Mr. Bonney’s Poetic Trifles. r 4)7 
section entire, we prefer presenting to 
our readers another 44 Wish,” written 
upon 44 Ills Birth-day.” 
Oh! may ev’ry return of the day of my 
birth 
See me fitter for Heav’n, and more useful 
011 earth ; 
Let my time to seek wisdom, not riches, 
be spent; 
But if rich, make mo grateful—if p@or. yet 
content. 
May I ne’er in affliction repine at the rod, 
Nor in happiness e’er be forgetful of God. 
While my frienship to all is incessantly 
prov’d, 
May I lore only one, if by her 1 am lov’d. 
May I ne’er betray friend, or by friend be 
betray’d ; 
So, not weary of life, nor of dying afraid, 
I with pleasure may look on the year that 
is past, 
And with calmness reflect it perhaps was 
my last. 
To the difficulties of translation we 
ourselves can bear grievous testimony ; 
in addition to the ordinary claims of 
44 rhyme and reason ,” the author’s 
spirit and sense is to be transplanted, 
without dilution, into a foreign lan¬ 
guage—a thing almost impossible; be¬ 
sides which, persons who have read 
tile poem in the original language, have 
their memories stored with its beauties, 
and those who have not read it can never 
appreciate the merits of a translation. 
Horace, in particular, is of all authors, 
save Homer and the Theban Pindar, the 
most difficult to translate. The curiosa 
felicit as , as Petronius Arbiter happily 
expresses it, the elegant playful spright¬ 
liness of thejloman, is so entirely his 
own, that we should conceive it to be 
scarcely possible to transfuse his 
thoughts into a foreign language with¬ 
out entirely destroying their charac¬ 
teristic beauty. We have not seen Mr. 
Wrangliam’s translation, but compar¬ 
ing Mr. Bonney’s translation of the 
following poem, with that of Dr. Fran¬ 
cis (hitherto considered the best trans¬ 
lator,) we have no difficulty in award¬ 
ing the palpi am nob Hem to the former. 
To enable the reader, however, to judge 
for himself, we have subjoined, first 
the original ode (the 30tli of the 1st 
book,) then Dr. Francis’s and Mr. Bon¬ 
ney’s versions. 
O Veuus, regiua Cnidi Paphique, 
Sperue dilectam Cypron, et voeantis 
Thure te multo Glycerse decoram 
Transfer in sedem. 
Fervidus tecum puer, et solutis 
Gratiae Zonis ; properentque Nympha? 
Monthly Mao. No 3f>i. 
Et (parum comis sine te)* Juveutas 
Mercuriusque. 
Queen of beauty, queen of smiles 
Leave, oh leave, thy favourite isles ; 
A temple rises to thy fame } 
Where Glycera invokes thy name, C 
And bids the fragrant incense flame. ^ 
With thee bring thy love-warm son, 
The Graces bring with flowing zone ; 
The nymphs and jocund Mercury, Y 
And sprightly Youth, who without thee,C 
Is nought but savage liberty. 3 
O Venus, of Cnidus and Paphus the queen. 
Contemn favour’d Cyprus, and deign to be 
seen 
In Glycera’s temple, where perfumes in¬ 
vite ; 
With thee be the Graces, with girdles 
unbound, 
And the nymphs, rosy Cupid and Mercury 
found. 
And Youth, who without thee can little 
delight. 
Of t!ie other specimens of translated 
verse, we cannot present any opinion. 
The above is certainly the best, both 
for fidelity of translation and justness 
of expression; but we are certainly of 
opinion that Mr. Bonney’s own produc¬ 
tions are superior to his translations. 
To conclude, his faults are almost 
always the consequence of negligence, 
not of design, and for this reason we 
hope to see them corrected in a subse¬ 
quent edition. Edwin and Ellen, 
which we have already so favourably 
mentioned, contains some of the errors 
of the description we allude to. The 
epithet 44 cold,” as applied to religion, 
for example, savours too much of the 
voluptuary and sceptic ; and such we are 
sure Mr. Bonney would be sorry to be 
considered. The catastrophe, too, of 
the same poems, we considered to be in 
bad taste; nor indeed, as a painter 
would say, is it 44 in good keeping.” 
The first error was perhaps excuseable, 
under the circumstances; but what 
shall be said of the second ? Beside 
which, it is not at all probable, that a 
girl, so strictly devout and pious as t he 
heroine is described to have been before 
the fatal evening, should have suddenly 
become so lost to all sense of religion 
and of duty, as to force herself unhid- 
” — - - - ~ .11 'I ~ - ~ » 
* It is remarkable that both the above 
translators have translated Juventas, (a 
name of Hebe, the Goddess of Youth,) as 
if Horace had written Juventa , the period 
of life preceding manhood. Vet. Schol. ad 
locum. We are not aw are of any copies of 
this ode which authorize such reading. 
3 G den 
