Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1902-02-14
UNIQUE LITERARY. FEAT.
Homer's "Iliad" Translated Into
English Hexameter.
WORK OF A HARVARD STUDENT.

LOnEfel1Ow Found II beyOn0 AneE
Great Talent.
A Harvard Law school man. Albert
]. Lonney, has performed feat long
ago pronounced impossible by Pope ana
Bryant, the translation OF Homer's
"Iliad" into English heXameter, says
special dispatch from Cambridge to the
Philadelphia Press. Men for ages have
essayed this task and failed. Pope and
Bryant gave up the task as hopeless,
and Longfellow, after devoting weeks
Of labor on the subject, found his own
great talent entirely inadequate to the
tremendous task. Two men alone have
succeeded in changing the original
Greek into heXameter verse in another
tongue-Voss the great German au-
thor, and Lonney, who although
STRIPPING in the literary world, has
come out like David and defeated the
giant that his mighty predecessors
were unable to overcome.
Lonney is man of exceptional abil-
ity, not only as a student of Greek, but
as a scholar in the broadcast sense of
the word. He is not literary man i'll
the sense that he made literature his
study while he was in college. His ed
ucation in Harvard up to the time he
was graduated in 81 was carried on
along the broadcast lines, Greek coming
in only as one of those subjects which
the pupil loved and concerning which
he wanted to instruct himself. From
his earliest days the Greek language
had appealed to him.
Lonney's success came only after Pc
RODS of depression, encouragement
and firing effort. In order to get into
the spirit of the poem he conceived the
idea of committing it to memory before
he essayed to translate. This was not
difficult thing for so expert stu
dent. and he easily had the first book
by heart when he started his tremen-
dous task. For the first two months
discoura cement stared him in the face.
He found the English language SEEM
ingly inadequate for hexameter trans
lation. and after laboring necessarily
on his translation he found at the end
of that time that scarcely twenty i'm
perfect lines were the result of all his
efforts.
This was in the early spring Of 1900.
A little more than a year later. after
period OF discourage cement and utter de-
pression-after he had practically CIV
Ell up the work as hopeiess-Lonney
received an inspiration. A difficult line
that had bothered him in his previous
effort cleared itself. He hurried to put
it on paper and, stimulated by success,
finished the first two books two weeks
later. The first few lines were correct
ed. and he now had completed work.
His first book starts as follows:
Wrath Calliope sing. of Achilles the
scion of Peleus;
!, Whitening wrath. which placed unmeas-
| ured woe on Achnans.
Many stalwart soul it dispatched prema-
! turely to hades.
/ The difficulty which Lonney found in
I his translation was the same that
Longfellow had noticed when he made
! his attempt. the marked difference in
+: the number of particles in the English
I and in the Greek and German. The
nlClCl dlSO PICSCillCu u PIODlNlA.
He followed the original Greek line for
! line. almost word for word. and in pre-
!, serving the relatively of the context he
! emphasized both the meaning and the
: beauty of the original. The first word
!, Of his translation, for instance. CORE
!, spends exactly to the Greek. while the
/, whole line follows the text without the
slightest deviation.
After the translation of the first book
Lonney had little difficulty in working
out the succeeding three. The cata-
logue Of the ships, found in the second.
was postponed until the third and
fourth were completed. at which time
the daring young author found little
difficulty in performing the most diff
cult part Of his task The translation
of the fourth book has just been COM
pleted. Twenty are yet to come, burt
Lonney has the matter wen in hand
and is confident That he will succeed in
completing the translation.
The beauty Of Lonney's translation
ervation Of the original meter. line for
line. its practical literality and the pres
ervation of the Greek spirit produced
by the perfect imitation OF the Greek
verse. What success he has attained
can best be judged from his lines. The
following selection is taken from abe
first book, when Nestor intervenes be-
tween Achilles and Agasnemn0n:
Nestor of Pylos arose. the clear and mel
lifiuous speaker
From whose musical tongue the words
flowed sWeeter than honey:
Two generations of speakers already had
passed from his vision,
Sleeping now in the dust who once were
his boysh companions.
Born in sacred Pylos. and this was the
third he was ruling.
Carefully weighing his words he arose
and addressed the assembly.
In the above quotation it will be no
ticed that the author has kept the me-
ter strictly. giving at times the light
tripping effect of Homer and at 9th
ers the deep. sonorous effect which the
,1cn Of tbn cn,,r,fIt, IN foot cou1,poc rTbn