Page:The seven great hymns of the mediaeval church - 1902.djvu/24

 Who tood grieving, ighs upheaving,

Spirit-reaving, boom-cleaving;

or as Dr. Coles tranlates them,

Trembling, grieving, boom-heaving; While perceiving, carce believing,

we bring them perilouly near to the aburd.

In a word, free tranlations do not catch the delicate pathos of the Stabat Mater, and are not echoes of its melody. I have hitherto had an occaion to ay that a tranlator may well make three tranlations of a poem; one to portray its tructure, that is, its meaure, melody, movement and rhyme; one to present in detail its ideas and images; and one to produce an impreion as imilar as poible to that of the original on the mind of the reader. But many renderings do not eem to bring nearer to us the eluive power of this original. The more the Stabat Mater is tranlated, the farther it drifts from us.

Here, however, I hould add that Dr. Franklin Johnon has publihed a tranlation of the Stabat Mater—a beautiful poem in a beautiful etting—which probably comes as near to the pirit of the original as Englih vere will ever bring us.