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New Year's Day—
28 Terrassen Ufer, Dresden.
I return herewith the printed slips with Dr. Knortz's
translations.1 That of the 'Out of the Cradle
endlessly Rocking' is of really splendid power, & would be perfect but for
some curious failures to understand the English—e.g. 'that low and delicious word'—low is translated
'gemein' (= vulgar) instead of 'leise' (low in sound, tone). 'Absorbing' is rendered
'absorbed in thought'—the word stronger and
sweeter than any' he has read as 'world'! &c. I have translated the said poem, and was just
writing the last two or three lines, when the cannons boomed and bells rang
announcing the New Year last night. I got your postcard, & sent copies to Dr.
K. and Schmidt. The latter has kindly sent me something of his in return, which
unfortunately I can't read, not knowing Danish.2 But it
has such a tantalising resemblance to German that I mean to learn it—enough
for reading purposes. Many thanks for the copy of the Critic, recd yesterday.3 Matt. Arnold himself said that he feared he should see
little or nothing of the real America, & he is right.4 The misery of the poorer classes in England is fast
reaching loc_af.01053_large.jpgthe
intolerable point & friends there say there is certainly a tremendous
catastrophe & overturn impending. Fortunately such a thing is not likely to
prove fruitless, if it does happen, for people know now pretty well what they
want—that is—State guarantee that as long as there is food in a
community, no person willing to work, shall want. That is to say, society to be
organized on the human, not on the wild-beast principle. "The Age of Feudalism" says
Carlyle "perished—having produced the still more indomitable Age of Hunger."
And the Age of Hunger will prove more indomitable than that of 'Competition' too. I
wonder do you know a man called Carpenter (Edward),5 lives in
England, has written a book called 'Towards Democracy' of which he will surely have
sent you a copy?6 He is doing much good work
there—issues pamphlets, lectures, &c. against the Tyranny of
capitalism—Is it not certain that you in America will have all this to go
through some day when you get more densely populated & the squeeze begins? And
wouldn't it be well to put things on a right footing now,
instead of waiting till vested interests, &c. accumulate & force justice
& charity to appear in the guise of avenging angels?
T W Rolleston.
Now our winter weather [cut away]
Will you send a line to say if these reach you
safely?
Correspondent:
Thomas William Hazen Rolleston
(1857–1920) was an Irish poet and journalist. After attending college in
Dublin, he moved to Germany for a period of time. He wrote to Whitman
frequently, beginning in 1880, and later produced with Karl Knortz the first
book-length translation of Whitman's poetry into German. In 1889, the collection
Grashalme: Gedichte [Leaves of
Grass: Poems] was published by Verlags-Magazin in Zurich, Switzerland.
See Walter Grünzweig, Constructing the German Walt Whitman (Iowa
City: University of Iowa Press, 1995). For more information on Rolleston, see
Walter Grünzweig, "Rolleston, Thomas William Hazen (1857–1920)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. On June 19, 1883, Whitman wrote to Karl Knortz acknowledging a copy of
the translation of "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and other poems.
Apparently Whitman forwarded Knortz's translations to Rolleston, who is now, on
January 1, 1884, returning them with comments. Karl Knortz (1841–1915),
the German-American scholar and admirer of Whitman, became Rolleston's
collaborator on the German translation of Whitman's Leaves of
Grass. See Horst Frenz, "Karl Knortz, Interpreter of American
Literature and Culture," American-German Review, 13
(December 1946), 27–30 and Walter Grünzweig, Constructing the German Walt Whitman (Iowa City, IA: University of
Iowa Press, 1995), 20–31. [back]
- 2. This may have been Buster og Masker (Copenhagen, 1882) by the Danish critic
and editor Rudolph Schmidt (1836–1899). One chapter in the book is devoted
to Whitman. See Carl Roos, "Walt Whitman's Letters to a Danish Friend," Orbis Litterarum, 7 (1949), 31–60. [back]
- 3. Probably the November 17,
1883, issue of the Critic, which contains Whitman's "Our
Eminent Visitors (Past present and future)." The article concludes: "O that our
own country—that every land in the world—could annually,
continually, receive the poets, thinkers, scientists, even the official magnates
of other lands, as honored guests." [back]
- 4. The English poet and
critic Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) first came to America on a lecture tour
in October, 1883, and remained until March, 1884. He "returned to England
confirmed by experience in his conception of the average American as a hard
uninteresting type of Philistine." After a second trip to the United States in
the summer of 1886, Arnold commented on American life being "uninteresting, so
without savour and without depth" (Stuart P. Sherman, Matthew
Arnold [Indianapolis, 1917], 46–49). [back]
- 5. Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) was an English
writer and Whitman disciple. Like many other young disillusioned Englishmen, he
deemed Whitman a prophetic spokesman of an ideal state cemented in the bonds of
brotherhood. Carpenter—a socialist philosopher who in his book Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure posited civilization as
a "disease" with a lifespan of approximately one thousand years before human
society cured itself—became an advocate for same-sex love and a
contributing early founder of Britain's Labour Party. On July 12, 1874, he wrote for the first time to Whitman: "Because you
have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually
in my heart . . . . For you have made men to be not ashamed of the noblest
instinct of their nature." For further discussion of Carpenter, see Arnie
Kantrowitz, "Carpenter, Edward [1844–1929]," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 6. First published in 1883,
the book went through several editions during Carpenter's lifetime
(1844–1929). In an introductory note to the 1912 edition, he states that
he first came across William Michael Rossetti's selections from Leaves of Grass while still at Cambridge, in 1868 or
1869, and that he read Rossetti's volume and the complete American editions
continuously for ten years. He acknowledges Whitman's influence in the following
statements: "I find it difficult to imagine what my life would have been without
it. 'Leaves of Grass' 'filtered and filtered' my blood; but I do not think I
ever tried to imitate it or its style.... I did not adopt it because it was an approximation to the form of 'Leaves of Grass.'
Whatever resemblance there may be between the rhythm, style, thoughts,
construction, etc., of the two books, must I think be set down to a deeper
similarity of emotional atmosphere and intension in the two authors—even
though that similarity may have sprung and no doubt largely did spring out of
the personal influence of one upon the other. Anyhow our temperaments,
standpoints, antecedents, etc., are so entirely diverse and opposite that,
except for a few points, I can hardly imagine that there is much real
resemblance to be traced. Whitman's full-blooded, copious, rank, masculine style
must always make him one of the world's great originals..." (xviii). Rolleston
reviewed the second edition of Carpenter's book in the Dublin
University Review, 2 (April 1886), 319–328. After some prefatory
remarks on Whitman and his place in literature "as reputable and assured as that
of any of his contemporaries," he analyzes the principal poem, "Towards
Democracy." He calls Carpenter a "disciple" of Whitman who "is ready to follow
his master's feet in their strangest and most difficult wanderings." [back]