As in enclosure of chaste garden ground,
The floweret grows--where nor unseemly tread
Of flocks or ploughshares bruise its tender head--
There soft airs soothe it with their gentle sound;
Suns give it strength, and nurturing showers abound,
And raise its tall stem from its sheltered bed;
And many a youth and maiden, passion-led,
With longing eyes admiring walk around:
Pluck'd from the stem that its pure grace supplied,
Nor youths nor maidens love it as before.
So the sweet maiden, in the queenly pride
Of her chaste beauty, many hearts adore;
But that her virgin charter laid aside,
Who lov'd, who cherish'd, cherish, love no more.
CURATE.--I remember Ariosto's translation--for translation it is; and
though you know it, I will repeat it, and, by Gratian's favour, let it
pass for my version. For once, borrowed plumes,--and I shall not be the
worse bird--though birds of richer plumage have no song.
"La verginella e simile alla rosa,
Chi'n bel giardin su la nativa spina,
Mentre sola, e sicura si riposa,
Ne gregge, ne pastor sele avvicina;
L'aura soave, e l'alba rugidosa
L'acqua, la terra al suo favor s'inch a:
Giovani vaghi, e donne innamorate,
Amano averne e seni, e tempre ornate.
Ma non si tosto dal materno stelo,
Remossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde,
Che, quanto avea dagli uomini, e dal cielo,
Favor, grazia, ebellezza, tutto perde."
GRATIAN.--Let us examine the alterations made by one genius, in
transferring to his own language the ideas of another genius of another
country. Catullus says "the floweret,"--_flosculus_: Ariosto
particularises the rose,--the _bel giardin_, "the beautiful garden,"
stands for _septis in hortis_, the enclosed. Then he has given the idea
of _secretus_, which is certainly "separated," "set apart," by the words
_sola e sicura_, "alone and safe"--is it so good? but he gives that a
grace, a beauty, the original perhaps has not, _riposa_--the floweret
enjoys its secret repose. The cutting down the flower by the plough was
unnecessary, after telling us of the enclosure; we scarcely like to be
brought suddenly into the ploughed field. Here Ariosto is better--"nor
shepherd nor flock come near it." That enough confirms the idea of its
being fenced off, and they wander in their idleness, or, but for the
fence, might have reached it; the plough and the team are a heavy
apparatus, and would be a most unexpected intrusion,--so I like the
Italian here better. Then, _su la nativa spina_ is good: you see the
beautiful creature on its native stem or thorn. Then for the enumeration
of the airs, the sun, and the shower, the Italian, in his beautiful
language, softens the very air, and gives it a sweetness, _l'aura
soave_, and ushers in "the dewy morn:" then, expanding to the glory of
the full reverence of nature to this emblem of purity, he makes all bend
and bow before it, as before the very queen of the earth. Here he
surpasses his original. Then he gives you the object of the wishes of
the youths and maidens, the _multi pueri multae optaverae puellae_. They
desire to place it in their bosoms or round their temples: and is not
the lovingness of the youths and maidens a good addition? The _giovani
vaghi e donne innamorate_. Both are admirable--but I incline to Ariosto.
AQUILIUS.--And do you think the Latin poet the original? You forget how
little originality the Latin authors can claim. This of Catullus is a
translation--a free one, it is true--of perhaps a still more beautiful
passage in Euripides. Reach the book: you will find it in that very
singular play the Hippolytus. Ay, here it is. He offers the garland to
the virgin goddess Artemis--(line 73)
[Greek:
"Soi tonde plekton stephanon ex akeratou
Leimonos, o despoina, kosmesas phero,
Enth' oute poimen axioi pherbein bota
Out' elthe po sideros, all' akeraton
Melissa leimon' erinon dierchetai
Aidos de potamiaisi kepeuei drosois.
Hosois didakton meden, all' en te physei
To sophronein eilechen es ta panth' homos,
Toutos drepesthai; tois kakoisi, d' ou themis."]
"I bring thee, O mistress, this woven crown, beautifully made up of
flowers of the pure untouched meadow--where never shepherd thinks it
fitting to feed his flock, nor the sickle comes; but the bee ever passes
over the pure meadow breathing of spring, and modesty waters it as a
garden with the river-dews. To them who have, untaught, in their nature
the gift of chastity, to these only it is at all times an allowed
sanctity to cut these flowers, but not to the evil-minded."
You cannot doubt that the passage in Catullus is taken from the
Greek--which is of a higher sentiment in the conclusion, and is enriched
beyond the Latin by the bee, and above all by the personification of
Modesty tending and watering the garden, or rather these especial
flowers, with the river-dews.
CURATE.--How far more pure is the sentiment, and more quiet the imagery,
in the Greek! The Greeks were the great originators of glorious thought
and beautiful diction.
GRATIAN.--Let us now to Catullus. What have we next?
AQUILIUS.--Here is a tender little piece, to his friend Ortalus. I see
it has an omission: this edition does not supply it; I only take what I
see. It seems Ortalus had requested him to send him his translation from
Callimachus, the "Coma Berenices," which for some time, through grief
for the death of his brother, he had failed to do. He now sends the
poem.