Is finis fuit ulciscenda Germanici morte, non modo apud illos homines qui tum agebant, etiam secutis temporibus vario rumore jactata; adeo maxima quæque ambigua sunt, dum alii quoquo modo audita pro compertis habent; alii vera in contrarium vertunt; et gliscit utrumque posteritate. An. l. 3, c. 19.
“In this manner ended the enquiry concerning the death of Germanicus; a subject which has been variously represented, not only by men of that day, but by all subsequent writers. It remains, to this hour, the problem of history. A cloud for ever hangs over the most important transactions; while, on the one hand, credulity adopts for fact the report of the day; and, on the other, politicians warp and disguise the truth: between both parties two different accounts go down from age to age, and gain strength with posterity.”
The French language admits of a brevity of expression more corresponding to that of the Latin: and of this D’Alembert has given many happy examples in his translations from Tacitus.
Quod si vita suppeditet, principatum divi Nervæ et imperium Trajani, uberiorem, securioremque materiam senectuti seposui: rarâ temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere licet, Praef. ad Hist. “Si les dieux m’accordent des jours, je destine à l’occupation et à la consolation de ma vieillesse, l’histoire interessante et tranquille de Nerva et de Trajan; tems heureux et rares, où l’on est libre de penser et de parler.”
And with equal, perhaps superior felicity, the same passage is thus translated by Rousseau: “Que s’il me reste assez de vie, je réserve pour ma vieillesse la riche et paisible matiere des regnes de Nerva et de Trajan: rares et heureux tems, où l’on peut penser librement, et dire ce que l’on pense.”
But D’Alembert, from too earnest a desire to imitate the conciseness of his original, has sometimes left the sense imperfect. Of this an example occurs in the passage before quoted, An. l. 1, c. 2. Cum cæteri nobilium, quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus extollerentur: the translator, too studious of brevity, has not given the complete idea of his author, “Le reste des nobles trouvoit dans les richesses et dans les honneurs la récompense de l’esclavage.” Omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset, Tac. Hist. 1, 49. “Digne de l’empire au jugement de tout le monde tant qu’il ne regna pas.” This is not the idea of the author; for Tacitus does not mean to say that Galba was judged worthy of the empire till he attained to it; but that all the world would have thought him worthy of the empire if he had never attained to it.
2. The Latin and Greek languages admit of inversions which are inconsistent with the genius of the English.
Mr. Gordon, injudiciously aiming at an imitation of the Latin construction, has given a barbarous air to his translation of Tacitus: “To Pallas, who was by Claudius declared to be the deviser of this scheme, the ornaments of the prætorship, and three hundred seventy-five thousand crowns, were adjudged by Bareas Soranus, consul designed,” An. b. 12.—“Still to be seen are the Roman standards in the German groves, there, by me, hung up,” An. lib. 1. “Naturally violent was the spirit of Arminius, and now, by the captivity of his wife, and by the fate of his child, doomed to bondage though yet unborn, enraged even to distraction.” Ib. “But he, the more ardent he found the affections of the soldiers, and the greater the hatred of his uncle, so much the more intent upon a decisive victory, weighed with himself all the methods,” &c. Ib. lib. 2.
Thus, Mr. Macpherson, in his translation of Homer, (a work otherwise valuable, as containing a most perfect transfusion of the sense of his author), has generally adopted an inverted construction, which is incompatible with the genius of the English language. “Tlepolemus, the race of Hercules,—brave in battle and great in arms, nine ships led to Troy, with magnanimous Rhodians filled. Those who dwelt in Rhodes, distinguished in nations three,—who held Lindus, Ialyssus, and white Camirus, beheld him afar.—Their leader in arms was Tlepolemus, renowned at the spear, Il. l. 2.—The heroes the slaughter began.—Alexander first a warrior slew.—Through the neck, by the helm passed the steel.—Iphinous, the son of Dexius, through the shoulder he pierced—to the earth fell the chief in his blood, Ib. l. 7. Not unjustly we Hector admire; matchless at launching the spear; to break the line of battle, bold, Ib. l. 5. Nor for vows unpaid rages Apollo; nor solemn sacrifice denied,” Ib. l. 1.
3. The English language is not incapable of an elliptical mode of expression; but it does not admit of it to the same degree as the Latin. Tacitus says, Trepida civitas incusare Tiberium, for trepida civitas incepit incusare Tiberium. We cannot say in English, “The terrified city to blame Tiberius:” And even as Gordon has translated these words, the ellipsis is too violent for the English language; “hence against Tiberius many complaints.”