Principles of translation [L. K.]

Thinking of myself primarily as a poet, not a scholar, I have proceeded in the case of Prudentius’ Pe. in fairly conventional fashion, first roughing-out a prose paraphrase of the hymns of the collection, then re-writing them in verse. In doing so, I have tried to make of each hymn a genuine poem, not just a paraphrase. In almost every argument relating to the quality of some new Englishing of Classical or Late Antique Latin poetry—whether the contention occurs on paper or on screen—the issue disputed is usually one of diction: is the tone right, would another synonym be more apt, etc., while there is a tendency to ignore what I feel are equally important questions, especially if the finished translation is to be a poem in its own right, including the best way to handle the meter or meters of the original Latin. I firmly believe that meter is a crucial part of what makes any poem a poem, and on that basis I have striven to find an accentual-syllabic match for the quantitative verse employed by Prudentius in these hymns.