Great Regulars: [John] Dryden described his method as

paraphrase. The original author's words were not as "strictly followed as his sense". The sense could be amplified, and even altered. This was a practical and, in some ways, obvious technique. Horace's word-order, for example, has to be altered to make sense in a non-inflected language. In taking further liberties, the justification is that the translator is himself making a poem. Dryden tried to create a work the author could have produced "if he were living and an Englishman".

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Horace: The Odes, Book One, IX, translated by John Dryden

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