The Trumpeter of Sakingen : a Song from the Upper
Rhine. By Josepbh Victor von Scheffel. Translated from the German by Mrs. Francis 13t iinnow. (Chapman and Hall.)—The critic has little to say when he finds among the prolegomena to a book, "Preface to the Fiftieth Edition." Fifty editions in twenty-five years is an almost unparallolled succesl, which is hardly accounted for even by all the brightness and vigour, the graphic descriptions, the kindliness of feel- ing, and the humour that we see in the volume before us. Doubtless the English version does it scant justice, not, we should say, that it fails from the fault of the translates-, but because—we speak, it mast be understood, in ignorance of the original—the form of the poem is such that it cannot undergo the necessary manipulation of translation with- out suffering the greatest loss. In fact, it is impossible to call the lumbering " Hiawatha" verse into which the Trumpeter of Siikkingen has been turned poetry at all. One can recognise, indeed, the disjecta membra, but the effect is not pleasant. We will give a specimen of one of the prettiest passages:
Have no fear, I know what love is.
I myself feel something tightening Round my heart, when I the Schwarzwald's Mountains greet, and jump rejoicing O'er Schaffhausen 's precipices, Force my way with courage, rushing Through the straits of Laufenburg.
For I know that soon my lovely Schwarzwald child, the youthful Wiese, Comes to meet me, bashful, timid ; And she prattles, in the rough speech Of the Almains, of the Feldberg,
Of the ghosts beheld at midnight,
Of sweet mountain flowers, and huge Caps and thirsty throats at Scbopf helm. Yes, I love her, I have never
Gazed enough at her blue eyes yet.
Yes, I love her, I have never Kissed enough her rosy cheeks yet."
Ten thousand lines of which these are no unfavourable sample are somewhat wearying. However, " A Song of the Rhine" has unques- tionable attractions for German hearts, and the story, wherein love breaks down social barriers, must also have its special charm, in a land where these barriers are so rigid and precise.
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