Comments on: Der Erlkönig (The Erlking) by Goethe http://movingpoems.com/2009/08/der-erlkonig-the-erlking/ The best poetry videos on the web Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:05:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dave Bonta http://movingpoems.com/2009/08/der-erlkonig-the-erlking/#comment-188 Dave Bonta Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:50:27 +0000 http://movingpoems.com/?p=1030#comment-188 Glad you liked, Dale! There's really a lot of amazing stuff going up on Vimeo these days. That's an interesting point about the title -- something that Mr. Bly's translation completely fails to honor. (I'm actually not sure why I linked to that, except that it was my first exposure to the poem. I really dislike the liberties Bly takes with his source texts.) Glad you liked, Dale! There’s really a lot of amazing stuff going up on Vimeo these days. That’s an interesting point about the title — something that Mr. Bly’s translation completely fails to honor. (I’m actually not sure why I linked to that, except that it was my first exposure to the poem. I really dislike the liberties Bly takes with his source texts.)

]]> By: dale http://movingpoems.com/2009/08/der-erlkonig-the-erlking/#comment-187 dale Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:14:36 +0000 http://movingpoems.com/?p=1030#comment-187 One of my favorites of Goethe's poems. (I have a long, long love-hate relationship with Mr Goethe.) I love the fact that even the name "Erlkönig" is ambiguously natural/supernatural: it literally means "alder king," but that's probably a mistaken translation of a Danish compound noun meaning "elf king." The doubt about whether what's going on here is natural or supernatural is coded into the title of the poem: and I'm quite sure (on zero evidence) that Goethe meant it to be. This is a great rendering. One of my favorites of Goethe’s poems. (I have a long, long love-hate relationship with Mr Goethe.) I love the fact that even the name “Erlkönig” is ambiguously natural/supernatural: it literally means “alder king,” but that’s probably a mistaken translation of a Danish compound noun meaning “elf king.” The doubt about whether what’s going on here is natural or supernatural is coded into the title of the poem: and I’m quite sure (on zero evidence) that Goethe meant it to be.

This is a great rendering.

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