portò suso il flutto verso la marittima Ramia
donde ei cercò la dolce patria,
cara a sue genti, la terra dei Brondinghi,
il vago castel tranquillo, ov’ egli popolo avea,
rocche e gioie. Il vanto intero contro te
il figlio di Beanstan in verità mantenne.’
Criticism of the Translation.
The present writer cannot attempt a literary criticism of the translation.
In purpose and method this version may be compared with that of Kemble[1] and of Schaldemose[2]. In each case the translator was introducing the poem to a foreign public, and it was therefore well that the translation should be literal in order that it might assist in the interpretation of the original. There has been no further work done on the poem in Italy[3].
While the verse is not strictly imitative in the sense that it preserves exactly the Old English system of versification, it aims to maintain the general movement of the original lines. The four stresses are kept, save where a fifth is used to avoid monotony. These ‘expanded lines’ are much commoner in the Italian than in the Old English.