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HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

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Heinrich Heine<br />

who was dying in an obscure Paris lodging and<br />

who amidst acutest torments still dreamed romantic<br />

dreams and still delighted mankind with<br />

his incomparable humor.<br />

Fane's translations of fifty-seven poems by<br />

Heine are practically unknown. They were originally<br />

printed in 1854 in a limited edition for his<br />

friends. They were revised after this printing,<br />

partly as a result of Lord Houghton's criticisms,<br />

and would probably have been included in the<br />

biography of Heine planned by Fane but never<br />

completed. Robert Lytton incorporated these revised<br />

and improved versions in his book, Julian<br />

Fane. A Memoir, which appeared in 1871, and<br />

these gems have been quietly reposing in this rare<br />

volume, while poorer translations have been read<br />

and sung by several generations of Englishmen<br />

and Americans. Fane was an excellent German<br />

scholar. Not a single subtlety of Heine's lyricism<br />

escaped him. Furthermore, Fane was a gifted musician<br />

and a composer of music. His translations,<br />

pleasant to the ear, would be a delight for singers.<br />

Finally, Fane never interposed his own personality<br />

in his renderings. He never tried to improve upon<br />

Heine but rather sought to reproduce the original<br />

in idiomatic English. Because of his fine poetic<br />

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