ABSTRACT
The four seasons have different connotations in different languages and geographies and translate differently. German seasons are more directly symbolic of man's life than in English. Each rhythm has its own idea, and each idea has its own onotamotopoeia. Hence translations must be done from the original poem, by someone steeped in the feel of its language, never from a prose translation done for those unsteeped. Good poets speak through their own rhythms. A technical problem: two-syllable rhymes are crucial to the aesthetic strategy of Georg Heym and Stefan George. The intention of these two poets is betrayed unless their monosyllable rhymes are mostly translated with strict fidelity to consonants and vowels; the connotation of mellifluous pairing is often more meaningful than the literal meaning. The transplanter's main concern has been to convey in English the lavish suggestiveness of George's rhythms and the onomatopoeia of Heym's.
