Satoshi Akima wrote:

>In my mind Das Lied is Mahler's masterpiece, and I like the poems he sets.
>I am concerned why he picks on these poems when there are large numbers of
>German language Lieder set to texts by less than first rate German poets?

A lot of Schuberts Lieder for example are composed on first-rate poems,
some of second- and third-rate poems.  The reason? Well, why should a
musical giant have a stable literary taste?

>Although I must admit to knowing more about German literature than that
>of any other language, I cannot but fear a certain cultural imperialism
>('Auslaenderfeinlichkeit') to be at work here.  It is an irony when Robert
>Peters condemns Wagner as guilty of just this sort thing.

I have absolutely no idea to what you are referring here.  Wagner acted
hostile against Jews, that's quite known.  But what do you mean with
cultural imperialism.  I really do not understand.

>Although I do not read Chinese I do know that Li-Po is regarded as one the
>literary masters of the far East.  He is like a Chinese Hafiz - a poet much
>admired by Goethe.

Definitely true.  The poems written by Goethe in the fashion of Hafiz are
masterpieces (by the way:  Goethe couldn't read one word in Arabic, he knew
Hafiz only through second-rate translation), the translations of Li-Po, to
my taste, are not.  They are utterly unpoetic and written in dry language.

I do not admire Mahler's Lied as much as you do but it certainly is fine
music - despite the fact that Bethge, the guy who translated Li-Po, is
a second-rate poet (and not to be found in even the most encyclopedic
anthologies of German poetry).

Robert Peters
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