And so it is, from whichever language you start; national blood, experience. needs, have fashioned a word suited for the moors of Devonshire and it will not suit the bay of Baiae.

Rule 2. The rareness of good translation proves the difficulty. They may be reckoned on one's fingers: Hedge's translation of Luther's hymn, Coleridge's of Schiller's Wallenstein, Wordsworth's half rendering of one of Michelangelo's sonnets, fragments of Shelley, and a few such.

Rule 3. (This is an inference from Rule 2.) It takes a poet to translate a poet.

Besides these rules, the reader must bear in mind that the English translator has a choice between verse and prose, and that if he chooses verse, he may select Dante's own terza rima or some other form of rhyme, or else blank verse. All these forms have been tried. From a priori reasoning, we should suppose, on the one hand, that terza rima was foreign to the genius of the English language, and, on the other hand, that prose could not, under any circumstances, claim to represent poetry, and that therefore the intermediate form of blank verse, in which the noblest English poetry has been embodied. would be the most successful. The correctness of this surmise may be tested by an example. In the 7th canto of the Inferno Dante describes the goddess Fortune; he says that she is undeservedly blamed and then

Ma ella s'è beata, e ciò non ode;

con l'altre prime creature lieta,
volve sua spera, e beata si gode.

Here are various translations:

But she is blessed, and for that recks not:

Amidst the other primal beings glad,

Rolls on her sphere, and in her bliss exults. (H. F. Cary.)

But she is blissful, and she hears it not;

Among the other primal creatures gladsome

She turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices. (Longfellow.)

She hears it not, but ever blessed stays;

Joyous, with all that primal company

She turns her wheel and blest are all her ways. (Plumptre.)

But she is blest and no attention pays;

With other primal creatures joyously

She rolls her sphere and in blest rapture stays. (Haselfoot.)

But she is blest, and hears not, nor is shamed,

But turns her sphere, and follows out her day,

Joyful, amid the first creations named. (Wheeler.)

But she is happy, hearing nought of this,

Among the glad first-born of God attending,

To turn her sphere about and bide in bliss. (Cayley.)

But she is in bliss, and hears it not: with the other Primal Creatures joyful, she wheels her sphere, and tastes her blessedness. (Carlyle, Temple Classics.)

But she is in bliss, and hears not that; with the other prime created things in joy, she rolls her sphere, and enjoys her, being blessed. (A. J. Butler.)

That Dante's three lines have superlative beauty, who would guess? Except for Cayley's happy rendering of prime creatures as "first-born of God" (which gives the English reader an idea of angels, while "prime creature" suggests the Jurassic period), they are all painfully inadequate. Professor Langdon translates the passage thus:

But she is blest, and gives no heed to that;
among the other primal creatures glad,
she turns her sphere, and blest enjoys herself.

This, in blank verse, is like Cary's and Longfellow's, but it is smoother and sweeter than theirs, and its rhythm gives it a marked superiority over the prose versions, and at the same time it is far more close on the verbal heels of the original than the terza rima versions.

This comparison gives a just idea of Professor Langdon's translation. It is very faithful to the original in matching word with word; it is very clear; its blank verse, considering the limitations imposed upon a translator, is excellent. His scholarship seems to be of high quality. This version may well hope, especially if a pocket edition shall follow this magnificence of print and margin, to attain its goal and supersede its rivals. There are points here and there that will serve a quarrelsome critic. Take this line:

Mr. Langdon has

che non lasciò giammai persona viva (I. 27).

which ne'er permitted any one to live;

but Carlyle's "That no one ever left alive" is far more literal and more effective. Again in line 37, Canto I, Mr. Langdon translates tempo "some time," which sets one on a little further in the day than Dante meant. In line 117, he says: "each one of whom bewails the second death," but the Italian means that they cry for it. In line 48, Canto II, the words "quand' ombra" naturally mean when a shadow prevents a beast from seeing clearly, but Mr. Langdon (with ample authority, it is true), says "a shying beast." In line 51, Canto II, he renders beata, happy, which shows the impossibility of rendering a word which embodies a long chain of ideas by any other one word. In line 81, Canto II, the translation is not quite correct, and again in line 96 the force of the line is lost; and in the opening of Canto III for "Per me si va..." "Through me one goes" is feeble. In line 100, Canto V, he translates "cor gentil" "well-born heart." "Gentle heart" is usual; but Mr. Langdon is right that "gentle" implies the gentle in gentleman, and so it is another of those untranslatable words. Again line 120, Canto V, he renders "dubbiosi desiri" by "veiled desires." Dubbiosi cannot be translated by one English word. So, the famous line, XXVII, 110,

he renders poorly by

lunga promessa con l'attender corto

a promise long drawn out but shortly kept.

If Dante has one quality more than another it is nervous vigor. But these defects are due to the impossibility of rendering not merely the music but also the finer meanings of poetry in another language.

In the beginning of the book is an "interpretive analysis" of the several cantos, which will prove useful. The book is excellent and should be in the hands of all Dante students.

PRESENT-DAY WARFARE. 1

H. D. Sedgwick, '82.

Written by a member of a Harvard faculty, translated by another, dedicated to a third, with President Lowell figuring in the frontispiece and the R.O.T.C. in numerous illustrations, this may well be claimed as a Harvard book. The introduction makes it clear that the text is founded on the author's Lowell Lectures, and we are reminded by the generous tributes to Harvard pupils and to the President and other University authorities, both in the introduction and in the chapter on training, that the principles here expounded are those which Colonel Azan and his colleagues have been teaching in Cambridge.

Many technical details included in the lectures to the R.O.T.C. and the Iron Battalion are omitted, but instead there are illuminating instances, anecdotes, and narratives of personal experience, and a series of really remarkable photographs, many of them taken by the author himself at the front. The book is therefore suited to the tastes and capacities of the ordinary unmilitary reader, and will reach a far wider public than "The War of Positions." At the same time, though not a textbook, it will be of great value to the soldier.

In the first chapter, Colonel Azan discusses the general aspects of the war, and the differences between this and earlier wars, pointing out that there is no one small feature trenches, artillery, airplanes, gas, grenades which distinguishes it, but that it is different in various ways: "Primarily, it is a war in which all the people participate; on the tactical side it is a war of positions; it is also a war of matériel, a war of attrition, a war without pity." These diverse characteristics he discusses in turn, correcting popular fallacies, emphasizing the need of intelligent study and open-minded readiness to learn by experience, even when experience contradicts long-cherished theories and prejudices. He specially emphasizes the need for whole-hearted coöperation amongst all branches of the service and all elements in the civil population.

The second chapter contains matter which should be read by every one interested in the success of American arms, for Colonel Azan here explains the prime importance of adequate training in this complex war of specialization and coördination, and lays down the general principles of organization for training, which he reduces to four fundamentals:

1. No army can be trained without teachers.

2. The teachers must be taught before the troops can be. 3. To train these teachers there must be schools for officers of all arms. 4. To organize these schools it is necessary to bring together the officers best qualified to give instruction.

These principles have prevailed in France; they have not been consistently applied in America, despite the author's efforts to demonstrate them with the Harvard Regiment and the Iron Battalion. Colonel Azan is patient and polite, but after reading this chapter his readers can no longer wonder that the American army, after a year at war, was not in a position to take a larger part in the battles of Amiens and Ypres.

Subsequent chapters deal with "The Trenches," "Preparation of an Attack," "The Attack," "How to Achieve Victory," "The Defense of a Position," "Officers and Soldiers." All are logical, thorough, vivid, eloquent, but the title that naturally attracts us most is, "How to Achieve Victory."

How is the victory to be achieved? First, there must be coördination between the Allies, obtainable only through real unity of command. Colonel Azan writes this in November, 1917; the first condition has now been achieved. The second, we hope, may also be attained: America must train troops quickly, so that they may be available before the armies of the other Allies are exhausted.

In greater detail, the author explains how attacking armies must pick suitable zones and launch attacks simultaneously, or at intervals of a few days, and be ready to convert whichever is the most successful into the main attack, even though success be attained at an unexpected point. When the enemy is forced to retire in order to reconstitute his broken front, the advancing army must follow swiftly and attack the next positions, for the true objective is not any geographical area, but the army of the enemy. If he cannot establish himself in new positions, he is beaten. "The essential condition for success is speed. The enemy must not be given the chance to reorganize. ... The pursuit should usually be carried out by fresh troops drawn from the reserves.... The artillery must take care constantly to accompany the infantry and to support it.... The troops form in column whenever possible. They have special marching zones where the roads are distributed between the various columns.... It often happens, in fact, that, not only are the pursuing troops the object of counter attacks, but they also run

...

against organized positions... a temporary halt might easily turn into a definite check... then a new period of stationary fighting begins, with the usual system of trenches....”

Writing last November of a future Allied offensive Colonel Azan has produced what might well be mistaken for a generalization from the incidents of the German advance in March and April, 1918. It is quite evident that there is no serious discrepancy between his idea of "How to Achieve a Victory" and the ideas on the same subject held by the German General Staff. It is for us to turn the tables, and the more Americans that absorb the teachings of "The Warfare of To-day," the more likely we are to do it.

A NEW HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.1

F. S.

The authors' preface indicates that the book is a scholarly and antiquarian research. Too often one finds just this and nothing more in histories of architecture, but these writers strike a true note at the outset in speaking of the personality and ideals of the Greek architect. They sought unity in variety; they saw the law of beauty applicable to architecture in music. They sought symmetry, not in its obvious, but in its more subtle forms. Growth and development are traced through the great national movements, and this intimate relation to "national consciousness" is explained. This is true history. The law of symmetry and a love of beauty coming through a great national awakening, such as perhaps is coming to us here and now, may well be given as the only cause worth mentioning to account for the great period of Greek Art; and one may pass over as quite immaterial whether or not the order was inspired by an earlier wood construction, and why the arch, if known, was so little used.

One is most favorably impressed with the constant insistence of the authors that there is at no time any real break in the continuity of progress. There are the interruptions which now and again check the tide as it rises, but if there is a recession it is but the recession of the wave, to rise yet higher. "The character of the Romans was not such as to promise much initiative in the field of the arts" a pregnant phrase, and in the main true for all time. Art will always have its lovers, including its amateurs, its imaginative creators, and also its "patrons," those who support, and at least stimulate, an interest in and knowledge of the arts. All these are necessary to production.

One may perhaps quote complete the last paragraph in the chapter on Rome, as it is an excellent example of true history: "Influence of Roman architecture. The wide diffusion of Roman architecture, its magnificent associations, and its flexibility in meeting new and complex problems makes it easy to understand the wide influence which it exercised, both on the peoples who immediately succeeded to the Roman possessions and on those

1 A History of Architecture, by Fiske Kimball, '09, and G. H. Edgell, '09. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1918.