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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
T < $ t' " Epfc * itturaQw pev Svpioov Kkottt * 6 % ya $ — *« Love , having come , continued knocking at my door , " he renders , with all the luxuriant embellishments of his own style , " An infant , at that dreary hour . Came weepiug to my silent bow ' r , And wak'd me with a piteous prayer To save him from the midnight air . **
Here , the " weeping , " the " silent bow ' r , " the " piteous prayer , " and the " midnight air * " are all fictions of the translator ' s fancy . We do not deny that they are in themselves elegant and poetical , but we do maintain that the introduction of them entirely destroys the beautiful simplicity of the original . The natural gradation of circumstances is also not preserved by Moore . In the original ode , Love first knocks impatiently at the door for admittance—the poet then asks who he is , and in reply to this question , he
prefers his artless petition to be let in , saying he is a little child who has lost his way ; but , in the translation , Love is at once introduced as an infant offering up a prayer for admission before he has knocked at the door , and stating the cause why he wished to be admitted , viz . to be sheltered " from the midnight air . " By this new arrangement of the circumstances , the sub- ^ sequent question of Anacreon is rendered almost unnecessary , and the reply of Love becomes mere repetition . In that reply itself the beautiful line
~ B pB ( po $ el [ M , [ Ay ( ffopvjo'ai * " I am a little child , be not afraid , " ( which is so simple that a child might in reality have uttered it , and for this reason so appropriate to the character which Love is represented as having assumed , ) is very much injured in the translation by a change in the order of the ideas , and a new turn which is given to the natural expression " be not afraid . " Moore renders this line ,
" Nor fear deceit ; a lonely child , " &c . Now it is not likely that the poet would have feared deceit in a child , noi would a child have thought of putting him upon his guard against it . By the use of such a precautionary phrase , Love , notwithstanding his assumed disguise , would have betrayed himself before he had accomplished his design , and been less artful than it is the object of the poet to represent him . In the translation the little god is , indeed , a sad blunderer ; for no sooner is the door opened than he forgets his purpose of concealment , and discovers himself by the sparkle of his wings .
" Twos Love ! the little wandering sprite , His pinion sparkled thro * the night ; I knew him by his bow and dart 5 I knew him by my fluttering heart !" All this is directly opposed to the spirit of the original ode , in which Anacreon represents Love as preserving his disguise to the very last moment ;
and when the poet opens the door he expressly says he saw only a little child— " I beheld a little child , indeed , carrying a ? bdw and arrows and a quiver" —without adding a single word to intimate that in this child he recognized Love . Indeed had he done so his compassion would have been misplaced and ridiculous , and , instead of chafing the little child's hands , and wringing the water from his hair , he would naturally have fle < J from him in
Untitled Article
65 ( J ( Hittfacter of Moore as a Poet ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 650, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/18/
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