Excerpt from Horace for English Readers: Being a Translation of the Poems of Quintus Horatius Flaccus Into English Prose No Latin poet has been translated into verse, in this country at least, more often than Horace. Perhaps the long list of poets, scholars, and statesmen who from generation to generation have tried their hands at the task may suggest the reflection that part of its fascination must consist in its insuperable difficulties. The humbler part of translating him into prose has been scantily attempted in England, though the example has been set us in France. By translation into prose I understand that which has been done for Virgil by Conington and more lately by Mackail, for Homer by Lang and his coadjutors, or again in part for Dante by Dr. Carlyle - a translation which, while literal in the sense that every thought is exactly represented in its proper order, tone, and emphasis, has also just so much of literary form that it can be read by a modern reader without distress, I and understood without perpetual reference to the original; and that (to adapt Horace's own expression) if in the process the author be necessarily dismembered, the fragments can at least be recognized for those of a poet. Conington's prose translation of Virgil, which was published posthumously, but which had been read by him in his Professorial lectures, was perhaps the first attempt of the kind for a Latin poet. Nowadays a translation into English prose is coming to be thought as necessary to a complete edition of a classic as a translation into Latin was to a Greek classic at the beginning of the last century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.