Part 20 (1/2)
Burton had brought with hiypt his translation of The Lusiads, which had been commenced as early as 1847, and at which, as we have seen, he had, froave his work the finishi+ng touches, and on his return to Trieste in May it was ready for the press There have been lish translators of Camoens, from Fanshawe, the first, to Burton and Aubertin; and Burton likens thee-pit--each one struggling to trample down his elder brother [322] Burton's work, which appeared in 1882, was presently followed by two other volu of a Life of Camoens and a Commentary on The Lusiads, but his version of The Lyrics did not appear till 1884
Regarded as a faithful rendering, the book was a success, for Burton had drunk The Lusiads till he was super-saturated with it Alone a the translators, he had visited every spot alluded to in the poeraphical and other studies had enabled hies that had baffled his predecessors Then, too, he had the assistance of Aubertin, Da Cunha and other able Portuguese scholars and Caarded, however, as poetry, the book was a failure, and for the simple reason that Burton was not a poet Like his Kasidah, it contains noble lines, but on every page we are reminded of the translator's defective ear, annoyed by the unnecessary use of obsolete words, and disappointed by his lack of what Poe called ”ethericity” The following stanza, which expresses ideas that Burton heartily endorsed, ant Phormion's philosophick store see how the practised Hannibal derided when lectured he ealth of bellick lore and on big words and books himself he prided
Senhor! the soldier's discipline is , drea; teach to fight” [323]
The first six lines contain nothing remarkable, still, they are work lines are atrocious, and almost every stanza has similar blemishes A little more labour, even without much poetic skill, could easily have produced a better result But Burton was a Hannibal, not a Phormion, and no man can be both He is happiest, perhaps, in the stanzas containing the legend of St Thomas, [324] or Thome, as he calls hier in Lord Jesu's side”
According to Ca to the potent Hindu city Meleapor, in Narsinga land [325] a huge forest tree floated down the Ganges, but all the king's elephants and all the king's men were incompetent to haul it ashore
”Noas that lumber of such vasty size, no jot it moves, however hard they bear; when lo! th' Apostle of Christ's verities wastes in the business less of toil and care: His trailing waistcord to the tree he ties, raises and sans an effort hales it where A sumptuous Temple he would rear sublime, a fit example for all future time”
This excites the jealousy and hatred of the Brahmins, for
”There be no hatred fell and fere, and curst As by false virtue for true virtue nurst”
The chief Brahmin then kills his own son, and tries to saddle the criain and ”names the father as the man who slew” Ultimately, Thome, who is unable to circumvent the further machinations of his enelory is thus apostrophised:
”Wept Gange and Indus, true Thome! thy fate, wept thee whatever lands thy foot had trod; yet weep thee more the souls in blissful state thou led'st to don the robes of Holy Rood
But angels waiting at the Paradise-gateGod
We pray thee, pray that still vouchsafe thy Lord unto thy Lusians His good aid afford”
In a stanza presented as a footnote and described as ”not in Caives vent to his own disappointh for the fate of his old friend and eneards himself, had he not, despite his services to his country, been relegated to a third-rate seaport, where his twenty-nine languages were quite useless, except for fulovernment! The fate of poor Speke had been still y shore set forth to span dark Africk's jungle-plain; thy furthest fount, O Nilus! they explore, and where Zaire springs to seek the Main, The Veil of Isis hides thy land no more, whose secrets open to the world are lain
They deem, vain fools! to win fair Honour's prize: This exiled lives, and that untimely dies”
Burton, however, still nursed the fallacious hope that his nised, that perhaps he would be re-instated in Damascus or appointed to Ispahan or Constantinople
99 At Ober Aust (1880) the Burtons paid a visit to Ober A all eyes on account of its Passion Play Burton's object in going was ”the wish to compare, haply to trace some affinity between, this survival of the Christian 'Mystery' and the living scenes of El Islaed by the following prayer which she wrote previous to their departure froh I be, may so witness this holy lorious victory over death and hell, that Ires on the cross renew then my faith, and ennoble my life, and not mine only, but all itness it” Then follows a prayer for the players