We
are surprised that Mr. Sawyer should have rested his claim for the
excellence and superiority of his translation mainly upon this quality
of literalism, for it is often the case that the closest literalist is
the worst translator. It is often impossible to render the thoughts
expressed in the peculiar idioms of one tongue into exactly
corresponding idioms of another. There are idiomatic forms, especially
in the Greek, which have no precisely correspondent forms in the
English, and yet these are not unfrequently the most forcible
expressions of any to be found in the original; any attempt to render
these literally must be abortive; and a literal rendering, or as nearly
literal as possible, is the worst translation, because it sacrifices
the clearness, force, and precision, to say nothing of the grace and
delicacy, of the original. The French language abounds in words and
phrases the literal translation of which into English perverts the
meaning and destroys the force of the original. Still more is a strictly
literal rendering incompatible with the preservation and transference of
the beauties of style and the strength of diction.
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