Translation question

[Katherine Crosswhite]

Well, here's my translation into, uh, English:

"There's nothing that invites a person to act incorrectly more than the 
claim that virtue has a fancy lineage, that virtue springs from 
religion/God."  It was pretty opaque at first, but I looked on Project 
Gutenberg and in context it is clear that "flatter virtue as though her 
true origin" is meant to be parsed something like "flatter virtue by 
telling her that her true origin is...", with a personified virtue.  I 
think casting swine's meat before men is supposed to be mean "doing 
something to make someone else (unknowingly) sin" but maybe someone with 
more knowledge of the Bible could weigh in.

In the preceding paragraphs, the author is arguing that virtue is a very 
mundane thing -- that people should figure out what things "lead to long 
life and comfort, and act accordingly."  In the following section, he 
says that is some "purported virtue" time and again leads to 
unhappiness, it should instead be viewed as an "insidious form of vice."

That's my take.

Best,

K.

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere wrote:
> 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
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> !DSPAM:45afcff210432971013301!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------