Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/97

 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE. 85 partial pifture, they show more that is worth knowing about Shakespeare than we often obtain from big packets of letters and voluminous diaries/ There exist already numerous German transla- tions of the sonnets. Some of the translators care more that the language shall be beautiful and individual in style than that it shall convey Shake- speare's meaning. Others could not know what Shakespeare meant, because it is only in the last twenty years that researches into the fafts have been made. Another class of translations is made by those who care more for the poetical difficulties to be overcome than for the beauty of the poetry. The conciseness of the English language, and the peculiar rhetoric of the Renaissance, are heavy obstacles in the path of the German translator. This translation has been made in a rather differ- ent way. In order to secure fidelity to the original, keeping in mind the latest researches, and aiming at the same time at the best poetical expression, the task was divided. First a literal prose translation was made by Dr. Hiibner, Dr. Rudolf Fischer, Professor of English at Innsbruck, and Dr. Brandl. This was sent to Fulda, and with its help he evolved the verse translation that here appears. Many discussions took place between the collabora- tors before the translation was found to be satis- faftory. It is difficult for any one familiar with the sonnets in their original tongue to judge of a translation. The music and rhythm of the Shakesperian sonnet are here well preserved, and the meaning well brought out, but when we find ' death's dateless night ' rendered by c in starren