Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/152

 146 Reviews and Notes Kelly's religious fervor seems to have outweighed his power of poetic expression. A far higher level is reached by Miss Catherine Winkworth, whose translations appeared from 1855 to 1869. Her work Mr. Hewitt says "is surely the foremost in rank and popularity. " To my mind hers is the best rendering of Nun ruhen die W alder; she has fully preserved the peculiarly expressive meter of the original: Now all the woods are sleeping And night and stillness creeping O'er city, man and beast. Mr. Hewitt accords the palm to John Guthrie, D. D. "whose ver- sion on the whole would doubtless be considered the best literary production." (Guthrie's Hymns, original and translated were published in 1869.) The meter, however, is of entirely different import: compare Gerhardt's slow moving, almost drowsy Nun ruhen alle Walder, Vieh, Menschen, Stadt und Felder, Es schlaft die ganze Welt, with Guthrie's rendering: The woods are hushed; o'er town and plain, O'er man and beast soft slumbers reign: The world has gone to rest. Certainly the eighteenth century heroic couplet rendered Homer's or even Vergil's hexameters as aptly as this does Gerhardt's slow rhythm. The plural slumbers, as unusual as inapt and inexpres- sive, reveals another weakness of Mr. Guthrie: its sole purpose is to make possible the rhyme plain reign. Thus the glowing pole is resuscitated to get a rhyme with soul (in Befiehl du deine Wege) and for the sake of a rhyme with repose we descend to hose: Der Leib eilt mm zur Ruhe, Legt ab das Kleid und Schuhe, Now hastes the body to repose, Throws off its garments, shoes and hose. Kleid and Schuhe readily admit of a symbolic use; with hose, how- ever, symbolism assumes a comic aspect. Among the translators of highest merit the name of J. W. Alexander stands out ; his ren- dering of Haupt wll Blut und Wunden, first published in 1830, approaches perfection and in part achieves it. It is worth while to compare his simple and effective rendering of the last line of the first stanza ("I joy to call Thee mine" for Gegrilsset seist du mir) with the other translations: Accept a kiss from me (J. Gambold 1752; quite im- possible, but truly Moravian). Yet here I welcome (worship) Thee (Miss Winkworth). All hail I bid to Thee (J. Kelly). To Thee I lift my praise (S. M. Jackson 1916.) I greet and worship Thee(Margarete Muensterberg 1916).