Born in Jamaica in 1702, Francis Williams (d. 1770) came from one of the only free black families of means in Jamaica. He was a free black man of learning and education. This note uncovers details about his often-misunderstood background and will focus upon the one poem that has been officially attributed to Williams, ‘Ode to George Haldane’—a Latin panegyric, (mis) translated by Edward Long. The second translation studied here is by William Gardner, a translation that, while not as flagrantly disrespectful of the original verse as Long’s, still takes various liberties with Williams’s original language. Long’s translation of Williams’s poem has stood unquestioned for over three hundred years, but this note argues that Long’s translation—and Gardner’s to a lesser extent—is misinformed, based upon systematic misinterpretation, and ultimately damaging to Williams’s legacy.1¹

中文翻译：

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弗朗西斯·威廉姆斯和翻译问题

弗朗西斯·威廉姆斯（Francis Williams）（卒于 1770 年）于 1702 年出生于牙买加，来自牙买加仅有的自由黑人家庭之一。他是一个学习和教育的自由黑人。这篇笔记揭示了关于他经常被误解的背景的细节，并将重点关注一首正式归属于威廉姆斯的诗，“乔治·霍尔丹的颂歌”——一首拉丁赞美诗，（错误）由爱德华·朗翻译。这里研究的第二个译本是威廉·加德纳（William Gardner）的译本，虽然不像朗的那样公然不尊重原诗，但仍然对威廉姆斯的原语言有各种自由。朗对威廉姆斯诗歌的翻译三百多年来一直没有受到质疑，但这篇笔记认为朗的翻译——以及加德纳在较小程度上的翻译——是错误的，基于系统的误解，¹