ically treated_! Such
is my conviction; and if even a sort of poetic prose should be gradually
introduced, it would only show that the distinction between prose and
poetry had been completely lost sight of."--_Goethe to Schiller_, 1797.

Tycho Mommsen, in his excellent essay, _Die Kunst des Deutschen
Uebersetzers aus neueren Sprachen_, goes so far as to say: "The metrical
or rhymed modelling of a poetical work is so essentially the germ of its
being, that, rather than by giving it up, we might hope to construct a
similar work of art before the eyes of our countrymen, by giving up or
changing the substance. The immeasurable result which has followed works
wherein the form has been retained--such as the Homer of Voss, and the
Shakespeare of Tieck and Schlegel--is an incontrovertible evidence of
the vitality of the endeavor."

[C] "Goethe's poems exercise a great sway over me, not only by their
meaning, but also by their rhythm. It is a language which stimulates me
to composition."--_Beethoven_.

The various theories of translation from the Greek and Latin poets have
been admirably stated by Dryden in his Preface to the "Translations from
Ovid's Epistles," and I do not wish to continue the endless
discussion,--especially as our literature needs examples, not opinions.
A recent expression, however, carries with it so much authority, that I
feel bound to present some considerations which the accomplished scholar
seems to have overlooked. Mr. Lewes[D] justly says: "The effect of
poetry is a compound of music and suggestion; this music and this
suggestion are intermingled in words, which to alter is to alter the
effect. For words in poetry are not, as in prose, simple representatives
of objects and ideas: they are parts of an organic whole,--they are
tones in the harmony." He thereupon illustrates the effect of
translation by changing certain well-known English stanzas into others,
equivalent in meaning, but lacking their felicity of words, their grace
and melody. I cannot accept this illustration as valid, because Mr.
Lewes purposely omits the very quality which an honest translator should
exhaust his skill in endeavoring to reproduce. He turns away from the
_one best_ word or phrase in the English lines he quotes, whereas the
translator seeks precisely that one best word or phrase (having _all_
the resources of his language at command), to represent what is said in
_another_ language. More than this, his task is not simply