This wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind when I asked my wife for a bilingual anthology of German poetry for Christmas. I had imagined something more modern and dashing, dotted with obscure works of genius. Kaufmann turns out to be an idiosyncratic editor-translator, sometimes swashbuckling and never neutral in his short introductions to each poet. His selection runs from 17th-century Silesius through to about the mid-20th, stopping short of Celan. The translation, which might be expected to be workaday in a parallel text edition, is actually quite characterful and often inspired, not shying away from englishing the rhyme and metre while remaining quite faithful to the feel of the original.

The diversity of Goethe's work was the first revelation for me, and I loved his rowdy Venetian Epigrams. There is a lot by Schiller and only three by Hölderlin, which I found odd. I liked the Heine very much. The selection of Rilke is broad and deep. I was very impressed by the expressionists Trakl and Benn, both of whom I will read more of. I was surprised at the omission of Georg Heym, who I was reading separately at the same time.

The editor is an immense fan of Nietzsche, referencing him in his introductions whenever appropriate and often when not, and including a baker's dozen of FN's frankly second-rate poems, as well as verses dedicated to him by George and Morgenstern. Other than the Nietzsche fetish, this is a really good introduction to German poetry and overview of its development. ( )