Reading over what I sent out yesterday, I notice an error in the literal
translation I offered. Sorry. In the line "Die das Herz mir täten
zusammenpressen" the plural relative pronoun "Die" (i.e. 'which', whose
antecedents are "die Lieb' " and "das Leid", Love and Sorrow) is the
subject of the verb "täten", whereas I had made "das Herz" the
subject.  The line should be translated "which caused my heart to press
together".
Tim Romano


At 06:26 AM 7/6/02 -0400, you wrote:
>The poem below 'So hast du ganz und gar vergessen' was not part of Die
>Heimkehr but belonged to a different group of lyrics.  The translation's
>first stanza is quite close to the original, the second stanza not as
>close. Pound ratchets up the bitterness. There is one outright
>mistranslation: in line 5 Pound renders "das Leid" (injury, sorrow, grief,
>pain) as "das Lied" (song, ballad, tune, lay); I doubt this was a misprint
>in whatever edition Pound had been using. In line 6, 'zusammenpressen'
>means 'to press together, compress' [as in dichten = condensare]; with
>'unduly' Pound needed a rhyme--it's not quite there in the original. In
>line 9, "größer als" means "greater than" and "groß" means "great": Pound
>gives "better stuff" and "good enough" which alter the tone
>significantly.  Here's a gloss for the second stanza:
>
>So you have entirely forgotten the Love and the Sorrow,
>Which the Heart made me press together.
>I know not, was the Love greater than the Sorrow?
>I know only, they were great both.
>
>Tim Romano
>
>
>
>So hast du ganz und gar vergessen,
>Daß ich so lang dein Herz besessen,
>Dein Herzchen so süß und so falsch und so klein,
>Es kann nirgend was Süßres und Falscheres sein.
>
>So hast du die Lieb' und das Leid vergessen,
>Die das Herz mir täten zusammenpressen.
>Ich weiß nicht, war Liebe größer als Leid?
>Ich weiß nur, sie waren groß alle beid'!