DIES IRM
195
DIES JRM
tfd. to paUic use, but which soon found its way, on ao- uxit of its intrinsic excellency, into the Church ser- ce, since the deepest subjectivity in lyric poetry is the »t kind of objectivity. It certainly was in public le already in the 14th century in Italy, and gradual* ' passed into the Church service of other countries, attering along its track **tbe luminous footprints of s ^victorious progress as the subduer of hearts."
I^. TVctntlationt, — No poem has so often challenged id defied the skill of the best translators and imita* »rs. The unusually large number of translations ro'ves that none comes up to the original. Its music, lajesty, and grandeur can only be imperfectly repro- uced in modem languages. " Its apparent artless- esa and simplicity indicate that it can be turned read- y into another language, but its secret power refuses ^ l>e thus transferred.** The Germans have general- r aucceeded better than the English, owing to the iT^er number of double rhymes in the German lan- VLOge, But some English translations are admirable. >T. Lisco, in a monograph on the Dies Ira, A.D. 1840, ounted forty-four versions, mostly German, to which, tiree years afterwards, he added seventeen more. *tiere must be at least thirty English' versions which >r. Lisco did not know. There is a Greek version by lildner, a missionary of the Church of England ("Q pyrjC iKtiv ^f^p^i given by Daniel, ii, 106). Of rerman versions we may mention those of A. W. on Schlegel (lenen Tag, den Tag des Zoren), Bnnsen Toff des Zoms, o Tag voU Grauen\ Knapp (two : An \em Zomtag, an dem hohen, and lenen Tag^ den Tag let- Wehen), Seld {Zom und ZiUem bange Klag ist), Daniel (two: Tag des Z&ms, du Tag der Fidle, and ^)cnnd tmd SibyUa spricht\ Toestrup (^Zomtag^ schreck- ichster der Tage), Kdnigsfeld (An dan Zomtag,jenem iehren), J. P. Lange (Jener Tag des ZomSy der Tage\ ^ha£f (two in his Deutsche Kirchmfreund for 1858, p. \SS sq. : An dem Tag der Zomesficanmen, and An dem Tag der Zomes/ulie) ; also Herder, Fr. von Meyer, A. L. Follen, Wessenberg, Harms, Ddring, Stier. One jrennan, Lecke, wrote twelve versions. The best £ng- isli translators of the hymn are Richard Crashaw [his version b the oldest, made 1646, remarkable for ttrength,but differing fh>m the measure of the origin- al, ^^Heard'st thou, mg soul, what serious things Both the Psalm and Sibyl sings*") \ the Earl of Roscommon (** The Uay of wrath, that dreadful day'") ; Sir Walter Scott ^only a part of it, but admirably done : " That day of wrcUh, that dreadful day'"); Macaulay (1826, *' On that jreat, that awful day'") ; archbishop Trench Q'O that iatfy that day afire"" — a very close translation, though not in the double rhyme of the original); Dean Henry AJford (1845, ''Day of anger, that dread day""); Mrs. Charles (in "The Voice of Christian Life in Song," 1864, ''Lo, the day of wrath, the day""); Henry Mills (" Dag qf wrath — the sinner dooming"") ; Epes Sargent (^^ Day of ire, that day impending""); E.CaByvaiiC'^^' erstm, and stiU more nigh""); Is. Williams; Robert Da- vidson C'Day ofwrathl thai day is hasting"") ; W. G. Dl3L (** That day of wraihr-^upon that day"') ; Charles BockweU ("i% ofwrathl oh direful day""); J. H. Abrahall Q'Day of wrath and tribulation,"" in the Chris- tian Remembrancer for Jan. 1868, p. 159) ; W. J. Irons Q^Dag of wrath! 0 day of mourning,"" adopted in the "Hymnal Noted"); W. R. Williams ("Day o/twoM/ ihcU day dismaying""); Edward Slosson("Z)^o/'wratA/ of days that day""); Erastus C. Benedict (two, ''Day of wrath! that faial day,"" and "Day of threatened wraihfrom heaven"") ; Gen. John A. Dix (1862, ** />cy ofvengecmce, without morrow"" — an eclectic translation, the rhymes being selected from other versions, especial- ly those of Coles and Irons). Among these transla- tors, America is well represented by W. R. Williams, Slosson, Davidson, Rockwell, Mills, Sargent, W. G. and John A. Dix, Benedict. But the palm among translators belongs to an American layman, Abraham Coles, a physician at Newark, New Jersey, who pre-
pared no less than thirteen distinct versions, all good in their way, six of which are in the trochaic measure and double rhyme of the original ; five like in rhythm, but in single rhyme ; one in iambic triplets, like Roscom- mon's ; the last in quatrains, like Crashaw's version. The first two appeared anonymously in the Newark Daily Advertiser, 1847, and a part of one found its way into Mrs. Stowe's *' Uncle Tom's Cabin," the other into H. W. Beecher's * ' Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes." They are now all published together with an Introduction, and a photograph picture of Michael Angelo's famous Last Judgment Of the many translations, we select in conclusion one which is less known than it deserves to be, from the pen of the Rev. Dr. W. R. Willuims, a Baptist clergyman of New York, which appeared, with a valuable note on Dies Ira, in his Miscellanies, 2d edit. N. T. 1850, p. 88- 90. The author kindly consents to its use here, with a few changes, ^d the modest remark : '*Its imper- fections are excusable only from its having preceded the more finished rendering of my friend, Dr. Abraham Coles, of Newark, N.J."