Dirk Johnson writes that German is less like Greek than English is like
German.

Did I get that right?

But what about all those Germans who insist that their language is the
poetic successor to Greek?

This view informs much of Martin Heidegger's project, ultimately serving as
a sufficient defense, in the eyes of his admirers, for a mystagogical
approach to existence.

Having a smattering of both German and Greek I disagree with the
post-Schliermacher viewpoint.

Figure that the Germans have never become comfortable with the magpie habits
of English.

English the great bawd of tongues, using any sounds and sense she can find
elsewhere, among Wends and Alemands as much as Portugeesers and Frenchies.

English rejoices in its impurities, unlike German and Greek. A farrago of
borrowed terms and shameless about debauching meanings in the service of
poetic craft.

As Pound did, I think, when he ransacked the classics. The earliest Cantos
are versions of versions of versions, yet unlike a bad Xerox copy they have
startlingly more life than their originals.

Stephen van Beek