Modern Poetry in Translation

Abstract

In this article, Daalder discusses the issue of reading Continental European literary works in translation. Daalder explains that when he reads these works in English, he reads them like an Englishman - the more so because his whole sense of history and culture is by now almost totally English - despite the fact that he is from the Netherlands originally. When it comes to poetry, Daalder tends to judge from an English framework of reference; but at the same time he realizes, when he turns to continental poets, that this attitude will not do.