Poetry of Denham

Sir John Denham
born 1615, died 1668

On Poetical Translation

(from lines entitled "to sir richard fanshaw
upon his translation of pastor fido")

Secure of fame, thou justly dost esteem
Less honour to create, than to redeem.
Nor ought a Genius less than his that writ,
Attempt Translation; for transplanted wit
All the defects of air and soil doth share,
And colder brains like colder climates are:
In vain they toil, since nothing can beget
A vital spirit, but a vital heat.
That servile path thou nobly dost decline
Of tracing word by word, and line by line.
Those are the labour'd births of slavish brains,
Not the effect of Poetry, but pains;
Cheap vulgar arts, whose narrowness affords
No fligth for touhgts, but poorly sticks at words.
A new and nobler way thou dost pursue,
To make Translations and Translators too.
They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame,
True to his sense, but truer to his fame.

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