The Breaking Crucible, and Other Translations of German Hymns

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
14K words
Chapters
2

Tags

English Originals Foreign LiteratureReligion Humanistic CareSpiritual PracticeSpiritual ComfortSlow ReadingTranslated AnthologyTraditional AestheticsEclectic ReadingReligious DevotionGerman HymnsMusical Rhythm

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.The Breaking Crucible, and Other Translations of German Hymns by James W. AlexanderAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: BV: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Practical theology, Worship, Release Date: Jul 13, 2013

Editor's review

This is a collection of German hymns translated into English by James W. Alexander. The crucible image in the title signals the spiritual tone of the collection: faith tried and purified in the furnace of affliction. These translations retain the characteristic rhythm and devotional tone of hymns, and are suited to slow reading in a quiet setting. Their value lies in two areas: first, as a sample of nineteenth-century English religious poetry, they show how a translator negotiates between meter, rhyme, and theological expression; second, as devotional reading, many of the poems turn on suffering, hope, and trust, and can provide verbal footholds for personal meditation. Readers should not approach it as a systematic theological treatise but rather as a short collection of poems to be recited again and again. Those interested in the German originals may also read them in parallel and observe shifts in meaning and stylistic choices in translation.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read only two or three hymns at a time, aloud, to feel the rhythm and tone.
  2. Keep a notebook and note recurring images such as trial and hope.
  3. If you know German, find the originals to compare and observe the translator's choices.
  4. Mark the hymns that speak to you for later rereading in devotion or meditation.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2

FAQ

Are these hymns original or translations? They are translations. The book contains English translations of German hymns by James W. Alexander. Read them with attention to the translator's wording, metrical handling, and religious feeling rather than judging them as original English poems.
Can I read this book without a religious background? Yes, but adjust your expectations. The book uses a great deal of Christian vocabulary, and unfamiliar expressions can create distance. Approach it as a historical body of religious poetry, attend to imagery, rhythm, and emotional structure, and look up specialized terms as needed.
Is it suitable for reading straight through? Not really. A hymn collection is better read in small portions and reread. Reading it all at once can blur the similar tones and themes; reading a few hymns at a time and reciting them aloud makes it easier to feel the differences in rhythm and feeling among the poems.

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.