Longfellow, we have chiefly to ask whether
he has chosen the best method of translation,--that which most
surely and readily awakens in the reader's mind the ideas and
feelings awakened by the original.
The translator of a poem may proceed upon either of two distinct
principles. In the first case, he may render the text of his
original into English, line for line and word for word,
preserving as far as possible its exact verbal sequences, and
translating each individual word into an English word as nearly
as possible equivalent in its etymological force. In the second
case, disregarding mere syntactic and etymologic equivalence, his
aim will be to reproduce the inner meaning and power of the
original, so far as the constitutional difference of the two
languages will permit him.
It is the first of these methods that Mr. Longfellow has followed
in his translation of Dante. Fidelity to the text of the original
has been his guiding principle; and every one must admit that, in
carrying out that principle, he has achieved a degree of success
alike delightful and surprising. The method of literal
translation is not likely to receive any more splendid
illustration. It is indeed put to the test in such a way that the
shortcomings now to be noticed bear not upon Mr. Longfellow's own
style of work so much as upon the method itself with which they
are necessarily implicated.
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