My Second Self When I Am Gone

A monumental work, but completely unpretentious. There are said to be people who on principle do not tolerate poetry on their bookshelves, so be it; but anyone who has only one volume of poetry is to be wished that he has this one. Schlüter has translated 250 poems from the 13th to the beginning of the 20th century, almost all of them gems of English literature (and if they were not, Schlüter made them so). Little canonized stuff from the academic anthologies is included; the selection is fresh, undogmatic, spirited. Schlüter's translation principle is even fresher, more undogmatic, more courageous: he translates the poems' impact on today's readers; poems that sound strange to the British today should do the same for German readers in the translation. Easy to say, but difficult to realize - unless one goes to work with Schlüter's virtuosity and precision. ' - wrote Friedhelm Rathjen when this book was published for the first time, and at that time as an exclusive private print. The new edition is nothing less fine and also supplemented by the original English poems and an epilogue.