Quote#Time
I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet…
Quote byWilliam Cowper · 1731–1800
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Translations, The Iliad of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791) preface.
English (original)
I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.
— William Cowper
More from William Cowper
But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.
Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.
Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair.
Man disobeys, and deity disowns me.
Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was.
Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets.