Satanella (1932)/Translator's preface
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
In presenting this translation of Jaroslav Vrchlicky's Epic Poem, SATANELLA, I am fully aware of the dual danger I am facing. On the side of the Czech literary world I am exposing myself to severe, justifiable censure, for having selected this particular poem from the large, wealthy collections of Vrchlicky's works, many of which are better and more typical of the man than Satanella . . . On the part of the English readers, I am facing the danger of creating a false impression as to the quality and nature of Czech poetry, and the works of Vrchlicky, for the reader may be led to believe that SATANELLA is a typical illustration of the poetic-literature of the Czechs and of their foremost poet . . .
To the English reader I offer no apology for my choice, merely an explanation. The Czech poetry of the 19th Century is a veritable treasure trove of much that is worthy of a place among the world's poetical gems . . . The poetry of this period divides itself on the contents side into two general groups, of which the first contains much of purely local, folk-lorish nature. In this group we find much ill-suppressed patriotism and much longing and bemoaning, of past Czech glory . . . In the other group, of which Vrchlicky may be taken as an outstanding representative we find much of cosmopolitan, world-wide nature, a poet's yearning for truth and beauty, a poet's quest for the Ultimate. It is the latter form of reflective, philosophic poetry that really unites the Czech poetry with that of the other world's poets, and which also shows the immense influence of German, French, Italian and English thought and literature upon that of the Czech thinkers . . .
And of all the Czech poets none deserves a place in English translations more justly than Vrchlicky who has done so much to introduce English poets to his Czech contemporaries . . . It was Vrchlicky who first translated Byron's "Hebrew Melodies," Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound," Poe's "Raven" and excerpts from the works of Tennyson, Browning, Whitman, Swinburne and others . . . Perhaps, then, it is a sense of the debt of gratitude that led me, not rationally but emotionally to my choice of Vrchlicky, with whose epic presented herewith, I am making my first hesitant inroad into that vast and, as yet, only slightly trodden domain of Czech poetry.
In concluding this bit of personal reflection let me anticipate my Czech critics' censure, and assure them that I am fully aware that there are many works of Vrchlicky that are more typical of the man, and perhaps even better examples of his genius. Then knowing this why have I chosen Satanella? . . . My choice again was not rational or based on any analytical basis . . . I chose the poem almost subconsciously, being driven to it by the strong emotional appeal it made upon my youthful mind, when I first read Vrchlicky and his collection of Epic poetry . . . And so if I have not chosen the best or most characteristic of Vrchlicky's poems, I hope that the love of the one I did choose, compensated for my ill-choosing by enabling me to carry over into the translation the pathos and the lyric beauty of the original, without distortion, without resorting to forced, artificial modes of expression. How well I have succeeded or how badly I have failed is now left to the judgment of the reader, to whose emotional rather than analytical nature I present this translation.
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