Note 65 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
The following translation of these verses by Parnell, is at once a proof that this excellent poet felt the characteristic merit of the original, and that he was unable completely to attain it.
My change arrives; the change I meet Before I thought it nigh; My spring, my years of pleasure fleet, And all their beauties die. In age I search, and only find A poor unfruitful gain, Grave wisdom stalking slow behind, Oppress’d with loads of pain. My ignorance could once beguile, And fancied joys inspire; My errors cherish’d hope to smile On newly born desire. But now experience shews the bliss For which I fondly sought, Not worth the long impatient wish And ardour of the thought. My youth met fortune fair array’d, In all her pomp she shone, And might perhaps have well essay’d To make her gifts my own. But when I saw the blessings show’r On some unworthy mind, I left the chace, and own’d the power Was justly painted blind. I pass’d the glories which adorn The splendid courts of kings, And while the persons mov’d my scorn, I rose to scorn the things.
In this translation, which has the merit of faithfully transfusing the sense of the original, with a great portion of its simplicity of expression, the following couplet is a very faulty deviation from that character of the style.
My errors cherish’d hope to smile On newly born desire.