Studia Islandica - 01.06.1957, Blaðsíða 33

31
Numerous similar statements could be cited, but this
shows that the perfection of Pope’s metrical structure
is recognized as his principal merit. The consideration
which a translator should give to a faithful reproduc-
tion of Pope’s style, is, therefore, obvious, and a closer
analysis of the heroic couplet bears out the fact. Prof.
J. W. Mackail’s description cannot be improved upon;
speaking of Pope’s workmanship, he says: “His couplets
stand apart from one another like beads on a string, and
within the couplet there is an increasing uniform balance
both between the two lines of the couplet and the two
halves of the line.” H In fact, almost any couplet, when
taken out of its place in the poem, constitutes a pointed
epigram, not seldom a gem of thought, although old,
sparkling in the gorgeous frame. Of these, the numerous
quotations from Pope, daily on people’s lips, offer ample
evidence. He deals, it is true, primarily in old thoughts;
he was not interested in, nor perhaps capable of, any-
thing else. His opinion of literary art, and indeed his am-
bition is expressed by himself:
True Wit is Nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.1 2)
And few will deny that very often he succeeded in ac-
complishing what he set out to do. Thus it is seen what
a tremendous role Pope’s versification plays in his poetry.
Naturally, a translator who does not, in a large degree,
retain that important factor of the original, cannot do
it full justice as his translation does not convey the true
spirit of the original.
Unfortunately, the Icelandic translator changed the
verse form of the Essay, using instead of the heroic
couplet a metrical unit composed of four octosyllabic
lines, alternately rhymed.
1) Pope, p. 23.
2) Essay on Criticism, II, 297-298.