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Part of the book: Horace’s Epistles, Wieland and the Reader

Jane V. Curran

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 38

Bithell Series of Dissertations 19

W. S. Maney & Son Ltd for the Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic Studies

GermanPoetryTranslationopen

Abstract.  Wieland’s approach to the translation of Horace makes its own unique contribution, when placed beside the other versions that were discussed in the first chapter. As regards prosody, with his choice of a loose iambic pentameter, he steers a middle course between the rigidity of the hexameter, whether dactylic or Alexandrine, and the seemingly easier task of prose translation. He alone among contemporary Horace scholars provides prefaces, commentary, and footnotes, all in German. And he arranges for the original and his translation to be printed on the same page, with their respective distinctive typefaces. This emphasizes the movement between the two quite different cultures present in these pages. Wieland is not trying to supersede Horace: he is engaged in an exchange with him. All these points make Wieland’s translation interesting, but it is the interplay of preface, Horatian verse, translation, footnotes and commentary which distinguishes Wieland’s from all other translations of this period or earlier.

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