Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| THE TRANSLATOR'S PROLOGUE TO ARISTOTLE'S ON PLANTS [part prol] [section 1] IN the ever-green meadow of Aristotelian philosophy many other tablets too have grown up alongside the noble plants, all-bearing to those of us who contemplate them, and pouring out abundant fruits to those who put them to use. [section 2] And among the others there was also the book on plants — itself a plant of good growth, small indeed, but rich with many graces, and greeting the lovers of learning with the finest yield: I mean not only our own people, the truly eminent, the men unrivaled in learning and wisdom and understanding, the Ausonians, but also those of the Italian nation, and not these alone, but also all such as the land of the fortunate Arabs is known to nurture, and the Indians as well. [section 3] For the Stagirite, that supreme philosopher, cast into philosophers everywhere, wherever they might be, a strong longing for his own writings. But this plant, I do not know how, has suffered among us not only a withering, or perhaps some change for the worse, the sort of thing time is wont to do, but even an uprooting from the very stock and a turning away into non-being, as though it had never once seen a gardener, not even if it had come forth into the light.
2| [section 4] The Italian too underwent the same fate, being deprived of this treasure for a long time along with us. It was known to the Arabs alone, and they alone enjoyed its fruits without stint. [section 5] But then a certain man, Celtic by birth, who had advanced so far in the wisdom of the Italians as to yield first place to none, then, thinking this achievement small, great though it was, unless he by himself, and after the Latin, should also acquire the knowledge of the Arabs and cultivate that finest disposition, gave himself wholly to the task, and wished to bring his purpose to completion and in every way to attain what he desired. [section 6] Accordingly he set out for foreign parts, made use of Arab teachers, and, matching diligence to natural gift, gained, they say, so full a share of learning as to be able to carry over the writings of the Arabs to the Italians and those of the Italians to the Arabs. This man, then, among certain other works, also translated this book on plants, and transplanted from the meadows of Arabic learning, into the Italian nurseries, whatever was there of noble growth. [section 7] The Italian accordingly rejoiced in this and boasted greatly; for he prides himself above all others on his devotion to the Aristotelian books, and he gloried in this treasure no less than that famous Xerxes gloried in the plane tree under which he was shaded and which he decked with gold. I too came to desire this plant — it is a long time now since — for to me discourse is the most valuable of all things in the world.
3| [section 8] I longed to be filled with its fruits, to arrive at a settled possession of its thoughts. Hope beguiled my desire, and hope in turn was succeeded by prayer. But for a long while my desire went unfulfilled, hope remained mere hope; yet my prayer grew more intense. But what does the all-complete cause of all good things, transcending completion and prior to it, do? It grants stillness to desire, an end to hope, and to prayer the fulfillment of its petition. [section 9] For a certain Italian, appearing to us suddenly from somewhere, possessed of ample learning and knowledge in letters, came up to us, greeted us graciously, spoke words of friendship, and then placed in our hands the very book we longed for. I rejoiced as at a windfall gain. I received the book with eagerness. [section 10] I gave myself wholly to it, gathered up carefully the thought laid up within it, and, as though in a mirror, from its very first starting-line I recognized Aristotle and the Aristotelians' refutations directed against the philosophers of old. [section 11] I judged, by the arguments themselves, that it would be a wrong — to the arguments themselves and to their lovers — and I took care not to be written down as a grudging soul, if, having sufficient grace from above for the task, I did not translate it into the Greek tongue and show it to be numbered among the rest of the Aristotelian tablets.
4| [section 12] So then, with God's help, I completed the task, and set forth the book for the common enjoyment of those who till this ground, though I found much difficulty and confusion of terms because of the frequent changes of translation — from our tongue into that of the Italians, from there into Arabic, and again from Arabic into Italian, and from these at last into our own. [section 13] For, so far as this book is concerned, the Stagirite did not appear two-faced, after the manner of that much-talked-of Itanus, whom a thin tradition brings down to our time, but many-shaped, after the manner of Proteus of Pharos. [section 14] Since every tablet, when carried over from one language into another, proceeds either word for word or sense for sense, and the latter, having clarity, falls short of exactness, while the former, and prior, method, though possessing exactness, ends in obscurity, we, following this safer and less censurable course, as we have done also in other tablets, hold fast to exactness. [section 15] But so that we should not seem to be giving ground to obscurity, which we have recognized as an utter vice in discourse, wherever anything harsh and unpleasant arose from obscurity, we have given it relief by certain further explanations and scholarly annotations, and have led the travelers of reason by the hand out of the hard and rough way onto the smooth and broad one, and to him who is above us we have rendered thanks and, as is fitting, acknowledgment in return.