Thomas W. H. Rolleston to Walt Whitman, 22 November [1883]
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see notes Feb 8 1889
'83
Nov. 22nd
28 Terrassen Ufer Dresden. My dear friend and master—
I am at last able to send you the lecture, which I have now got published together
with another by a friend of mine here, delivered before the same society. I hope it
may do something, however little, towards making the L. of G. known here. If any American bookseller would like it, which is not, I
suppose, very probable, he must write to the publisher, Tittman. We are selling it for 1 mark, which
= I think a quarter of a dollar, about. I have sent a copy to Dr Bucke. Would you kindly
transmit one to W. O'Connor? whose address I don't know. As to Dr
Knortz, I fear it
would be quite impossible to carry on the work of translation with him at such a
distance. I have appended to my lecture a transl. of the Song of the Answerer, & in getting this 
syr_kc.00050_large.jpgtranslation into final form, I was
astonished at the amount of discussion it gave rise to, between myself & a German friend who
looked over my proofs, showing that it would be quite impossible to carry on the work of
translation with another person across the Atlantic. Besides I greatly doubt if he
would go into it. His admiration for the L. of G. is decidedly qualified by objection to your system of punctuation, use of
participles, &c., which matters seem to bother him more than they ought. His
translations are sympathetic & effective for the poetic passages—but when
he converts a word whose meaning is a little remote or unusual, he evades the difficulty. For instance, here is his rendering
of a passage from the Mystic Trumpeter (st. 5).
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The heart of man and woman;
No other theme than love—immortalizing, all-embracing, self-surrendering
Love.
On the whole I begin to fear that a complete translation is not feasible, at present. But I might possibly reckon on assistance enough to produce good renderings of, say, 8 or ten of the longer poems, which might then be published in a small book—& perhaps pave the way for something more: What would you think of this?
I am sending McKay a copy of the lectures & am asking him that we have a copy of the L. of G. with broad margins, if he has got one. The 1882 reprint is not very satisfactory in this way to me at least, as I like to make notes & references in the book.
Things are going badly in Ireland. The Govt is putting down meetings (of the National party) right &
left, for no reason, & the people are getting very exasperated. I had hoped
great things 
syr_kc.00052_large.jpgfrom
Gladstone's government, but that accursed Egyptian war opened my eyes finally to the
mixture of hypocrisy & injustice which lie at the root of English policy. If you
could only live in Ireland for a while, & see this sensitive, keen sighted, but
helpless nation dragged about in the clumsy lurches of English
Opportunism—seeing it all, knowing its own mind & ideal but condemned to
incapacity for realizing it,—you would wish us God speed. And yet I did not
always see my way to these views myself. Now I must close—I was very glad to hear
of your health & pleasant circumstances, &c. in your last letter. May this one find it all unchanged.