ABSTRACT
I must, at the very start, declare my interest: of the thirty-five translators who have contributed to this volume, 1 I am one; it does, indeed, contain three poems that I have translated. On the other hand, while this represents something to be quietly proud of, it does not entail any financial interest in the volume's success worth mentioning. And it might be argued that having worked on translations of this peculiarly difficult poetry and having participated in the laborious and very conscientious editorial process that preceded the birth of this volume gives one a certain authority to talk about the problems that arose in its formation and to offer an opinion on how they were tackled and, in many instances, overcome. And I hope that readers of this review will soon enough notice that, in spite of my marginal involvement, I am pretty detached in looking at it. After all, with the exception of three poems, the remaining five hundred or so, as well as the introduction and the critical apparatus, are entirely new to me.
