Page:Essay on the Principles of Translation - Tytler (1791, 1st ed).djvu/186

A. D. 1692. "I'll be as great as a king," says Gripus, "I'll have a Royal Sun^[1] for pleasure, like the King of France, and sail about from port to port," Navibus magnis mercaturam faciam, Pl. Rud. act 4. sc. 2.

A translator will often meet with idiomatic phrases in the original author, to which no corresponding idiom can be found in the language of the translation. As a literal translation of such phrases cannot be tolerated, the only resource is, to express the sense in plain and easy language. Cicero, in one of his letters to Papirius Pætus, says, "Veni igitur, si vires, et disce jam προλεγομενας quas quæ-

1. Alluding to the French Admiral's ship, called Le Soleil Royal, beaten and disabled by Russell.

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