Rampolli 4.1.40

Rampolli - I think every man who can should help his people to inherit the earth by bringing into his own of the wealth of other tongues. In the flower-pots of translation I offer these few exotics, with no little labour taught to exist, I hope to breathe, in English air. Such labour is to me no less serious than delightful, for to do a man's work, in the process of carrying over, more injury than must be, is a serious wrong.

Rampolli - I have endeavoured, first of all, to give the spirit of the poetry.

Rampolli - Next, I have sought to retain each individual meaning that goes to form the matter of a poem.

Rampolli - Third, I have aimed at preserving the peculiar mode, the aroma of the poet's style, so far as I could do it without offence to the translating English.

Rampolli - Fourth, both rhythm and rime being essential elements of every poem in which they are used, I have sought to respect them rigorously.

Rampolli - Fifth, spirit, matter, and form truly represented, the more literal the translation the more satisfactory will be the result.

Rampolli - After all, translation is but a continuous effort after the impossible. There is in it a general difficulty whose root has a thousand ramifications, the whole affair being but an accommodation of difficulties, and a perfect translation from one language into another is a thing that cannot be effected. One is tempted even to say that in the whole range of speech there is no such thing as a synonym.

• I think every man who can should help his people to inherit the earth by bringing into his own of the wealth of other tongues.
• In the flower-pots of translation I offer these few exotics, with no little labour taught to exist, I hope to breathe, in English air.
• Such labour is to me no less serious than delightful, for to do a man's work, in the process of carrying over, more injury than must be, is a serious wrong.
• I have endeavoured, first of all, to give the spirit of the poetry.
• Next, I have sought to retain each individual meaning that goes to form the matter of a poem.
• Third, I have aimed at preserving the peculiar mode, the aroma of the poet's style, so far as I could do it without offence to the translating English.
• Fourth, both rhythm and rime being essential elements of every poem in which they are used, I have sought to respect them rigorously.
• Fifth, spirit, matter, and form truly represented, the more literal the translation the more satisfactory will be the result.
• After all, translation is but a continuous effort after the impossible.
• There is in it a general difficulty whose root has a thousand ramifications, the whole affair being but an accommodation of difficulties, and a perfect translation from one language into another is a thing that cannot be effected.
• One is tempted even to say that in the whole range of speech there is no such thing as a synonym.