The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-05-19


 bit of Wales" Not content with this, he inserted footnote informing the readers that the rabbits of Wales were of such superior flavor that they were in great demand in Scotland, the scene of the story, and, consequently, they were forwarded to that country in considerable numbers. No author ity was given for the assertion, and it is pretty evident that the idea of the writer must have been evolved from his inner consciousness"
 Again, Monsieur Bouchette, en- gagged in writing life of German author, Jacob Boehm, gave in an ap- pendix list of his works. One of these was criticism upon a treatise by Isiah Stiefel, contemporary the- ological writer. The pamphlet of Boehm was entitled in the original Reflections upon Isiah Stiefel." Now, in German, the word Stiefel means boot, and M. Bouchette was ignorant of the fact that it was also a family name. He, therefore-knowing that the subject of the brochure in question was Scriptural-fell into the ludi- crous error of translating the title of it as "Reflections sur les Bottes d'Isaie"-"Redections upon Isaiah's Boots."
 In an Italian journal, U Gto,na1e delie due Scilie,, there was, not long ago, translation of a paragraph in an English newspaper, giving an &C., count of a man having killed his wife with poker. The word "poker" was not intelligible to the editor. He, however, had the candor 10 admit his ignorance; "Non sappinamo, per certo, sequesto 'pokero' lnglese sia uno strumento domestico o bensi chirurg- ico."-"We do not know with cer- tainty whether the English poker be domestic or surgical instrument"
 "Traduttore, trauditore," says an Italian proverb. A signal exemplifi- cation of this aphorism was afforded by the attempt once made to repro duce MT. Dickens novel, "Our Mu- tual Friend" in French: for seldom has an author been more thoroughly "betrayed" by his translator than was the writer on this occasion. While the tale was in progress of publication in this country, the proprietors of a Parisian newspaper, L'Optnton Na- ttondte made arrangements for its ap- bearing in the colums of that journal :: and it came out under the title of "L'Ami Commun." The person who undertook the duty of transla- tion proved utterly incompetent to the task. A contributor to AU Me Year Round, commenting upon this circumstance, said: "One would suppose that the two qualifi- cations are essential to constitute & good translator, a thorough acquain- tance with the resources of the lan- guage used for reproduction being the first and the second not less inti- mate knowledge of the idioms to be reproduced" This obvious truism would seem to have been completely lost sight of by the editor of the journal in question when he entrusted the translation of the novel to an in- dividual who proved to be lacking in both these important qualifications. It was not simply that the peculiar humor of the original evaporated in the process of reproduction-which, perhaps, was, under the circumstan- ces, almost inevitable-but the trans lator displayed curious ignorance of the most common idioms of our tongue. In introducing Ttcemlow to the reader, Dickens employs this lan- guage: "There was an innocent piece of dinner furniture that went on easy castors, and was kept over a liv- cry stable yard in Duke street, St. James,, when not in use, to whom the Ienee'1ngs were source of blind con- fusion. The name of this article was TscemloW." The rendering of this sentence was as follows: "ll y a dans le quartier de St. James, ou, quand il ne sort pas, il est remise au dessus dune ecurie de Duke street, un meuble de salle manager, meuble in- nocent, chausse delarges souliers de castor, pour qui les Venneerings sont un sujet d'inquietude perpetuelle. Ce meuble, inoffen,if, s'appelle Twem- low" Now, translating the phrase, "went on easy castors," by lan- guage which means in English "shod with large beaver slippers" can scarcely be said to be following the original quite as closely as is desira- ble. But little further on a singu- larly absurd perversion of the text oc- CUTS, which completely throws the above error into the shade. The author in his description of Pod snap's personal appearance, speaks of the "red beads on his forehead" This passage is redered in these terms: "n await un rang de boutons rouges sur son abdomen"-"He had row of red buttons on his stomach" Again, in the novel BcNn is spoken of as being in mourning for his master. and wears