The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-06-29
BY GEORGE sEIBEL.

BY GEOhGE SElbEL%
The Italians have a proverb. ''Trndut-
tori, traditori," which is fatally true of
poetry. Translators Of verse are traitors
nearly always. The airy music and elu-
sive meaning OF the original are not rem
dered. but surrendered. and there is rea-
son IN st. Jerome's complaint that the
versions OF many writer's should rather
be called ''perversions'' Ceversiones). Some
times a poet like Freiligrath has sue
ceeded in translating poets like Burns
and Beranger; a few years ago a budding
novelist named Otto Sachs. who died too
soon. turned Kipling's 'Mandaay into
German without sacrificing any of the
swing and color-but such translation
seems to be a trade secret of the Ger
mans. 1t may be that they have more
poets fitted for the work-Kuerschner'
"Litteratur- Kalender'' has &C. 900 names
OF living authors. l believe. and probably
So. 900 OF these are poets-or 1t may be
that the language Is more flexible and
expressive. more subtle-sonorous. Certain
IL is that TRANSACTIONS from other Ian
guages into French or English are mostly
bad Every poet that has ever been
Frerschihed could parallel Tennyson's
lament; How absurd Ring out. wild
BELLS sounds in the translation 'Sonnez.
cloches. sonnez.' and what a ridiculous
rendering Of He cometh not, she said
is Tom ne Went pas"
It's the same IN English. TRANSACTIONS
from foreign poets nearly always lose
what Lamb called 1.-The fairy way of writ
ing;" what Matthew Arnold called nat
ural magic;'' either because our few poets
are busy with their own lutes, or because
our language belongs to the market-place
and Is not spoken on Parnassus. Or It
may be. rather-indeed. it must be-that
your true poet is untranslatable. as he is
more intimately poetic. so that by a sort
OF instinct. smiling danger. French trans
lators ware OF Keats as the English do
OF Musset- But. alas. led astray by cous-
inly affinity. English translators have not
kept their hands-and feet-of the Ger
man lyric poets. The French, from Che
nier TO Mallarme, have escaped: but
Schiller has been cruciied with hobnails
Goethe's eamless robe has been torn
into tatters. Even so recent a writer as
Nietzsche-who is a poet, not a phlloso-
pher-has been translated into bosh with
a blunderbuss. Nor has the truest poet
Of them all escaped, the most intimately
poetic. he who sleeps at Montmartre IN
der marble raised by an empress. be who
Intervene the homespun simplicity of
Burns with the richly broidered music of
Keats. who mingled the honey of CatuI-
The martyrdom OF Heine's mattress
grave a mild and merciful purgatory
compared with the recurring massacre of
his matchless songs by villaiuouS trans
lators-
II ever any poet was untranslatable. 1t is
Heine- Not that, to stretch Bentley's die
tum. no word of one language has an ex-
act equivalent in another language, but
rather because IN Heine the mood the
ming md no
" blended and interfused- Here are moon
beams and silver mist, brooding melan-
choly and sardonic laughter, spiritual
rapture and carnal flame, the perfume
and color OF flowers. the tremolos and
trumpets OF bird song ana storm. the
dreamy mystery OF night and the SEN
suous spell OF noon. rustling leaves and
murmurous waters, the Iinkling of elhn
feet and the cultural faun's haIIoo, the
bouquet OF rare wines and the effiuvia of |
the dunghill. music and madness. devout |
hope and deepest despair, love and helIish |
hate. prayer and prussic acid like |
rainbow gamut, all these exquisite and |
agontzing Ingredients mingle IN the aleul-
bic Of his verse. defying the literary
chemist who would disJIl and concentrate
them in the vessel of another language.
Can 1t be the temptation of difficulty
that has led so many to attempt the hope
less task7
Its hopelessness is intensified by the De-
culiar genius of The German language.
That language holds a vast amount Of
poetry and humor in solution. and no
writer ever knew better than Heine how
TO precipitnte these elements in his
verses. There are words like ''wunder-
schon." which are tabloid poems: words
Ike "Siebensachen." which are condensed
BIKES Even the simple words of every
FAY have q sound and color-a "Klan9-
take the ear captive. Mar
chen" has a mysterious meaning absent
from our matter-of-fact fairy tale;" the
word ''Blume'' has a scent and a tint
missing from our flower" Such Is the
OF German words that a
plain couplet like
Vile dunkle Traume stehen
Die Hauser in LANCER Rein,
'ecomes more vivid than II the scene had
been painted by the brush of Claude or
/ Benozzo- Especially IN the accents OF
melancholy, Of yearning and hopeless
orrow. OF tender sentiment, the German
language Is richer than all others, and
delne scattered these treasures like a
,roesus- II our sweetest songs are
hose that tell of saddest thought" no
81 has ever written aught sweeter than |