TARGUM.
Or Metrical Translations From Thirty Languages And Dialects.
By George Borrow.
"The raven has ascended to the nest of the nightingale."
Persian Poem
The following pieces, selections from a huge and undigested mass of
translation, accumulated during several years devoted to philological
pursuits, are with much diffidence offered to the public, the writer being
fully aware that not unfrequently he has failed in giving his version that
cast and turn, which constitute no slight part of the beauty of the
original; a point the accomplishment of which the poetical Translator
ought, in all instances, to bear particularly in view, but which he will
invariably find the most difficult part of the task which he has
undertaken; in comparison with which the rendering of the diction of his
Author into tolerable verse is an easy achievement. Perhaps no person,
amongst the many individuals who have distinguished themselves by skill in
the targumannic art, has more successfully surmounted this difficulty than
Fairfax, the Translator into English "octave rhyme" of "The Jerusalem,"
the master-piece of the greatest poet of modern Italy and, with one
exception, of modern time.
That the character of a nation is best distinguishable by the general tone
of its poetry, has been frequently remarked, and is a truth which does not
admit of controversy; the soft songs of the Persian, and the bold and
warlike ditties of the Dane are emblems of the effeminacy of the one, and
the reckless heroism of the other.--In most instances the writer in the
selection of pieces for this little work has been guided by a desire of
exhibiting what is most characteristic of the people to whose literature
it belongs. At the same time, he has been careful that this desire should
not lead him to the countenancing of any thing which could be considered
as pregnant with injury to good taste and morals, and has in consequence
been compelled to exclude from his anthology many a glorious flower, which
he would gladly have woven therein, had he not been apprehensive that it
was the offspring of a poisonous bulb. He cannot refrain from lamenting
that in his literary researches he has too often found amongst the
writings of those, most illustrious for their genius and imagination, the
least of that which is calculated to meet the approbation of the
Christian, or even of the mere Moralist; and in conclusion he will take
the liberty of addressing to those who may feel within them the stirrings
of a mind capable of mighty things, the sublime words, slightly modified,
of an Arabian sage and poet: O man, though the years of thy worldly fame
are destined to be equal in number to the doves of the heaven, they shall
nevertheless have an end, but whatever thou shalt do or say, which is
founded on the love of wisdom and of God, shall endure for ever.
Saint Petersburg. June 1, 1835.