Penguin Book of German Verse
Leonard Forster, Editor
Penguin Books
1988 ISBN 014058546X

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I first read and enjoyed the Penguin Book of German Verse back in 1973. This volume of German poetry was first published in 1957, and has been in print continuously ever since.

This anthology's selection of German verse is arranged chronologically and spans eleven centuries - from the unknown author of the "Hildebrandslied" (c. 800) and Walther von der Vogelweide to Bertold Brecht and Friedrich Georg Juenger. Of course, the German greats - Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Nietzsche, Rilke, etc. - are included, but many lesser-known poets and works are also featured. Each poet or poem receives a short bio and/or some background information. Leonard Forster's introduction/survey is itself worth the price of admission. An additional helpful feature is an "Index of Titles and First Lines."

Each work is accompanied by a literal, non-poetic English translation for understanding. An example of the book's approach can be seen here in a brief excerpt from a poem by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

"Die Beiden"
Sie trug den Becher in der Hand,
-Ihr Kinn und Mund glich seinem Rand-,
So leicht und sicher war ihr Gang,
Kein Tropfen aus dem Becher sprang.

"The Two"
She carried the cup in her hand - her chin and mouth were
like its rim - her gait was so light and assured, not a drop
spilled out of the cup.

Wisely, there is no attempt to preserve the original rhyme in the translation. The reader gets the direct meaning and can thus enjoy the German original more fully.

My only minor complaint concerns the early verse prior to the sixteenth century. These medieval works are intentionally left in their original old German, which is a good idea, but it would have been nice also to have a modern German text for such early works. There is a brief pronunciation guide for the medieval German and dialects, but it still difficult for a modern reader - especially language learners who are having enough problems learning modern German - to read these texts. Nevertheless, German-learners will enjoy this extensive anthology and its many outstanding selections of German poetic literature.

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