Translation question

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

18 Jan 07

Dear colleagues,

A colleague in Moscow who is translating Samuel Butler into Russian has 
posed a question which I cannot answer (even the English in unclear to 
me).  Could anyone lend a helping hand?

>I hope, you wouldn't mind my bothering you about a difficult passage from Samuel Butler, which I'm at a loss how to translate, and none of the professional translators whom I asked was able to offer me a satisfactory variant. So, your assistance as a native speaker and also Russian-speaking literature scholar would be of an immense value to me. 
>
>Here's the passage:
>
>"There is no casting of swine's meat before men worse than that which would flatter virtue as though her true origin were not good enough for her, but she must have a lineage, deduced as it were by spiritual heralds, from some stock with which she has nothing to do." (Samuel Butler. The Way of All Flesh. Chap. XIX (Par. 5))
>
>I would appreciate very much any ideas regarding the translation or at least explanation of the first part of the phrase prior to the first comma. Definitely, there's a biblical allusion here ("cast pearls before swine"), but what it MEANS in this context or how it is related to the rest of it, I'm at my wits' end.
>
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards to the list,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

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