10-14-2013, 06:46 PM
jringo,
One suggestion I have, before diving in full bore with you, is to use whatever resources you have available to try and retain, with as much exactitude as possible, both meter and rhyme. To this end, there are lots of German-English dictionaries, translation tools, and thesauri available online. This approach of course makes the challenge of translation that much greater, and to achieve the ideal it prescribes is not always possible. BUT, at the end of it all, I think you will be much more pleased with the result, especially when dealing with the work of someone like Goethe, for whom both were so important. There are after all so many synonyms that every word has that are worth exploring, and for me, the process is actually quite a bit of fun. DISCLAIMER: This is just the approach I've used when trying to translate some of Hesse's poetry from German, and as my translations are neither known or authoritative, the approach I prescribe is by no means authoritative.
One suggestion I have, before diving in full bore with you, is to use whatever resources you have available to try and retain, with as much exactitude as possible, both meter and rhyme. To this end, there are lots of German-English dictionaries, translation tools, and thesauri available online. This approach of course makes the challenge of translation that much greater, and to achieve the ideal it prescribes is not always possible. BUT, at the end of it all, I think you will be much more pleased with the result, especially when dealing with the work of someone like Goethe, for whom both were so important. There are after all so many synonyms that every word has that are worth exploring, and for me, the process is actually quite a bit of fun. DISCLAIMER: This is just the approach I've used when trying to translate some of Hesse's poetry from German, and as my translations are neither known or authoritative, the approach I prescribe is by no means authoritative.