Page:The seven great hymns of the mediaeval church - 1902.djvu/23

 whether a better tranlation will ever be made by a tranlator of the critical chool.

Nevertheles, thee things mut be borne in mind—that power is the great characteristic of the Dies Iræ; that its power cannot be tranferred to Englih vere by means of the weaket form of Englih words; that the double-rhyme has, to the Englih ear, omething of the jingle of the humorous ballad; and that, if we would feel the trength of the great hymn, we mut, foregoing form, go to the old verion of Crahaw, or to single-rhyme tranlations like that of Mr. Sloon.

The Stabat Mater loes more by tranlation, probably, than any other piece of poetry that was ever written. "The oft, ad melody of its vere is untranlatable " (Dr. Schaff). If we take the lines, melodious in their pathos,

Quæ mœrebat et dolebat,

Pia mater, dum videbat,

and render them into Englih as Dr. Schaff has done,