Saturday, January 13, 2024
Housman in a Spanish Edition
Thanks to Eric Thomson for what follows.
More out of idle, if not morbid, curiosity than anything else, I've been dipping into A.E. Housman, 50 Poemas translated by Juan Bonilla (Renacimiento, 2006)....[N]ot even the original text is to be trusted, hence the intemperate emendation.
Spanish 'reinos' suggests English 'reigns' or 'realms' but has nothing to do with any of the homonyms of 'rein'. Literary translators should all be compelled to read the KJV. From Psalms alone:
Incidentally, the illegitimate reading 'veins' is rife on the Web. 'Odi profanum vulgus et arceo' mutters the shade of A.E. H.
A prime source for the diffusion of the error was no doubt the nameless textbook alluded to by its contrite author in the last paragraph of Laurence Perrine, "Housman's 'Others, I am not the first'," Victorian Poetry 28.3/4 (Autumn-Winter, 1990) 135-138:
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More out of idle, if not morbid, curiosity than anything else, I've been dipping into A.E. Housman, 50 Poemas translated by Juan Bonilla (Renacimiento, 2006)....[N]ot even the original text is to be trusted, hence the intemperate emendation.
7.9: Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.The word also turns up in Leviticus, Job, Isaiah, Jeramiah and Revelation. Anyone who knew Housman as a Latinist would in any case think of 'renes' and derive the 'kidneys' sense intended.
16.7: I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
26.2: Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my reins and my heart.
73.21: Thus my heart was grieved, And I was pricked in my reins.
139.13: For thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
Incidentally, the illegitimate reading 'veins' is rife on the Web. 'Odi profanum vulgus et arceo' mutters the shade of A.E. H.
A prime source for the diffusion of the error was no doubt the nameless textbook alluded to by its contrite author in the last paragraph of Laurence Perrine, "Housman's 'Others, I am not the first'," Victorian Poetry 28.3/4 (Autumn-Winter, 1990) 135-138:
Before writing finis to this article, let me loose one more critical shaft — this time against myself. For years, without ever consulting a dictionary, I regarded the word "reins" (l. 7), as an obvious misprint for "veins," and in a textbook I authored I silently "corrected" the mistake. Imagine my chagrin when I later learned (A) that "reins" is listed in the dictionary (as archaic to be sure) with the meanings of (1) the kidneys, and (2) the seat of the feelings, passions, and affections, formerly regarded as located in the kidneys or loins, and (B) that the word is used in this latter sense more than a dozen times in the Bible.
Labels: typographical and other errors
