The problem is similar to that of Horace. If he is the greatest Latin poet, and the Romans thought that he was, how is it translations seem so.... well anaemic? My Latin is just good enough to see why he is good. I wonder which English poets are similarly untranslateable. We know the French think Byron and Poe are the summit of nineteenth century poetry in English and we know that isn't so. Is Keats translateable?
|