The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-05-19
QUEER ERRORS.
Cornhill Magazine.

translations of the works of various English writers, long list might be made. Howsoever clear and intelligi- ble the language of the original, absurd mistakes have frequently occurred, owing to the ignorance of the trans lator of the idioms of our tongue.
 It is we'll known that Voltaire, in his version of Shakespeare, perpetrated several egregious blunders; but even in our own time, some of his country men, in some instances, have scarcely been more happy in their attempts to translate our great dramatist's works. Jules Janin, the eminent critic, ren- dered that part of Mac6etNs speech in which he exclaims: "Out, out, brief candlel" "Sortez, chandelier" An other French writer has committed an equally strange mistake. Northuna- 6erlond, in "Henry w." says:
 Even such man, so faint, so splritless,
 So dull, 80 dead in look, so Woe-begone.
 The translator's version of the words italicised is "Ainsi, douleur va ten I" -"Thus, grief, go away with you?"
 The celebration of the tri-centenary anniversary of Shakespeare's birthday in 1864 had the result of new editions of the poets plays being issued in sev- eral continental countries. One of these publications was fresh transla- tion ot Hamlet" by French writer, the Chevalier de Chatelain. Some of the lines of the princes soliloquy in act run thus:
 How weary, stale and improbable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on'tl oh, fe! 'tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed; things rank and gross Tn | nature
 Possess it merely.
 The chevalier renders this speech in the following terms:
 tre superbes
 sont un villain jardin rempli de folles herbes Qu donnent de livraie ct certes de plus
 Si ce n est les engins du cholera n,0rbuS.
 The translator not only utterly fails to grasp the sense of the passage, but he gives an exquisitely absurd turn to the simile when he represents Humlet as saying that the plants of the gar den are "provocative of cholera"
 That in many cases it is difficult to adequately reproduce the text of Shakespeare, and, indeed, that of many other of our poets in foreign lan- guage must be admitted, although the Germans have frequently been remark ably happy in their attempts in this direction. But, under any circum- stances, such gross blunders as those above cited are almost unpardonable. On par with these is the rendering of Cibber's comedy of "Love's Last Shift" as "La Derniere Chemise de PAmour"-translating the title of Congreve's tragedy, "The Mourning Bride" by the phrase "L'Epouse du Matin;" and in calling Sir Walter Scott's novel, "The Bride of Hammer muir" "La Bride du Lammermuir"- "The Bridle of Lammermuir."
 The works of various English prose writers have, ill some places, been in- correctly translated, owing to the fact that in the original phrase or word has been used in purely technical sense. An English historian, refer ring to an incident in the seven years' war, said that Lord George Sackville was "broken" for cowardice at the battle of Minden, employing this ex- pression as synonym for cashiered. A French writer, quoting this para graph, translated the word "broken" as "roue," which means broken on the wheel and he appended note to the statement, in which he commented strongly upon the barbarity of inflict- ing-for a purely military offense-a punishment which, in France, was re- served for crimes only of the deepest dye.
 Miss Cooper, daughter of the American novelist, states that when in Paris she saw French translation of her fathers tale, "The Spy," in which there were several mistakes |; but one of them was such that it was almost incredible that any one could possibly have been guilty of it. The residence of Mr. Wharton, one of the characters who figure in the story, is spoken of by the author as "The Lo- custs." Now, the translator had been evidently ignorant of the circumstance of there being any species of trees bearing this name. Having, therefore, looked out the word in his dictionary and finding the definition to be given as "Les Sauterelles"-grasshoppers- thus he rendered it in the text. Pres ently, however, he came across a para graph in the novel in which it was stated that visitor to the house of lAr. Wharton had tied his horse to a locust. Then it might be naturally supposed that the translator womb af once have discovered his error. Not 6 bit of itl His reasoning would appear to have been on parity with that of a celebrated countryman of his, when he declared that eff the facts do not agree with the theory, SO much the worse for the factsn Nevertheless