Leaves of Grass

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.5

Word count: 152K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Grashalmen by Walt WhitmanAuthor: Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892,Language: Dutch, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 6, 2004

Editor's review

This is the Dutch translation of Whitman's Leaves of Grass, a free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg. Whitman broke with traditional meter in free verse, singing of the body, labor, democracy, and nature in plain, expansive language, and raising ordinary people's daily lives to the subject of poetry. This translation is well suited as a parallel-reading sample: readers familiar with the English original can observe how the translator handles the rhythm and repetition of long lines, while learners of Dutch can build a feel for the language through the short lines and high-frequency words of poetry. The electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable for fragmentary reading on a commute or before bed. Note that the translation is in Dutch and the electronic edition has no line-by-line notes, so first-time readers may find some cultural background unfamiliar. Overall, this is a poetry collection worth returning to again and again, best entered through slow reading and reading aloud.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate learners of Dutch who want to build a feel for the language through poetry
Poetry lovers familiar with Whitman's English original who want to compare translations
General readers interested in free verse and American literature who are willing to read slowly

Not a good fit for

Readers with no Dutch at all who only want a Chinese or English translation
Beginners who need detailed notes and scholarly introductions to understand the text
Readers who prefer tightly plotted narrative works and have limited patience for poetry

Reading tips

Start by picking a short poem and reading it aloud to feel the breathing rhythm of free verse, then go back and look up new words.
Read it alongside the English original and mark how the translator handles long lines and repeated structures.
Three to five poems a day is enough; no need to read straight through—jot down lines that move you as you go.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book the English original?

No. This is the Dutch translation of Whitman's Leaves of Grass, in Dutch, released as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. Readers who want the English original will need to find another edition.

Can I understand it without notes?

The language of poetry is relatively condensed; short poems can be understood in outline with a dictionary. But some cultural background and the structure of long poems require extra materials—reading alongside the English original or a guide is recommended.

Is it suitable for reading straight through?

Not really. The collection has many poems in a similar style, and reading it straight through can be tiring. A better approach is to read by theme or dip in at random, rereading a few poems again and again.

Comments

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About the author

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 Author

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet whose biographical details are limited in publicly available sources, yet whose work has had a profound influence. His representative work Leaves of Grass broke with traditional meter through free verse, celebrating the individual, democracy, and nature in an expansive, rhythmic language, and is regarded as an important marker of the modern transformation of American poetry. Another collection, Drum-Taps, along with The Wound Dresser and The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman, draws largely on war and nursing experience, with a plain and deeply moving tone that shows concern for ordinary people. Complete Prose Works and Poems by Walt Whitman also collect his prose and verse. His writings have been translated into many languages, such as Grashalmen and Poèmes de Walt Whitman, and have circulated widely.