tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post6299937559548057876..comments2023-10-21T02:25:08.085-07:00Comments on pomesonpoets: Heine TranslationsLucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642126053527835870noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post-8976935105731940462008-10-05T04:41:00.000-07:002008-10-05T04:41:00.000-07:00Thanks Dave and Joe for the feedback - I have foun...Thanks Dave and Joe for the feedback - I have found this discussion helpful - it has removed some of my doubts about attempting to translate from German, a language of whose richnness and literary traditions I have barely scraped the surface. It is an attempt to make something new.Lucashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07642126053527835870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post-2593257099233146402008-09-28T06:32:00.000-07:002008-09-28T06:32:00.000-07:00I like the idea of a cover of a poem. Homing into ...I like the idea of a cover of a poem. Homing into the author's psyche would be the ideal - a nice trick if you could pull it off. Very ambitious, but none the worse for that.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post-4138614466300749302008-09-27T06:26:00.000-07:002008-09-27T06:26:00.000-07:00I have only just caught up with these. They deserv...I have only just caught up with these. They deserve leisurely study, which they will get. I agree with Dave King. I don't think that you can truly translate a poem, only write a new one. And that is what you have been doing, with good effect. I don't believe that we should forget that the King James Bible is a translation. I have often wondered how it compares with the original Hebrew and Greek.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post-59490927750405711692008-09-18T13:29:00.000-07:002008-09-18T13:29:00.000-07:00Thank you, Dave. I think I agree. "Version" in the...Thank you, Dave. I think I agree. "Version" in the sense of a song sung by someone other than its originator. Perhaps the next stage would be a cover of a poem.<BR/>And, I feel the sense in which, as a translator, the attempt must be to home into the psyche of the originator, taking the spirit of the original and respectfully blowing into new glass.Lucashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07642126053527835870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post-31140985506346425602008-09-17T04:19:00.000-07:002008-09-17T04:19:00.000-07:00The whole question as to whether a translation of ...The whole question as to whether a <I>translation</I> of a poem into another language is even possible, I find absolutely fascinating. The recent vogue for being more upfront (in my opinion) and calling them <I>versions</I> seems to have a lot to be said for it.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post-56688706733115508662008-09-08T13:53:00.000-07:002008-09-08T13:53:00.000-07:00Thank you Lucy for your favourable comments; and f...Thank you Lucy for your favourable comments; and for the delightful story about the Lorelei recitation.<BR/>The Lorelei is for me bound up with the coffee bar of the same name in the heart of Soho - a 50 or 60 year old Italianate painting takes up one entire wall. It is the Lorelei in all her (its? Das Lorelei?)wonder waving to a ship across the waters of the bay.Lucashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07642126053527835870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13826186.post-43746477738571627072008-09-07T07:55:00.000-07:002008-09-07T07:55:00.000-07:00These were fun! I don't know much of Heine at all...These were fun! I don't know much of Heine at all, in German or translation, except of course the 'Lorelei' one, which a rather tedious uncle used to insist on reciting in German - after one too many sherries probably - and which is all over postcards in the Rhineland. So I don't know how your translations are, but they read very well to me. <BR/><BR/>'strafed my flesh with grit' sounds wonderfully German somehow. I like the tenderness of the first love lyric, and the wry sadness of the second. The one about the fantastic meal the ladies gave him in appreciation made me smile. He had to be cynical about it but he couldn't help enjoying himself! And the 'rotten shrimps' were a very vivid olfactory image, weren't they?<BR/><BR/>I might print these out to read again...Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.com