George Macdonald

Rampolli George Macdonald

Publisher Marketing: I think every man who can should help his people to inherit the earth by bringing into his own of the wealth of other tongues. In the flower-pots of translation I offer these few exotics, with no little labour taught to exist, I hope to breathe, in English air. Such labour is to me no less serious than delightful, for to do a man's work, in the process of carrying over, more injury than must be, is a serious wrong. I have endeavoured, first of all, to give the spirit of the poetry. Next, I have sought to retain each individual meaning that goes to form the matter of a poem. Third, I have aimed at preserving the peculiar mode, the aroma of the poet's style, so far as I could do it without offence to the translating English. Fourth, both rhythm and rime being essential elements of every poem in which they are used, I have sought to respect them rigorously. Fifth, spirit, matter, and form truly represented, the more literal the translation the more satisfactory will be the result. After all, translation is but a continuous effort after the impossible. There is in it a general difficulty whose root has a thousand ramifications, the whole affair being but an accommodation of difficulties, and a perfect translation from one language into another is a thing that cannot be effected. Contributor Bio:  MacDonald, George George MacDonald was a Scottish author and minister best known for his fairy tales and fantasy novels. A theologian, MacDonald was pastor of Trinity Congregational Church in Arundel before moving to London to teach at the University of London. MacDonald's work influenced many fantasy writers including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle; he is recognized as a mentor to Lewis Carroll and heavily influenced Carroll's decision to submit Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for publication. MacDonald was a prolific writer, and penned such fantasy classics as Phantastes, The Princess and the Goblin, and Lillith. George MacDonald died in 1905.