Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/ontranslatingho00arno Transcriber’s note: Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). Text that was in bold face is enclosed by equal signs (=bold=). ON TRANSLATING HOMER by MATTHEW ARNOLD With F. W. Newman’s ‘Homeric Translation’ and Arnold’s ‘Last Words’ London George Routledge & Sons Limited New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. CONTENTS ON TRANSLATING HOMER— I. 1 II. 32 III. 68 HOMERIC TRANSLATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE. A Reply to Matthew Arnold. By Francis W. Newman 112 LAST WORDS ON TRANSLATING HOMER. A Reply to Francis W. Newman. By Matthew Arnold 217 ... Nunquamne reponam? I It has more than once been suggested to me that I should translate Homer. That is a task for which I have neither the time nor the courage; but the suggestion led me to regard yet more closely a poet whom I had already long studied, and for one or two years the works of Homer were seldom out of my hands. The study of classical literature is probably on the decline; but, whatever may be the fate of this study in general, it is certain that, as instruction spreads and the number of readers increases, attention will be more and more directed to the poetry of Homer, not indeed as part of a classical course, but as the most important poetical monument existing. Even within the last ten years two fresh translations of the _Iliad_ have appeared in England: one by a man of great ability and genuine learning, Professor Newman; the other by Mr Wright, the conscientious and painstaking translator of Dante. It may safely be asserted that neither of these works will take rank as the standard translation of Homer; that the task of rendering him will still be attempted by other translators. It may perhaps be possible to render to these some service, to save them some loss of labour, by pointing out rocks on which their predecessors have split, and the right objects on which a translator of Homer should fix his attention.