I will not
say, that Gordon has always conveyed the exact meaning of the sentences of
Tacitus: but he has done what is better, and more difficult; he has
grasped the broad meaning of his author, and caught something of his lofty
spirit. "A translation," he says, "ought to read like an original;" and
Gordon has not failed, I think, to reach this perfection. It is not
commonly attained among translators: Gordon says, of one rendering of
Tacitus, "'Tis not the fire of Tacitus, but his embers; quenched with
English words, cold and Gothick." Of the author of another version, he
says "Learning is his chief accomplishment, and thence his translation is
a very poor one." This judgment is true of most modern translations from
the Ancients; they may be correct versions, but are miserable English: the
authors, while studying the most perfect models of the art of writing,
have produced copies which are not literature at all. From this low
company, I would rescue Sir Charles Bowen's "Virgil": a delightful poem,
to those who are ignorant of Latin; an exquisite production, and an
amazing triumph, to those who converse with the original.
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