And oft look’d back, slow moving o’er the strand.
Pope.
The ideas contained in the three last lines are not indeed expressed in the original, but they are implied in the word αεκουσα; for she who goes unwillingly, will move slowly, and oft look back. The amplification highly improves the effect of the picture. It may be incidentally remarked, that the pause in the third line, Past silent, is admirably characteristic of the slow and hesitating motion which it describes.
In the poetical version of the 137th Psalm, by Arthur Johnston, a composition of classical elegance, there are several examples of ideas superadded by the translator, intimately connected with the original thoughts, and greatly heightening their energy and beauty.
Urbe procul Solymæ, fusi Babylonis ad undas
Flevimus, et lachrymæ fluminis instar erant:
Sacra Sion toties animo totiesque recursans,
Materiem lachrymis præbuit usque novis.
Desuetas saliceta lyras, et muta ferebant
Nablia, servili non temeranda manu.