Microsoft Word Revised Syllabus Ver doc

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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29 
LESSON - V 
DRYDEN’S CLASSIFICATION 
The role of translation changed by the mid- seventeenth century. In his Preface to 
“Ovid’s Epistles” (1680), Dryden formulated three basic types of translation to tackle the 
problems of translations: 
(i)
‘Metaphrase’ or turning an author word by word, and line by line, from one language 
into another. 
(ii)
‘Paraphrase’ or translation with latitude, the Ciceronian ‘sense-for –sense’ view of
translation. 
(iii)
‘Imitation’, where the translator can abandon the text of the original as he sees fit. 
Dryden prefers the second category to the other two for he considers it a balanced 
path. He says that for translating poetry, the translator should be a poet, should be a master of 
both the languages and should comprehend the ‘spirit’ of the original writer and conform to 
the aesthetic laws of his own age. He compares the translator with the portrait-painter, 
maintaining that the duty of the painter is to make his portrait resemble the original. The 
views of Dryden on translation was supported by Alexander Pope, who spoke of the same 
moderate path as Dryden, with emphasis on close reading of the original to mark the details 
of style and manner while trying to keep alive the ‘fire’ of the poem. The history of 
translation from the translation of ‘The Bible’ from Wycliffe to the Authorized Version to 
Dryden and Pope beliefs the view that translation is subsidiary and derivative.
Models of translation including the three categories of Dryden (1860) viz. 
metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation and Cowely’s (1948) adaptation are metaphase, 
paraphrase, imitation, adaptation and re-creation.