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'!