
IL seldom organic whole, Ike the modern period.