Translation question

[Genevra Gerhart]

I would like to suggest that the passage might be much more comprehensible
if you try diagramming it. 

Genevra Gerhart
 
ggerhart at comcast.net
 
www.genevragerhart.com
www.russiancommonknowledge.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:47 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Translation question

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/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.0/639 - Release Date: 1/18/2007
6:47 PM
 

-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.0/639 - Release Date: 1/18/2007
6:47 PM
 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 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/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------