"Poetry is of so subtle a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another it will evaporate"

John Denham’s observation regarding the subtlety of poetry brings into focus the challenge and fragility inherent in translating verse. He likens poetry to a delicate, volatile spirit, something ethereal and elusive that risks dissolving when transferred from one vessel to another. The very essence of poetry resides not only in the literal meaning of its words, but in the layered resonance of their sound, rhythm, and cultural connotation. Each language possesses unique idioms, music, and emotional undertones. When a poem is translated, the particular arrangement of syllables, the cadence that evokes a certain mood, and the implicit references woven through the original language can become lost or distorted.

Translation requires moving between not just different vocabularies but worldviews. The poetic spirit Denham speaks of is that luminous quality imbued by the poet: a precise image, a play on words, the repetition of a sound that carries its own feeling. For poetry, the sum is greater than the individual parts; each word is carefully selected to thrill, haunt, or comfort. In another language, the wordplay may crumble, and the original music becomes discordant or silenced. The translator might render the poem’s sense, but miss its breath; the result could be accurate yet bereft of the original’s power.

Denham’s metaphor evokes the process of evaporation, where an essence escapes and cannot be easily recaptured. The most vital, fleeting aspects of poetry, its emotion, its subtext, its multifaceted beauty, may rise away imperceptibly in translation, leaving behind a residue of meaning, but not the spirit. His words suggest both admiration for poetry’s complexity and a recognition of its vulnerability: how something so masterfully crafted in one language slips away when forced into the constraints of another, a reminder of the rare magic that happens when words, meaning, and music are perfectly aligned in their original home.