ABSTRACT

Szondi reads original and version of Sonnet. 105 as a poetological encounter, an enactment of the translator's poetic occasioned by his engagement with the different poetic informing the English poem, and he bases this reading on the assumption that fidelity cannot be the criterion. Paul Celan translation of Sonnet 107 is a passionate indwelling and meditation, an act of gratitude and homage, confirming that something in this poem has come to life and is being reenacted in his thoughts and feelings. If George's version of Sonnet I is put alongside Celan's, it is evident that both of them keep to the form and metre of the English sonnet. Since George also stays close to the imagery and syntax, his version parallels the English poem line by line. Translating - or translating as Celan does - confirms that William Shakespeare's sonnet has endured, is still a vital structure of words.