Customer Reviews

Heinrich Heine Eman Poet Lib #28 (Everyman Poetry)

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I first read Heine more than 20 years ago in a hard bound edition translated by Louis Untermeyer and with some old-fashioned drawings. I found the poems to be really very memorable - they are usually short and can be terribly sweet and very romantic, but the inevitable venom of cynicism and sarcasm at the end of each are extremely funny and very wise. There are writers which are good only for fusty old university professors - such as Milton and James Joyce - and there are those who are good for everybody including fusty old professors. Heine is of the second variety.

I speak no German and am just a casual poetry reader. But I find the translations in this edition have the same ring as the old version I read ages ago. It therefore tells me, who cannot judge the capability of any of the translators, that somehow Heine is consistently translatable and would require a real bad translator to be mangled.

This particular book (ISBN 0-460-87865-4) has a brief and informative introduction by T. J. Reed, setting out the biographical, cultural, and historical times of the poet. It has a 10-page chronology of his life and times. It has NO index of titles and first lines, nor has it any scholarly footnotes explaining variants and allusions and other stuffs that are useful only for those who pretend not to live in musty libraries. In other words, the book's accessories are designed to provide only just enough information to increase your understanding and enjoyment of the real meat inside.