The Celtic magazine. A monthly periodical devoted to the literature ...

22GTHE CELTIC MACAZI^E.the influences nndei' which tlie mind of Buchanan Avas quickened andnourished into tliat splendid power of thought and feeling which botli hisautobiography and poems so signally display. To those. who are unableto read Buchanan's OAvn account of his life in the rich sappy language ofthe original, we cordially recommend the extracts taken from it andtranslated by Mr Sinclair, who connects them by a narrative of his own.Mr Sinclair gives us also the Gaelic poems printed in a clear boldtype—a great improvcincnt in tliis respect on the small print of theolder editions. We notice also some slight grammatical changes, some ofwhich are open to doubt. Here and there the punctuation tools at fault,joining what should be detached, and vice versa.]\Ir Sinclair has imdertaken a difficult task in translating Buchananinto English, whether into prose or verse. It is said that only a poet cantranslate a poet, as he alone can preserve the poetic flavour in pouringpoetry from one vessel to another. Even then it is seldom that theoriginal can be seen to advantage. l\Ir Sinclaii"'s metrical version of theSkull is not without merit of a kind, but so far from being Buchanan'spoem in a new dress, it can scarcely be called that poem at all, any morethan a fairy changeling, is the real plump genuine baby.In liis prose version the translator has frequently caught very happilythe fine essence of the original, so far as the bard's actual thought is concerned.Its warm colouring of course disappears. At other times we areobliged to say that the translator neither does justice to himself nor hisauthor. Why should he so frequently make what is but a clause in theoriginal, a complete sentence in English 1 He thus makes it impossible torepresent the compactness and artistic texture of Buchanan's composition.Sometimes the delicate shades of meaning are lost, and happy points carelesslyrendered. Take an illustration from that finished gem " The Hero."" Subdued " is not the word for gelll. Csesar did not subdue Rome, buthent it to his own Avill. The terse line, cha'n uaisle inntinn ardan borb,with its sly shot at " Higlilaud pride " is slurred over. Eacjal hcatha isrendered fears of life, a ditterent idea from " the fear of life," in thesense of tear of losing it. The stanza beginning " Le gealtach ciont " ishopelessly misrepresented. The next is not in so bad a plight, but is farfrom being exact. We cannot forgive Mr Sinclair for not bestowing alittle more of the labor lima; on the beautiful Platonic thought beforehim—that the noblest life is order, where that which has authority reigns,and that which has not obeys. "His soul is fixed as on a rock" saysthe translator, making our hero uncomfortable, like Prometheiis bound.Buchanan says, that " his mind is firm as the rock." These mmutias mayseem invidious. They are not so. It is because we respect and appreciate]\Ir Sinclair's work that we draw attention to what escaped his penAvhen, like Homer himself, he occasionally nodded. We hope to seesoon a new impression of Mr Sinclair's work. Any streaks in the marbleare merely external, and not ingrained, so that a thorough rinsing with revising soap and water will make the whole beautiful. We heartily commendMr Smclair's edition of Buchanan, and we hope our readers will help toclear away the present impression to make room for another, and animproved one, from the same pen.