ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS. (Harper's Magazine.)

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 117, 4 February 1873, Page 2

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS. (Harper's Magazine.)

A most amusing volume might be made from the aniusirg and often absurd blunders perpetrated by translators. For instance, Miss (Joopor tells us that the person who first rendered her father* novel, "The Spy," iijta the French tongue, among other mistakes made the following: — Readers of £.p IJevolutionary romance will remember that the reMden.cp[ { the Wharton family wa* called " The Locusts." The tr< n.ilator referred to his dictionary, and found the rendering of the word to be Les Sauterelles, " The Grasshoppers." But when he found one of the dragoons represented as tying hia horse to one of the locusts on the lawn, it would appear as if ho might have been at fault. Nothing daunted, however, b,ut taking it for granted that American grasshoppers must be of gigantic dimensions, he gravely informed his readers that the cavalry man secured his charger by fastening the bridle to one qf the grasshoppers before the door, apparently standing thprc tqr that purpose. Much laughter has deservedly been raised at French litierateurs who professed to be doctus ulriusque lingua. Cibber's play of " Love' s Last Shift" was translated by a Frenchman who spoke " Inglees," as " La, Dermere Chemise de V Amour " ; Congrere's " Mourning Bride," by another, as " JjEpoiise dv Matin " ; and a Frenoh scholar recently included among his catalogue pf works on natural history the essay on " Irieh Bulls " by the Ed,geworths. The French, translator of one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, knowing nothing of that familiar name for toasted cheese, a " Welsh rabbit," rondorod it literally by" unlapindv,pays de Oalles," op a rabbit of Wales and then informed his readers in a foot note that the lapins, or rabbits of Wales have a very superior flavour, and are very tender, which causes them to be in great request in England and Scotland. A writer in the Neapolitan paper II Oiornale uelle due Sicilie, was more ingenious. He was translating from an English paper the account of a man who killed hi* wife by striking her with a poker ; and at the end of his story the honest journalist, with a modesty unusual in his <*raft, said . — " We are not quite certain whether the English poker [pokero] be a domestic or surgical instrument." But by far the raciest specimens of Foreign English it has, ever been our fortuno to encounter, ore to be found in k "Guide to Portuguese and English," published in Pari? Take for example this little sentence, concluding the preface, wherein the author sets forth his own reasonable expectation* with regard to the success of the volume : — " We expect, then, who the little book (for the care what we wrote him, and further typographical correction) that may be worth the acceptation of the studious persons, and especially of the Youth, at whioh vre dedicate to him particularly." We continue by quoting some horse-talk that is enough to excite a horse-laugh ■.—". — " Here is a horse who hare a bad looks. Give me another : i will n,ot that. He not «all to know to march ;he ii pursey, he is fundered. Don^ you are ashamed to give me a jado as like ? he is unshoed, he is with nails up : it want to lead to the farrier. He go limp, he is disable, he is blind. That laddie shall hurt me. The stirrups are too long, very shorts." . . . To quote the enthusiastic reviewer of another publication, "This book is an unmixed delight from beginning to end, except, of course, that it has an end, and we regret extremely our inability to bid the reader judge far himielf by straightway procuring it ; but, alas ! this treasure of philology ha*, been considered too precious for the vulgar eye, and ruthlessly withdrawn from circulation by the Parisian publisher*.