Studia Islandica - 01.06.1957, Blaðsíða 35

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Such instances could easily be multiplied from any part
of the translation. Only rarely, however, does the Ice-
landic translator add anything of his own. His few devia-
tions from the Danish consist in the insertion of a single
word for the sake of the rhyme or the alliteration.
As pointed out above, the couplet is, in most cases, ex-
tended to four lines, and sometimes even more. Thus the
much-quoted opening couplet of Epistle II, already re-
ferred to, is expanded to no less than six lines. More in-
stances of this kind could be cited. The expansions, as
did the additions in nearly all cases, already existed in
the Danish version.
In the Icelandic translation as a whole, the terseness
of the original is replaced by diffuseness. The neat ba-
lance and symmetry of Pope’s polished couplets is lost.
Few of the passages of the translation readily admit of
quotation, — a fact not to be overlooked. Granted that
a translation must, in any case, be somewhat longer
than the original, a doubling of the latter's length is
hardly justifiable or necessary, due allowance being made
for differences in the languages involved, and for the
fact that Pope’s couplets are often so fraught with mean-
ing as to require interpretative phrases, in order to make
clear, in another language, their complete thought.
In fact, Pope’s skill in versification is so superlative,
that no translator, even the most expert and gifted, could
do it full justice. The best way of dealing with Pope
would, undoubtedly, have been to select a freer verse
form, in which there was less necessity for padding. A
contemporary of Þorláksson’s, Benedikt Gröndal (1760
—1825), did this in his translation of The Temple of
Fame, published in 1790. He used the fornyröislag, and
his translation is, on the whole, very successful, and far
more “Popean” than the translation of the Essay. Al-
though the couplet is not employed, the terseness and
the directness of the original are characteristic of Grön-
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