A word as to the work of translation. Most of the lyrics in _Serres
Chaudes_ are written in the metre familiar to English readers as that
of "In Memoriam." It is, in English, rather a dull metre, the stanza
being in reality no stanza at all, but merely a line of thirty-two
syllables with interior rhymes. It is greatly improved and enlivened
by the omission of four syllables, or rather by their replacement by
pauses of one syllable's value. This change I have sometimes made; and
in one case I have, in order to avoid a verbal obscurity, extended
the line to ten syllables. Apart from these exceptions all the poems
in this volume are translated into their original metres, and it has
always been my first object to produce a literal, almost a word for
word, translation. Whatever the faults of my version, it is strictly
faithful. If I am deemed to have also preserved something of the beauty
of the original I shall feel more than rewarded for a task that has
presented many difficulties.