"
The difficulty is increased where the Latin word has some special force of
theological or other meaning which has no single equivalent in English.
Doctor Coles has made, we think, the most successful attempt at an English
translation of the hymn that we have ever seen. He has done all that could
be done, where complete success was out of the question. Out of his first
two versions, which seem to us the best, a very satisfactory rendering of
the original can be made up by choosing the better stanzas from each. In
his first trial he misses the pathetic force of the
"Rex tremendae majestatis,
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
Salva me, fons pietatis!"
where the petition is piercingly individualized by the accentual stress
thrown on the _me_. He gives it thus:--
"King Almighty and All-knowing,
Grace to sinners freely showing,
Save me, Fount of Good o'erflowing!"
His second attempt is better:--
"Awful King, who nothing cravest,
Since Thyself full ransom gavest,
Save thou me, who freely savest!"
Here the emphatic _me_ is preserved, but in neither version is the true
meaning of _salvandos_ even hinted at, and in both we miss the tenderness
of the _fons pietatis_, with which the _tremenda majestas_ is balanced and
softened.
There are three or four of these Latin hymns that for simple force and
pathos have never been matched in their kind, and never approached, except
by a few of the more fortunate poems of Herbert, Vaughan, and Quarles.
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