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Sat, 9 Sep 2000 02:27:23 +0200 |
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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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