Of foamy madness, mixed with clotted blood.
The clown, who cursing Providence repines,
His mournful fellow from the team disjoins;
With many a groan forsakes his fruitless care,
And in the unfinished furrow leaves the share.
“I would appeal to the reader,” says Dr. Beattie, “whether, by debasing the charming simplicity of It tristis arator with his blasphemous paraphrase, Dryden has not destroyed the beauty of the passage.” He has undoubtedly, even although the translation had been otherwise faultless. But it is very far from being so. Duro fumans sub vomere, is not translated at all, and another idea is put in its place. Extremosque ciet gemitus, a most striking part of the description, is likewise entirely omitted. “Spews a flood” is vulgar and nauseous; and “a flood of foamy madness” is nonsense. In short, the whole passage in the translation is a mass of error and impropriety.
The simple expression, Jam Procyon furit, in Horace, 3, 29, is thus translated by the same author:
The Syrian star
Barks from afar,
And with his sultry breath infects the sky.