Classical Turns: Latin Translator

 

 

The name Classical Turns was selected for the varied services that the company offers on the basis of a tangential comment made by Sir Theodore Martin, when waxing lyrical on the virtues required to render the Latin lyric poet Horace into English:

 

"The subtle aroma of expression is not to be fixed by pseudo-classical turns of phrase, or by artifices of rhythm, which are foreign to the structure and genius of our language. Unless a translation can commend itself to our admiration, as intrinsically interesting and good as a piece of harmonious English verse, it can never be admitted to represent what is in the original a masterpiece of Latin verse." (The Odes, Epodes and Satires of Horace (Edinburgh-London, 1870), xxxiv-xxxv)

 

Classical Turns strives in all its translations to do justice to the form, tone and content of the text as expressed in its tongue of origin. If the English bears pseudo-Classical Turns, or the Latin or Greek betrays foreign Anglicisms, then the business, we must confess, is up.