Note 536 — BOOK VIII.
William Julius Mickle translation
When, softly usher'd by the milky dawn, The sun first rises.—
"I deceive myself greatly," says Castera, "if this simile is not the most noble and the most natural that can be found in any poem. It has been imitated by the Spanish comedian, the illustrious Lopez de Vega, in his comedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, act i. sc. 1:—
"Como mirar puede ser El sol al amanecer, I quando se enciende, no."
Castera adds a very loose translation of these Spanish lines in French verse. The literal English is, As the sun may be beheld at its rising, but, when illustriously kindled, cannot. Naked, however, as this is, the imitation of Camoëns is evident. As Castera is so very bold in his encomium of this fine simile of the sun, it is but justice to add his translation of it, together with the original Portuguese, and the translation of Fanshaw. Thus the French translator:—
Les yeux peuvent soûtenir la clarté du soleil naissant, mais lorsqu'il s'est avancé dans sa carrière lumineuse, et que ses rayons répandent les ardeurs du midi, on tacherait en vain de l'envisager; un prompt aveuglement serait le prix de cette audace.
Thus elegantly in the original:—
"Em quanto he fraca a força desta gente, Ordena como em tudo se resista, Porque quando o Sol sahe, facilmente Se pòde nelle por a aguda vista: Porem despois que sobe claro, & ardente, Se a agudeza dos olhos o conquista Tao cega fica, quando ficareis, Se raizes criar lhe nao tolheis."
And thus humbled by Fanshaw:—
"Now whilst this people's strength is not yet knit, Think how ye may resist them by all ways. For when the Sun is in his nonage yit, Upon his morning beauty men may gaze; But let him once up to his zenith git, He strikes them blind with his meridian rays; So blind will ye be, if ye look not too't, If ye permit these cedars to take root."