Page:Tex; a chapter in the life of Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (IA texchapterinlife00mcke).pdf/91



'' With all deference, a translator's first duty is not to translate. His first duty is to love God, honour the king and hate the Germans. His next duty is to produce a version corresponding as near as may be with what an English original writer, if he were writing that particular book, would set down. His last duty is to translate every blessed word of the original''

Next day he wrote:

T. B. [Thornton Butterworth] is taking "O. P." [Old People] and coming down here to see me on Saturday. Ever so many thanks for your generous offices in the matter

On Peace Day, in a letter dated from Finsbury Circus, Teixeira writes:

Here sit I, putting in four or five hours before a train leaves to take me to Herbert George and Jane Wells at Easton Glebe and reading Quo Vadis''. Already, in 99 pages, I have discovered 21 expressions which you would undoubtedly have condemned in ''The Tour.