![]() ![]() You are as fair, pure and fine as a flower. It is evoked through sound and rhythm.Ĭompare these two lines with the prose sentence: This "flower" effect-the sprouting, blooming-neither results from a prosaic report, nor from metaphorical description. As the graceful acceleration in "wie eine Blume" (so like a flower) resembles its sprouting, the second line evokes the triple blooming of a flower: Each accent falls onto another vowel (o-ö-ei) and the effect of this is not only variegation as in the color of flowers but also a retention of tempo. "Hold", "schön" and "fein" do not share any letters except for the final "n" in "schön" and "fein". Heine could have intensified the effect thus: so fair, so pure, so fine, and some translators have actually done this:īut this sounds too blatantly like advertising: Buy flowers-so fair, so pure, so bright!!! Heine, in the original German, has avoided both assonance and alliteration. Time seems to have been suspended in this "so fair and pure and fine". This and the repetition of "and" ( polysyndeton) asks for a ritenuto in declamation. How different the second line now! It has three equally strong accents: "So hold und schön und rein " ("So fáir and púre and fíne"). "You are so like a flower" sounds nice, as long as the "so" is pronounced nonchalantly: Translations of Heine strangely decay much faster than his German. Again "Thou seem’st" sounds far too "biblical". The "st" in "seem’st" corresponds with the "st" in "bist" and the assonance "Th ou/fl ower" resembles "D u/Bl ume". Closer even is "Thou seem’st to be a flower". Unfortunately "thou art" sounds antiquated. ![]() "Du bíst…: wieeine Blúme." "Thou art so like a flower" would correspond well with the German line. The "st" consonants in "bist" ask for a very small retention of the tempo before "wie". The accent on "ei" is quite weak and and in recitation this prompts a slight acceleration towards the main accent on "Blu". And worse: the verse drones along with strong accents on every foot: On second hearing though, we easily sense the kitsch ("lovely", "golden", etc.). Well, this doesn't sound too bad, does it? In fact I have culled these lines from other translations. The flower wilts and the poem could then sound like this: Who is the fair flower in this poem? I feel it must be the poem itself because what could be more fair and pure and fine and simple and natural? So simple and natural, in fact, that we may miss its beauty. ![]()
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