I like translating poems but am somewhat disappointed at the German literature. Not only does Germany not share the creativity that characterizes English or French literature, in particular novelists comparable to Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, etc, but also lacks the lyrical poetry of Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Hugo (again) etc.
Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Eichendorff, for example, are very fine poets and have their moving love and death motives like any others; but are confined to relatively lame expressions in praise of nature and tend to contain a level of resignation or cynicism not found in such degree elsewhere.
I suspect this is a reflection of the lack of unification of Germany (amazingly not until 1871) and the consequent absorbing of many fine minds in the administration of numerous principalities as well as to the relatively landlocked geographical position of the country (particularly Austria) which tended to exclude world visions. Furthermore, they were probably unhappily aware that the world was passing them by in industrialization and world leadership, particularly illustrated in the defeats suffered in the earlier years of the Napoleonic wars, and sought consolation in introversion.
The German culture seems to glorify only what was available to them in their very fine scenery (much excelling that of Britain and encouraging very fine pastoral topics) and, later, the mores found in the unadventurous biedermeier society.
The Austro-German culture was, however, superb in transforming these works into wonderful lieder art songs unmatched by any other country and we will ever be indebted to Schubert, Schumann, Strauss and, to some extent, Beethoven and Mozart for them.
Elsewhere in this platform, I made a plea for the works of Richard Wagner to be understood as great poetry. He was a superb composer but his drama texts are often overlooked or even disdained. They are, however, also great art works in themselves: hours of poetic text full of dramatic and human themes with each drama occupying a different style.
I am sure we can still find good writing in Germany as elsewhere; but I regret that literature the world over is losing its nationalities and merging into a relative mediocrity where few lights now sparkle in the gloom.
