This anthology presents in English verse translation a selection of the best of German poetry, together with discussions of the chief authors and literary periods and brief explications of the individual poems. Taking the reader from the Minnesingers' songs of courtly love to Goethe and Rilke, this volume gives an excellent introduction to eight centuries of German poetry.

This book, written by a team of experts from many countries, provides a comprehensive account of the ways in which translation has brought the major literature of the world into English-speaking culture. Part I discusses theoretical issues and gives an overview of the history of translation into English. Part II, the bulk of the work, arranged by language of origin, offers critical discussions, with bibliographies, of the translation history of specific texts (e.g. the Koran, the Kalevala), authors (e.g. Lucretius, Dostoevsky), genres (e.g. Chinese poetry, twentieth-century Italian prose) and national literatures (e.g. Hungarian, Afrikaans).