TNTL 115

Martin Hietbrink

In de schaduw van Stefan George. De Baudelaire-vertalingen van Verwey

Abstract -- Until their friendship broke down during the Great War, Albert Verwey had been a close friend of the German poet and translator Stefan George. In 1901 George had published an extensive translation of Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal. It was not until 1914, and then in 1918 that Verwey himself translated some poems of Baudelaire. Curiously, he was rather reluctant to publish his translations. Moreover, whereas he extensively motivated his integral translation of Dante's Divina Commedia, he never mentioned, nor motivated his Baudelaire translations. In this article it is argued that Verwey must have realized that his poetics of translation was in some respects incompatible with the poetics he adhered to for his original work. Stefan George really cast a shadow on Verwey's translations because George had managed to escape this conflict.

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