| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: Man
Are sharing alike in His infinite plan.
I believe that all things that are living and
breathing
Some richness of beauty to earth are bequeath-
ing;
That all that goes out of this world leaves
behind
Some duty accomplished for mortals to find;
That the humblest of creatures our praise is
deserving,
A Heap O' Livin' |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: E che lo nuovo peregrin d' amore
Punge, se ode squilla di lontano,
Che paia il giorno pianger che si more."
This passage affords an excellent example of what the method of
literal translation can do at its best. Except in the second
line, where "those who sail the sea" is wisely preferred to any
Romanic equivalent of naviganti the version is utterly literal;
as literal as the one the school-boy makes, when he opens his
Virgil at the Fourth Eclogue, and lumberingly reads, "Sicilian
Muses, let us sing things a little greater." But there is nothing
clumsy, nothing which smacks of the recitation-room, in these
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: tired horses.
"Good Lord! It's quiet here!" whispered Eleanor; "much more
lonesome than the woods."
"I hate woods," Amory said, shuddering. "Any kind of foliage or
underbrush at night. Out here it's so broad and easy on the
spirit."
"The long slope of a long hill."
"And the cold moon rolling moonlight down it."
"And thee and me, last and most important."
It was quiet that nightthe straight road they followed up to the
edge of the cliff knew few footsteps at any time. Only an
This Side of Paradise |
