Talk:Walt Whitman: Difference between revisions
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== A perfect short poem makes up for many smears == | |||
I'm spent a fair amount of time reading ''Leaves of Grass'', and I don't consider it to be easy for mainstream readers. I included in this article two brief examples of Whitman writing at his very best. The short poem 'A Noiseless Patient Spider' is on a par with the greatest short poems in the world; it reminds me of an even shorter gem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a highly prolific German author born half a century before Whitman. Goethe's 'Wanderer's Nightsong II' ("Über allen Gipfeln"), which is unfortunately difficult to render into English without losing much of its haunting beauty. That didn't stop Wadsworth from trying to translate it anyway: | |||
Über allen Gipfeln | |||
Ist Ruh, | |||
In allen Wipfeln | |||
Spürest du | |||
Kaum einen Hauch; | |||
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde. | |||
Warte nur, balde | |||
Ruhest du auch. | |||
O'er all the hilltops | |||
Is quiet now, | |||
In all the treetops | |||
Hearest thou | |||
Hardly a breath; | |||
The birds are asleep in the trees: | |||
Wait, soon like these | |||
Thou too shalt rest. (H. W. Longfellow, translator) | |||
Revision as of 12:09, 20 September 2020
A perfect short poem makes up for many smears
I'm spent a fair amount of time reading Leaves of Grass, and I don't consider it to be easy for mainstream readers. I included in this article two brief examples of Whitman writing at his very best. The short poem 'A Noiseless Patient Spider' is on a par with the greatest short poems in the world; it reminds me of an even shorter gem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a highly prolific German author born half a century before Whitman. Goethe's 'Wanderer's Nightsong II' ("Über allen Gipfeln"), which is unfortunately difficult to render into English without losing much of its haunting beauty. That didn't stop Wadsworth from trying to translate it anyway:
Über allen Gipfeln Ist Ruh, In allen Wipfeln Spürest du Kaum einen Hauch; Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde. Warte nur, balde Ruhest du auch.
O'er all the hilltops Is quiet now, In all the treetops Hearest thou Hardly a breath; The birds are asleep in the trees: Wait, soon like these Thou too shalt rest. (H. W. Longfellow, translator)