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Ehrentraut Helmberg-Lanner:
Jeder trägt das Herz
Jeder trägt das Herz in seinen Händen,
solang er jung - und zeigt der Welt sein Licht.
Die aber liess sich noch von keinem blenden
und klebt ihm eine Maske vors Gesicht.
So war es stets - doch selten merkt es einer -
und trägt sie weiter, stolz und feierlich.
Und wie er wirklich ist, weiss endlich keiner,
und liebt die fremde Maske mehr als sich.
James Ensor (1860-1949)
Masks with Self-Portrait
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Ehrentraut Helmberg-Lanner:
Each one bears the heart
Each one bears his heart exposed and frazzled,
when one is young and shows the world his light.
But this old world refuses to be dazzled
and glues a mask upon his face in spite.
T'was always thus - though most will never feel it -
and carry masks around in pomp and pride.
What'er one is, the mask shall well conceal it,
and one prefers that ... to the soul inside...
The first line - in fact, the first word - betrays prosodiabolicability, you claim? How simply put. All lines except the first start with non-stressed syllables.
A mistake? Not the way I see it. For me, this focuses prime attention on "Jeder" (every one, each one of us).
Why do I think so? Because it makes sense. And because it would have been so easy for the author - not to forget the translator! - to start with the selfsame prosody that rules the rest of the poem.
To wit: The author could have begun with "Ein jeder trägt...", or perhaps, in estranged Rilke fashion, with "Denn jeder trägt...". And, translating the latter, I could have opened with "For each one bears...". Try it, you'll like it!
But while maintaining meaning and meter, these changes, ever so subtly, alter mood and emphasis. Translator's honor! Speaking of which: Would I alter a poet's word? Never!
[That is, "never" if I can avoid it - and still conjure up the spirit of the poem. For, whatever the metered mask might proclaim, it is still the spirit behind it that counts...]
The world of masks is old, dark and deep. One, quite different mask shows up in a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar on this site.
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