Who tracks this author's, or translator's pen, Shall find, that either hath read books, and men: To say but one, were single. Then it chimes, When the old words do strike on the new times, As in this Spanish Proteus; who, though writ But in one tongue, was formed with the world's wit: And hath the noblest mark of a good book, That an ill man dares not securely look Upon it, but will loathe, or let it pass, As a deformed face doth a true glass. Such books deserve translators, of like coat As was the genius wherewith they were wrote; And this hath met that one, that may be styled More than the foster-father of this child; For though Spain gave him his first air and vogue, He would be called, henceforth, the @3English Rogue@1, But that he's too well-suited, in a cloth, Finer than was his Spanish, if my oath Will be received in court; if not, would I Had clothed him so. Here's all I can supply To your desert, who have done it, friend. And this Fair emulation, and no envy is; When you behold me wish myself, the man That would have done that which you only can. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HYMN TO MONT BLANC [IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI] by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ANDROMEDA by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS HARMONIES OF THE EVENING by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE AFTER THEATER by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE VERBATIM FROM BOILEAU by NICOLAS BOILEAU-DESPREAUX OBSERVATIONS IN THE ART OF ENGLISH POESY: 8. TROCHAIC VERSE: THE FOURTH EPIGRAM by THOMAS CAMPION |