Politian’s Translation of Callimachus’s ‘Bath of Pallas’ in the Miscellanea (1489)

Politian’s Translation of Callimachus’s ‘Bath of Pallas’ in the Miscellanea (1489) Jaspreet Singh Boparai Chapter 80 of Politian’s Miscellanea contains the editio princeps of Callimachus’s ‘Bath of Pallas’ (Hymn 5), along with a translation of the poem into Latin elegiacs.1 Politian’s first biographer, Friedrich Otto Mencke (171-73), assesses it harshly:2 In translating—that is to say, in finding equivalents for the content and artistic features of a poet, which Politian excelled at—I admit that you will hardly find another version of any Greek poem which, when scrutinised, so precisely conveys every feature of the Greek author’s material and diction. Callimachus says nothing that Politian does not in the exact same way. The same meaning, the same precision, the same force of expression is contained in the Latin as in the Greek couplets....One can scarcely deny that, as this translator has bound himself throughout by strict rules, and adhered closely to individual words, he has gone about versifying with some trouble; nor does he compose verse here with the same inspiration to be found in his other compositions—so much so that I miss his attractive knack for expression, which reflects his character, and which is the most important perfection for a translator—and indeed the principal charm of Politian’s work. The harsh elisions of words, and the profusion of hyperbata (deviations from logical word order), slow down the reader, indeed are virtually countless; there is no inspiration or poetical spark, except perhaps in the beginning; nothing, in fact, pleases the ear here; I found it overall crabbed, as though the Muses were muttering under their breath. In this poem the pentameters, which one should tastefully round off with a disyllable, run on in almost every instance into the next couplet; the extra words cannot be declaimed without inducing a certain amount of yawning. I shall pass over other defects that one would not permit in such a majestic and stately poem, unless one did so in a spirit of indulgence. Mencke’s specific charges are difficult to dispute. He objects to the translator’s rigid practice, to elision within the verses, to frequent hyperbaton, and to the endings of the elegiac couplets, which do not end invariably in disyllables, and indeed do not end: the sense often spills into the next line. Euphony, whilst slippery to define, is [End Page 369] surely not one of this translation’s strong points (for example, ‘Pro cervis paucis, dorcadibusque habeas’ (line 92)). All these features are self-evident in the poem; yet the critic’s taste is not beyond examination. It is hardly fair to expect inventive verbal fecundity in an avowed word-for-word translation; the terms in which Mencke expresses his dismay at this work—no inspiration or poetical spark beyond the opening—raise the question of whether the assertion that Politian had bound himself with strict rules might not be applied more justly to Mencke. A short extract from the text of Politian’s version, ‘In Palladis Lavacrum’ (lines 21-36), will demonstrate the justice of Mencke’s observations, if not his conclusions: the elisions in each couplet average a little under one per line in this passage, for example, ‘splendido in’ (21), ‘eandem iterum’ (22), ‘verum incita’ (23), ‘Stellae apud’ (24) and so on, with two each (‘se ungit’, ‘quo Amphitryonades’; ‘Ferte etiam’, ‘solido ex’) in lines 30 and 31: 21 Nec Iuno, sed sola Venus, se splendido in aere Vidit, eandem iterum disposuitque comam. Bis sexaginta spatiis verum incita cursu, Stellae apud Eurotan ceu Lacedaemoniae,25 Perfricuit tantum pingui se diva liquore, De baccis, arbor quem sua protulerat. O puerae emicuit rubor illico, matutina Quem rosa, quem grano punica mala ferunt. Ergo marem nunc tantum olei quoque ferte liquorem,30 Quo se ungit Castor, quo Amphitryonades. Ferte etiam solido ex auro, quo pectine crines Explicet, et pinguem caesariem dirimat. Exi age iam o Pallas, praesto tibi virgineus grex, Natae magnorum carus Acestoridum.35 O Pallas quin iam clypeus Diomedis et ipse Fertur, ut Argivum mos vetus obtinuit. ‘Nor did Juno; only Venus looked at herself in shining bronze, and rearranged the same lock of hair a...

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