I am fascinated by this thread and with this third poem there is a dawning of the idea's relevance to translation - Oh, what have I, on so many occasions, done?
And now I'm going to say something I may regret. I don't think this reworked version does as much of a disservice to the original as did the others. It moves me. Had I seen it alone I'd have rated it highly. But why do I think this?
Had the original been in Latin, say, would I have felt...? We've lost South Africa - is that as important as I feel I ought to think it is? I'm off back inside my head to find out. I may have spoken too soon...
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