Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces;: or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel.Jean Paul
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Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces;: or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel.
Jean Paul
German fiction -- Translations into English
But reviewing was another matter, and couldn't be done so well. At the
same time, I shall here faithfully transcribe for the benefit of the
unlearned (the learned have read the review long ago), so much as he
actually did manage to get done after his dinner. He wrote down the
title of Steffen's Latin translation of "Emilia Galotti," and proceeded
as follows--
"This translation meets a want which we have long experienced. It is,
indeed, a striking phenomenon, that so few of the German classics have
as yet been translated into Latin for the use of scholars, who, for
their part, have supplied us with German versions of nearly all the
Greek and Roman classic authors. The German nation can point to
literary productions of its own which are quite worthy of perusal by
scholars and by linguists, who, although they can translate them, do
not understand them, because they are not written in Latin.
Lichtenberg's 'Pocket Calendar' has appeared simultaneously in a German
edition--for the English, who are studying German--and in a French for
our own _haute noblesse_. But why should not German original works, and
even the very 'Calendar' itself, be made known to linguists and to
scholars by means of a good and faithful Latin translation? There can
be no doubt that they would be the very first to be struck by the great
resemblance which may be traced between the odes of Ramler and those of
Horace, if the former were but translated. The reviewer must confess
that it has always been matter of surprise, as well as regret, to him
that but two correct editions of Klopstock's 'Messiah' have as yet
appeared, the original edition and his own--and that there is no Latin
edition of it for scholars--(Lessing having scarcely translated the
'Invocation' in his miscellaneous writings)--nor one in the curial
style for lawyers, nor a plain prose one for the commercial world, nor
one in Jew-German for the Jewish community."
When he had got thus far, he was compelled to stop, because a housemaid
_wouldn't_ stop, but went on reiterating what her mistress had gone on
re-iterating, namely, how her night-cap was to be done up; twenty times
did she sketch the ground-plan and elevation of the said cap, and laid
weight on the necessity for speedy execution. Lenette answered her
tautologies with equivalent ones, paying her back to the full in her
own coin. Scarce was the housemaid out at the door, when the reviewer
said--
"I haven't written a word while that windmill was clacking. Lenette,
tell me, is it really a positive impossibility for a woman to say,
'It's four o'clock,' instead of 'The four quarters to four have gone?'
Can no woman say, 'The head-clout will be ready to-morrow,' and then an
end of the matter? Can no woman say, 'I want a dollar for it,' and
there an end of the story? Nor, 'Run in again to-morrow!' and no more
about it? Can _you_ not do it, for instance?"
Lenette answered very coldly, "Oh! of course you think everybody thinks
just as you think yourself!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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