From “Briefwechsel über Ossian und die Lieder alter Völker” / “Correspondence about Ossian and the Songs of Ancient Peoples”

Abstract

…a Just like you, I too am charmed by the translation of Ossian for our own people and in our own language; I am no less charmed than were it an original epic. A poet so full of sublimity, innocence, simplicity, capability, and bliss for human life must, if only in a moment of deprivation, not entirely doubt the value of great books that have an impact and touch the heart. This is so even as the poet wishes to live in a meager cabin in Scotland, where such festivities take place. … Michael Denis’s translation, moreover, reveals so much hard work and good taste, in part through the joyful force of the images, but also because of the strength of the German language, that I immediately placed it among the favorite books in my library, and I hoped that Germany might have the fortune of claiming such a bard, awakened for the Scottish by their bard. … You, however, who had previously been so obstinate in doubting the validity and authenticity of the Scottish bard, listen now to me, the defender, rather than obstinately doubting that, despite all the hard work and feeling and force and power in the German translation, our Ossian is surely no longer the true Ossian of Scotland. I do not have enough space to prove that just ...