Page:Camoens - The Lyricks - Part I.djvu/16

 nation be brought to us in such manner that we regard him as our own; the other, on the contrary, demands that we transport ourselves to him, and adopt his situation, his mode of speaking, his peculiarities." For authority may be quoted the great example of my Master, who, in his Triumphos, translated from Petrarch's Trionfi, sinks his individuality and attempts the replica. Here once more I have aimed at "Englishing" the style, the idioms, the ipsissima verba of Camoens; I have attempted not only fidelity, but literality, by making the most conscientious possible portrait. Perfection may be unattainable in this matter; but the more we strive for the beau idéal of translation the less we waste our time and our trouble.

A few words concerning the contents of this volume. By way of general preface I have prefixed the original Prologo of Camoens' Lyricks which ushered in the Editio Princeps of the Rhythmas. The Poems follow in the order adopted by their earliest Portuguese editors, Faria y Sousa; Joseph Lopes Ferreira; Visconde de Juromenha, and the Bibliotheca da Actualidade (Theophilo Braga). For facility of reference the initial lines of the texts have been prefixed to the translations. In Appendix I. I have offered a few observations upon the Lyricks of the "Portuguese Apollo." To avoid troubling my readers and cumbering my pages with notes I have inserted the few absolutely required into the Index of First Lines (Appendix II.), after the fashion of certain Portuguese