Germany. A Winter Tale (Bilingual: Deutschland. Ein Wintermaerchen) (German and English Edition)

Fun to have the German and English versions next to each other!

When Heinrich Heine wrote this epic poem describing his return journey to the Fatherland, the political situation in Europe was dominated by the age of Metternich which exposed the old line status quo. Heine protested these politics and was an advocate for change and non-military solutions. His protest led him to a life in post Napoleon France which suited his basic freedom, but left him homesick for his beloved Germany. This rather long poem divided over 27 caputs, describes Heine's travels in returning to Germany in order to visit his Mother and his publisher Campe. He meets ghosts of Kings long gone and has dreams of German fantasies and sees horrors of much dreaded enemies of the Fatherland along with old warriors who fought the great battles of Teutonic lore. His journey is sarcastic and at times tongue in cheek, which during these times suffered the Censor's ax. This seems to be the entire reaction by readers, critics and censors alike. A rather long political and sarcastic look of the current German government of the 1840's, which undoubtedly it was. However, I don't believe I'm reading something into this work that isn't there. What do I speak of? I do believe Heine saw something of the future (whether intentionally or quite by accident) that would take place 95 years hence with these fateful lines:* "Yes Germany's future there thou'lt see,* "Like wondrously rolling phantasmas;* "But shudder not, if out of filth* "Arise any foul miasmas!** She spoke, and she laugh'd a singular laugh,* But I undauntedly hasted* To hold my head over the terrible hole,* And there I eagerly placed it** I'll not betray, for silence I vow'd,* The things that I saw and felt there;* I scarcely dare to utter a word,* Good heavens, of what I smelt there!** With deep disgust I think to this day* Of that smell, which blended together,* In vile and accursed union, a stench* Of old cabbage and Russian leather.I don't know about you, but to me the smell emanates from a union of the Swastika and the Soviet Hammer and Sickle. How prescient to foresee the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939.Does anyone else see this?

... or a reader of German at a native-born level, you won't need a bilingual edition of Deutschland, Ein Wintermärchen, and you're hardly likely to need me to call your attention to Heinrich Heine, who ranks with Goethe as Germany's greatest poet. If you're a music lover, you'll be well acquainted with Heine's lyrical poems by way of the magnificent settings of them by Schubert, Schumann, and others. "Germany, a Winter Tale" alludes in its title to the Schubert song cycle "Winterreise" even though the poems of that cycle were not Heine's. Deutschland, Ein Wintermärchen is an epic-length, 27-canto satire of German politics and society, all in rhymed quatrains, narrating an imaginary tour of German cities by a returning exile, Heine himself, from France. The satire is fierce and witty, though most of its specific targets will be unknown even to the best-educated English reader, and to a mighty throng of younger Germans as well. There is pertinence, nonetheless, to the heinous course that German history took after the 1840s, and enduring pertinence to our perceptions of German culture and identity.This bilingual edition includes the German text as it was published in 1887, long after heine's death and after the suspension of censorship, and on facing pages a translation by Edgar Alfred Bowring published in the same year. It's a clunky-thunky translation, not always faithful to the contents and seldom faithful to the wit of the original. It's only value will be for the good-but-not-perfect reader of German, as a means of confirming with a glance that you've understood a tricky passage."But hey! Wait a sec! What can I do if I don't know any German?"Nothing! The closest approach to Heine's satirical manner in English is perhaps the Don Juan epic of Lord Byron, and most English readers today find that "hard going" enough.

not bad