The well-known Canadian pioneer novelist Frederick Philip Grove had a prolific career as the translator Felix Paul Greve before he disappeared from the German scene with a staged suicide and started a new life in Kentucky and Canada where he remained until his death in 1948.[1] Greve's final major translation project in 1909 was a four volume edition of Swift's prose works, his earliest attempt had been directed at Dante's Vita Nuova in 1898 when he was nineteen years old.

Grove always claimed to be of Anglo-Swedish descent, partly due to anti-German sentiments during World War I, partly because he had reason to conceal a fairly shady past. He explained his proficiency in several languages with a cosmopolitan upbringing, and excused the strange fact that he was not fluent in his alleged mother-tongue with the same argument. He consistently added twenty years to his actual arrival in Canada, and somewhat more haphazardly between six and eight years to his age, but adhered to his birthday on February, 14th throughout.[2]

The spectacular discovery who Grove had been was not made until 1971 when D. O. Spettigue linked him Gide's major German translator who often signed his prefaces with the initials FPG -- a habit Grove also practiced. Gide, though unnamed, looms large in Grove's second and less fictionalized autobiographical account In Search of Myself (1947). By an extraordinary coincidence it was confirmed from an unexpected direction in the mid-eighties that Greve had not perished in 1909, but started a new life in North America instead: his "wife" of ten years had followed him there from berlin within a year.[3] After he abandoned her in Kentucky, she went to New York, married a black sheep of the illustrious Freytag-Loringhoven family, and became quite famous there in her own right for her extravagant art and life-style as the titled, but penniless Baroness Elsa. Her papers in the University of Maryland throw a revealing light on Greve's life up to their separation and beyond.[4] Both have squared retrospective accounts of their troubled liaison: she artfully combined some of Greve's neo-romantic poetry in setting him a negative monument in her powerful, expressionist poems,[5] Grove painted a very unflattering picture of her as Clara Vogel in his first Canadian novel Settlers of the Marsh (1925). Apart from allusions like this, the best literary proof that Grove was Greve remains the conspicuous fact that one of six German poems Grove jotted down possibly in the late twenties had been published by Greve twenty years earlier.[6]

Grove's papers came into the possession of the University of Manitoba Archives in the early sixties. Spettigue's research files documenting his discovery were acquired in 1986, and in 1992, the remnants of his library were donated by Grove's son Leonard. These roughly 500 titles were made accessible within the following year, and many of the texts Grove had translated in his early years are represented, including some Dante and a complete twelve volume edition of Swift's prose works. Only a few of the texts pointing back to Greve's translation endeavours were annotated by their owner, and those betraying Grove's re-readings and reactions in his Canadian years are indicative of a revealing, longstanding attachment.

Desmond Pacey, in the introduction to his masterly edition of Grove's letters comments on the author's impressive literary horizon as follows (Letters, p.xxi):

"As a correspondent, Grove was at his most attractive in his letters to ...literary friends...and at his most unattractive in his letters to publishers. He writes to them of books and writers knowledgeably, modestly, wittily, and pungently. Any lingering notion of Grove as an untutored peasant will quickly be dispelled by these... letters, which prove beyond any doubt that Grove was a highly educated man, steeped in the traditions of classical and European literature. He can write knowledgeably on Sappho, Sophocles, Simonides, Homer and Horace, Dante, Milton and Shakespeare, Swift, Goethe, and the English Romantics, and of most of the leading nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers of Germany, France, Italy, England, and America."

            And in relation to Grove's widespread interest in the arts and sciences, he states: "Grove was by far the most erudite Canadian novelist yet to appear."

   While Dante and Swift are the focus of the present discussion, it can be emphasized that Pacey's judgement holds true for Greve as well. He had studied classical philology and archaeology in Bonn and Munich, he had written poetry, drama, and novels, and translated an incredible amount of World literature by age thirty. But already in his early twenties, he liked to dazzle his friends with the fireworks of an immense knowledge. He also used a quite different and frequently impertinent tone with his publishers even then.[7]

   Many of the authors in Pacey's list are represented in Grove's library. While Dante's Vita Nuova is not amongst these books, the Divina Commedia is and was read, annotated, and reflected upon in Grove's correspondence as well. On two occasions in early 1927, he quotes the famous line from the Inferno, "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate", once in a context of finding relief from his back pains.[8]

It is a time of intense preoccupation with his past: the first Prairie novel Settlers of the Marsh has come out in October, 1925, and the first autobiographical book A Search for America is in preparation for October, 1927. "Dante stands very high for me", he states, although he places him beneath his favourite trio of luminaries, namely Homer, Shakespeare and Goethe (Letters, p. 56). In October, 1928, he uses a line from the Paradiso (III, 85) as an opening in a letter to his wife: "In la sua volontade è nostra pace", and continues: "(Italian -- Dante) = In His will is our peace -- which means a great deal. I often quote it to prove the impossibility of translation. It's just a sentence in English; in Italian, it is a world" (Letters, p. 165). By then, the Groves have lost their only child Phyllis May a little over a year ago,[9] and Grove has been working like a maniac ever since. As letters to his wife attest, he is also flying high on the success and acclaim of his coast-to-coast lecture tour, as a side-effect of which his only known Canadian translation, Gustav Amann's Sun Yatsens Vermächtnis describing the 1912 Chinese revolution, is very quietly in the making.[10]

Though relatively fleeting, these comments or references regarding Dante suggest that Grove maintained some sentimental ties with the author of his earliest translation efforts. Little is known about the circumstances surrounding Greve's first known attempt at a German adaptation.[11] In late 1901, Greve wrote to Karl Wolfskehl:

"Übrigens fand ich dieser Tage unter meinen Papieren eine im Jahre 1898 verfasste Übersetzung der Vita Nuova Dantes, aus der ich Ihnen gelegentlich etwas mitteilen möchte, da ich sie nicht für ganz verfehlt halte. Der Wilde schreitet rüstig fort..."[12]

In 1898, Greve was a student at Bonn University, and according to an important biographical account he submitted for Brümmer's literary lexicon in 1907 -- it reads essentially like a blueprint to Grove's self-representations -- he did not start translating "by mere accident" until his Munich days three or four years later.[13] His initial approach to the prestigious publishing house Die Insel occurred in August, 1902, with explicit reference to "[his] friend Karl Wolfskehl" who had apparently suggested that Greve try this avant-garde establishment. The Insel was to become, with the publishing house Bruns in Minden, the major agency for Greve's numerous translations.

Wolfskehl, a close collaborator of the influential poet Stefan George, is still remembered as the "Zeus of Schwabing", Schwabing being Munich's Greenwich Village. His hospitable household was the uncontested centre of artistic and literary circles, including, for instance, artists like Kandinsky at the dawn of international fame.[14] No matter how hard Greve tried to ingratiate himself with this central authority figure shortly after he established residence in Munich in the Fall of 1901, he was viewed with not unfounded suspicion. He was at the time so engrossed with Oscar Wilde that he tried to BE like him.[15] Already by early February, 1902, Wolfskehl deemed it necessary to warn his close ally Gundolf of Greve's escapades which he considered to have reached such alarming degrees that he questioned his sanity:

"Es scheint, daß unseres gemeinsamen Bekannten FPGs Münchhausiaden sehr bedenkliche Grade erreichen und daß es erlaubt sein muß Freunden zu sagen wie wenig weit man irgendwelche Pfade des Zutrauens zu ihm wandeln darf. Hier scheint er vieles verwirrt zu haben und es haben die Besten nicht in Frieden leben können vor ihm. Ob er krank ist?"[16]

And more than thirty years later, he calls him aptly and originally, with reference to Greve's love for aliases and pseudonyms, "jenen Pseudologen der Frühzeit" in the context of Greve's roman-à-clef Fanny Essler of 1905.[17] Strangely enough, Greve himself drew attention to his megalomanic tendencies in his autobiographical submission to Brümmer. He even seemed to consider them an asset, although his dandy-like pretenses had led to a grievous downfall in guise of a year-long prison term for fraud in 1903/4. Forty years later, Grove again admits explicitly to being megalomanic at times.[18]

Greve's remark to Wolfskehl about Dante seems to imply that he had translated the entire complex of the Vita Nuova, whereas no more than six sonnets in tidy manuscript form have been found to date.[19] It is an early, autobiographical and confessional account of Dante's unattainable love and admiration for Beatrice until and after her death in 1290. Along with Virgil as Reason, she later guides the protagonist allegorical Grace in the Divina Commedia on his voyage through the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Written in the courtly tradition of the Troubadours and initiating what is known as the "dolce stil nuovo", the Vita is remarkable and innovative in combining verse and narrative in an intricate structure. Twenty-four sonnets, one ballad, and five canzones are interspersed with forty-one prose texts which usually describe the events having inspired the poems, and analyse and gloss them at the same time.

Greve's choice represents one fourth of the sonnets in the original complex, and they correspond to the numbers 41, 3, 9, 21, 38 and 35. While Dante invariably combines the quatrains and the tercets in a dual-block structure, Greve uses in five out of six cases the later, typically Petrarchan sonnet-form. He also consistently applies the "Kleinschreibung", a characteristic affectation of the "George-Mache".[20] Greve's sonnets will be shown here next to their Italian originals for convenient comparison.[21]

The final sonnet which opens Greve's mini-cycle shows the lover's suffering soul on its ascent to heaven where the luminous mistress enlightens him with words he cannot understand, yet intuitively grasps. Beatrice and the ladies to whom the poet describes his state of mind remain unnamed in the translation:

---

XLI.                                                                                        I.

Oltre la spera che più larga gira                                       Durch alle sphären, die im raume kreisen,

passa 'l sopiro ch'esce del mio core:                                Bebt aus dem herzen meiner seufzer schar:

intelligenza nova, che l"Amore                                         Ein neuer geist, den liebesschmerz gebar,

piangendo mette in lui, pur su la tira.                               Führt sie empor auf nie beschrittnen gleisen.

Quand' elli è giunto là dove disira,

Vede una donna, che riceve onore.                                 Und nahen sie dem ziel, das sie ersehnen,

e luce sì, che per lo suo splendore                                   Sehn sie die Herrin so von glanz umlichtet,

lo peregrino spirito la mira.                                                Dass alle schweigend stehen, wie gerichtet,

                                                                                                Der seele pilger, und sie göttin wähnen.

Vedela tal, che quando 'l mi ridice,                                 

io no lo intendo, sì parla sottile                                         So schaun sie und meldens mir zurücke,

al cor dolente, che lo fa parlare.                                       Und reden mir in nie vernommnen lauten

So io che parla di quella gentile,                                       Zum vaterherzen, das sie nicht verstehet.

però che spesso ricorda Beatrice,

sì ch'io lo 'ntendo ben, donne mie care.                          Und dennoch wecken sie zu stillem glücke

                                                                                               Erinnrung mir der Herrin so, der Trauten,

(Vita Nuova XLI, pp. 85-86)                                             Dass ihrer worte sinn mir nicht entgehet.

---

The third sonnet records a dream in which Amor holds the poet's heart in his hands, and orders the beloved lady (Beatrice) to devour it:

III                                                                                           II.

A ciascun' alma presa e gentil core                                  Ihr seelen, die ihr liebt, ihr zarten geister.

nel cui cospetto ven lo dir presente,                                Wenn ihr dies lied mit mildem aug erblicket

In ciò che mi rescrivan suo parvente,                              Und eure deutung des gesichts mir schicket -

salute in lo segnor, cioè Amore.                                       Gruss euch im namen des der euer meister.

Già eran quasi che atterzate l'ore

del tempo che onne stella n'è lucente,                           Nacht wars, vom turme schlug die dritte stunde,

quando m'apparve Amor subitamente,                          Und alle sterne strahlten leuchtend helle,

(cui essenza inmembrar mi dà orrore).                            Da trat der liebe gott auf meine schwelle -

                                                                                              Noch da ichs denke, schmerzt die schreckenswunde:

Allegro mi sembrava Amor tenendo

meo core in mano, e ne le braccia avea                          Denn strahlend stand er da, und in den händen

madonna involta in un drappo dormendo.                    Hielt er mein herz, und ihm im arme schwebend

Poi la svegliava, e d'esto core ardendo                          Schlief meine Herrin, die ein mantel deckte.

lei paventosa umilmente pascea.                                    

Appresso gir lo ne vedea piangendo.                             Da hiess er sie, die er vom schlafe weckte,

                                                                                               Das herz verzehren, und sie that es bebend...

(Vita Nuova  III, pp. 6-7)                                                   Dann schwand er weinend hinter starren wänden.

---

In sonnet 9, Amor in disshevelled dress returns the heart and demands that the poet devote his services to a new screen lady. Here, Greve exceptionally uses the English sonnet form of three quatrains and one couplet

IX.                                                                                          III.

Cavalcando l'altrier per un cammino,                             Da einen pfad - es war vor kurzer frist - 

pensoso de l'andar che mi sgradia,                                Den ich nicht liebte, sinnend ich geritten,

trovai Amore in mezzo de la via                                      Sah plötzlich Amor ich auf weges mitten,             

in abito leggier di peregrino.                                            So wie ein wandrer wohl gekleidet ist.

Ne la sembianza mi parea meschino,

come avesse perduto segnoria;                                         Es schien ein schatten über ihm zu wehen,

e sospirando pensoso venia,                                            Wie eines, der die herrschaft eingebüsst

per non veder la gente, a capo chino.                              Und seufzend nun die niedren pfade grüsst -

                                                                                                Das haupt gebeugt, um niemanden zu sehen.

Quando mi vide, mi chiamò per nome,

e disse: "Io vegno di lontana parte,                                 Da er mir nahte, rief er meinen namen

ov'era lo tuo cor per mio volere;                                       Und sprach: ich komme aus dem land gezogen,

e recolo a servir novo piacere."                                         Wo noch dein herz verweilt auf mein geheiss,

Allora presi di lui sì gran parte,                                          Dem neue lust ich heut zu bieten weiss...

ch'elli disparve, e non m'accorsi come.                           

                                                                                               Schon hatt' ich so sein wesen eingesogen,

(Vita Nuova IX, pp. 15)                                                     Dass traum und wandrer unbemerkt entkamen.

---

Sonnet 21 is a praise of Beatrice's heavenly virtues and her irrestibable effect on all who see her:

XXI.                                                                                       IV.

Ne li occhi porta la mia donna Amore,                           In ihrem blick birgt Sie der liebe leben,

per che si fa gentil ciò ch'ella mira;                                 Was sie betrachtet, strahlt in neuem lichte,

ov'ell passa, ogn'om ver lei si gira,                                  Die ihr begegnen, wenden die gesichte

e cui saluta fa tremar lo core,                                            Und wen sie grüsst, dem muss sein herz erbeben.

sì che, bassando il viso, tutto smore,

e d'ogni suo difetto allor sospira:                                     Und jeder senkt das haupt, das todesbleiche,

fugge dinanzi a lei superbia ed ira.                                   Und fühlt all seinen fehl in tiefer wehmut,

Aiutatenni, donne, farle onore.                                         Der hass wird liebe und der stolz wird demut:

                                                                                                Ihr frauen, helft, dass Ihr mein loblied gleiche!

Ogne dolcezza, ogne pensero umile                                

nasce nel core a chi parlar la sente,                                Des linden friedens und der sanftmut blüte

ond'è laudato chi prima la vide.                                       Muss sich im herzen, dass ihr lauscht, entfalten,

Quel ch'ella par quando un poco sorride,                       Und selig wird, wer sie von ferne schauet.

non si pò dicer né tenere a mente,

sì è novo miracolo e gentile.                                              Ihr anblick, wenn sie lächelt, ganz voll güte,

                                                                        Lässt sich nicht sagen noch im bilde halten:

(Vita Nuova XXI, pp. 39-40)                                               Er ist ein neues wunder, dem ihr trauet...

---

In sonnet 38, the poet's heart and soul engage in a dialogue about the power of love which a new lady has gained over him. This translation I consider particularly successful:

XXXVIII.                                                                              V.

Gentil pensero che parla de vui                                       O der Gedanke der von dir mir redet

sen vene a dimorar meco sovente,                                  Kommt oft und weilt bei mir in süsser stille,

e ragiona d'amor sì dolcemente,                                       Und spricht von liebe mir. Dann schweigt mein wille,

che face consentir lo core in lui.                                       So dass das herz nicht mehr sich selbst befehdet.

L'anima dice al cor: "Chi è costui,

che vene a consolar la nostra mente,                              Da spricht die seele: herz, wer ist der grosse,

ed è la sua vertù tanto possente,                                     Der beiden uns den neuen trost gebracht?

ch'altro penser non lascia star con nui?"                        Und ist so gross, so sicher seine macht,

                                                                                               Dass jeden andren traum er von uns stosse?

Ei le risponde: " Oi anima pensosa,

questi è uno spiritel novo d'amore                                   Das herz: o seele, du, gedankenreiche,

che reca innanzi me  li suoi desiri;                                    Es ist der liebe jüngstes geister kind,

e la sua vita, e tutto 'l suo valore,                                     Das vor mir seine süssen wünsche breitet:

mosse de li occhi di quella pietosa                                  

che si turbava de' nostri martiri."                                      Und leben gab ihm, seine macht erweitet

                                                                                                Ihm aug und antlitz, die voll mitleid sind,

(Vita Nuova XXXVIII, pp. 79-80)                                     Der Herrin, die mein märtyrtum erweiche.

---

In sonnet 35, this very lady, who has pitied his sad condition as she watched him from a window, captures his heart, so that he can stop weeping about Beatrice:

XXXV.                                                                                   VI.

Videro li occhi miei quanta pietate                                  Ihr meine augen, all die bittren zähren,

era apparita in la vostra figura                                         Die ihr verströmt in langen schmerzenszeiten,

quando guardaste li atti e la statura                               Entlockten andren grosse traurigkeiten wehren.

Allor m'accorsi che voi pensavate

la qualità de la mia vita oscura,                                       Nun scheint es fast, ihr seid des weinens müde:

sì che mi giunse ne lo cor paura                                      Doch ich bin nicht solch lässiger geselle,

di dimostrar con li occhi mia viltate.                                Dass ich nicht störte eurer ruhe quelle,

                                                                                               Und jeden schmerz wie einen schatz behüte.

E tolsimi dinanzi a voi, sentendo

che si movean le lagrime dal core,                                   Denn euer geiz macht trauriger mich sinnen

ch'era sommosso da la nostra vista.                               Und schreckt mich so, dass ich mich zitternd scheue,

Io dicea poscia ne l'anima trista:                                      In einer frauen antlitz nur zu sehen:

"Ben è con quella donna quello Amore

lo qual mi face andar così piangendo."                          Ihr dürft niemals, und seis in todeswehen

                                                                                               Ihrer vergessen, die nun ruht in treue!

(Vita Nuova XXXV, pp. 74-75)                                        So spricht mein herz, dem seufzer dumpf entrinnen.

---

In spite of some daring liberties and omissions, Greve's translation remains overall quite close to the original text, and can be considered elegant. He also succeeds in conveying the simple, narrative aspects of Dante's poems, and avoids in most instances the insufferably twisted syntax usually favoured by the Stefan George school, and also practiced in Greve's often precious creations gathered Wanderungen.[22] He had it privately published about six weeks after he announced his Dante translations to Wolfskehl. The final poem "Irrender Ritter (Errant Knight)" was discussed in their correspondence in late January, 1902, and it's medieval tone and setting is clearly related to Greve's simultaneous preoccupation with these Dante-sonnets.[23]

These recreations are also, if indirectly, reflected in the beautifully crafted complex of the seven poems which were serially published in Die Freistatt, 1904/5, under the joint pseudonym Fanny Essler -- which name also was the title of Greve's first novel about his companion Else's life.[24] Composed in a structure imitating  medieval wing-altar triptychs, Fanny/Else reflects on her love for the ever-absent Greve in a double, North/South and Before/After dichotomy. In the centre, three sonnets called "a portrait"[25] focus on her object of adoration in the timeless and static fashion of the Petrarchan tradition. The canon of addressing individual physical traits of the beloved woman is clearly followed in devoting one sonnet each to the lover's eyes, mouth, and hands. While the emotional content of Fanny Essler's is definitely Else's and there is convincing evidence that she actually wrote poems of her own about her experiences with Greve,[26] there can no doubt about it that the formal perfection and virtuoso intertextuality displayed are his trade-mark. Petrarca [1304-1374], of course, followed in Dante's footsteps by celebrating in the Canzoniere his beloved Laura in Troubadour and Dolce Stil Nuovo convention.[27]

While Grove's Dante-annotations and references are relatively tenuous, his on-going preoccupation with Swift is quite consistent. Possibly the greatest, if unacknowledged, tribute to Swift is Grove's excellent satirical novel-fragment Consider Her Ways, in which ants provide a critical evaluation of man's civilization.[28] On one memorable occasion, a proud memory concerning Swift nearly blew Grove's carefully fabricated cover. Based on personal communications by Grove, the Canadian Bookman claimed that he had been responsible for the first complete, critical edition of Gulliver's Travels. In a hasty disclaimer, Grove said in the next issue in April, 1926:

"I did not, in my non-age, edit the first complete edition of Gulliver's Travels: that honour goes to Mr. Temple Scott. It was he who first saw clearly that the text must have been altered after it had left Swift's hands. My own work was restricted to a re-collation of early editions and the South Kensington Ford MSS. As a result of these labours, I was instrumental (though not directly engaged) in bringing about the publication of two, perhaps three, continental editions of Gulliver's Travels, my aim being to rescue the work from dying as a literary masterpiece to become a "children's classic" (Letters, pp. 38-39).

Grove reveals here an impressive and detailed knowledge of Swift-scholarship. Grove owned and Greve used Temple Scott's edition. In his last substantial translation in four volumes of Swift's Prose Works, Greve acknowledged his debt to Scott in glowing colours at the end of a lengthy introduction to the first volume which contained some of the short satires: "Zum Schluss möchte der gegenwärtige Herausgeber...vor allem seine Verbindlichkeiten gegenüber Herrn Temple Scott und den Mitarbeitern an seiner trefflichen Taschenausgabe Swifts in vollstem Umfang anerkennen...Sie [ist] wissenschaftlich...ausgezeichnet fundiert und...[kann] geradezu als grundlegend bezeichnet werden."[29] Gulliver's Travels were not to appear until v. 4, and, so to speak posthumously, since Greve was not officially among the living any longer in 1910. Even though, it was proudly advertised as an unprecedented complete and critical version based on Scott's text, and it included an identical knowledge of Ford's South Kensington papers as well as the rescue mission from juvenile literature appropriation which Grove expounded:

"1905 veröffentlichte  Temple Scott seine Ausgabe, die den Gulliver zum ERSTEN Male so brachte, wie Swift ihn geschrieben hat. Die vorliegende deutsche Ausgabe bringt im Jahre 1909 diesen korrekten und vollständigen Text (von den hunderttausend Bearbeitungen ganz zu schweigen) als überhaupt erste vollständige eines in der ganzen Welt berühmten Buches in irgendeine fremde Sprache!"[30]

The Swift-venture is likely to have precipitated Greve's sudden departure from Berlin in September, 1909. In a master-piece of epistolary rhetoric, Insel-publisher Anton Kippenberg defends himself point by point against impertinent, and evidently exploitative allegations brought against him by Greve's "grieving widow" Else: if Greve had not been overworked, underpaid, and furthermore unfairly criticized by the Insel, he would not have taken a boat to Sweden with the intention never to arrive.

Kippenberg calmly retorts that Greve took on far too many assignments in order to pay off considerable financial obligations, that his exceptional gifts were only hampered by the time and work pressures he voluntarily imposed on himself, that on occasion, criticism had been at order in the interest of quality control for the Insel's reputation; and that, IF Greve really had intended to commit suicide, his financial ruin was the main reason. But perhaps, the fact that he had recently drawn payment from two publishers for one and the same translation -- that is most probably the Swift -- might have hastened his desperate decision.[31]

This final argument shows that Greve was taking fraudulent steps once again, and that he was risking another prison term. And knowing that Else was must have been well informed about Greve's plans since she followed him within less than a year, her emotional accusations against Kippenberg amount to an extortion attempt which was probably successful.[32] Encouraged by this previous success, she practiced similar tactics again in the early twenties, when she drafted or sent outrageous and demanding blackmail attempts to the Freytag-Loringhoven family, former husband Endell, and old lovers or friends.[33] It looks like she and Greve were two birds of a feather, and that means in the context of Greve's 1909/10 disappearance act, a couple of con-artists.          

The first Swift volume came out in 1909 with Oesterheld Verlag imprint, the remaining three volumes followed a year later with Reiss publishers. More recent editions have been by the Insel,[34] and new introductions to these all tend to acknowledge Greve's merit in introducing Swift to the German public in style. Apparently, Greve/Grove's claim that only much deformed, juvenile versions of Gulliver's Travels had been enjoying great success prior to his own translations is duly appreciated even today, and a parallel to Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is drawn at times.[35]

It certainly is curious to observe, how the expression "having a swelled head" appears on several occasions in Grove's correspondence,[36] and also in Freytag-Loringhoven's autobiography -- there, as having been said of her by Greve on account of her dislike for his new idol Flaubert, and her budding literary attempts which not long afterwards saw the light of day as HIS novels.[37] Pacey (Letters, p. 114, n. 8) believes this image to be a reference to the swollen-headed Aeolists in the Tale of the Tub which was among Greve's translations in the first published volume.

As already mentioned, Grove was, like Greve, openly enthusiastic Temple Scott's edition which is extant in all twelve volumes in his archives. Most do not show signs of having been read. A particularly striking exception concerns the short satire "A Modest proposal..." in volume 7, which is entitled Historical and Political tracts, Irish, and was published in 1905. It is heavily marked and underlined, and throughout, each paragraph receives furthermore a circled numbering.

In Swift's outrageous text, the narrator proposes in sly humbleness to solve with one strike a serious economic and social dilemma for both Dublin's destitute parents and the state alike by marketing plump toddlers of poor descent for the culinary delights of the more fortunate classes. He revels in detailed descriptions of how to prepare these children into various culinary delicacies, all the while accounting with scientific exactitude and petty considerations for the demographic, monetary and pragmatic advantages of his scheme. He calculates, for instance, the cost of gestation-time and the relatively cheap period of breast-feeding, and correlates it to the ultimate benefit of feeding a family with several square meals. Or, with mock-humanitarian concern, he points out that these children are unlikely to arrive at a decent standard of living through their only vocation of stealing before the age of six, so that slaughtering them at age one means sparing them a torturous and pointless existence.

It is a mean document, and Greve's translation of it in his first volume of Swift's Prose Works is simply sparkling. Here are some examples in support of this assertion:

Title: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents or Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick (1729). (Swift, Prose Works, p. 205)

Ein bescheidener Vorschlag, wie man die Kinder der Armen hindern kann, ihren Eltern oder dem Lande zur Last zu fallen, und wie sie vielmehr eine Wohltat für die Öffentlichkeit werden können. (Swift, Prosa Werke, Bd. 1, 1909, S. 321)

---

"It is true a child, just dropped from its dam, may be supported by her milk for a solar year...and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands." (Swift, Prose Works, p. 208)

"Freilich läßt sich ein eben geborenes Kind ein Sonnenjahr lang mit der Milch der Mutter ernähren...und eben nach Vollendung des ersten Jahres gedenke ich für die Kinder in einer Weise zu sorgen, daß sie, statt ihren Eltern oder der Gemeinde zur Last zu fallen und statt für den Rest ihres Lebens an Nahrung und Kleidung Mangel zu leiden, im Gegenteil vielmehr zu der Ernährung und teilweise auch der Kleidung vieler Tausender beitragen werden." (Swift, Satiren, p. 22)

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"...Children of poor parents... can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts." (Swift, Prose Works, p. 209)

"Höchst selten können sie sich vor ihrem sechsten Jahr durch Stehlen ihren Lebensunterhalt sichern, es sei denn, die Veranlagung ist besonders günstig." (Swift, Satiren, p. 23)

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"I have been assured by a very knowing American...that a young, healthy child  well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout... A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish..." (Swift, Prose Works, p. 209-210)

"Mir ist von einem sehr unterrichteten Amerikaner...versichert worden, daß ein junges, gesundes, gutgenährtes einjähriges Kind eine sehr wohlschmeckende, nahrhafte und bekömmliche Speise ist, einerlei, ob man es dämpft, brät, bäckt oder kocht, und ich zweifle nicht, daß es auch in einem Frikassee oder einem Ragout in gleicher Weise seinen Dienst tun wird...Ein Kind wird bei einem Essen für Freunde zwei Gänge ergeben, und wenn die Familie allein speist, so wird das Vorder- oder Hinterteil ganz ausreichen." (Swift, Satiren, p. 23-24)

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"I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the 120.000 children already computed, 20.000 may be reserved for breed,  whereof only one fourth part to be males, which is more than we allow for to sheep, black-cattle, or swine..." (Swift, Prose Works, p. 209)

"Ich unterbreite also der öffentlichen Erwägung demütigst den Vorschlag, daß von den 120.000 bereits berechneten Kindern 20.000 für die Zucht zurückbehalten werden; von ihnen soll nur ein Viertel aus Knaben bestehen, was immerhin schon mehr ist, als wir bei Schafen, Hornvieh oder Schweinen erlauben." (Swift, Satiren, p. 24)

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"Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen." (Swift, Prose Works, p. 210)

"Wer wirtschaftlicher ist, (und ich muß gestehen, die Zeiten verlangen es), kann den Körper häuten; die Haut wird, kunstvoll gegerbt, wundervolle Damenhandschuhe und Sommerstiefel für elegante Herrn ergeben." (Swift, Satiren, p. 25)

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"Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or enforced by law and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children...We should see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market, men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow, nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practise) for fear of a miscarriage." (Swift, Prose Works, p. 214)

"Sechstens würde mein Vorschlag ein grosser Ansporn zur Eheschließung sein, wie ja alle weisen Nationen entweder durch Belohnung zu ihr ermuntert oder sie durch Gesetze und Strafen erzwungen haben. Es würde die Sorgfalt und Zärtlichkeit der Mütter ihren Kindern gegenüber steigern...Wir würden unter den verheirateten Frauen bald einen ehrlichen Wettstreit erleben, welche von ihnen das fetteste Kind auf den Markt bringen könnte; die Männer würden gegen ihre Frauen während der Zeit ihrer Schwangerschaft so liebevoll werden, wie sie es jetzt gegen ihre trächtigen Stuten, Kühe und Sauen sind, und sie würden sie aus Furcht vor einer Fehlgeburt nicht mehr schlagen noch mit Füßen treten, wie es jetzt nur zu häufig der Brauch ist." (Swift, Satiren, p. 28-29)

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Given the inspired quality of Greve's translation, it is understandable that he remembered it fondly, and that this brief satire and some similarly well-translated pieces enchanted a vast audience, which is why they are still in demand and print today. The original edition of the "Modest Proposal..." is known to have delighted Brecht as a schoolboy who years later drew on it in his Tui-fragment. "Tui" stands for an inverted abbreviation of intellectuals (Tellekt-Uell-In), the "Kopfarbeiter" who inadvertently allow fascism to rise.  It is a vicious satire of equal quality, directed at the dismal conditions of the Weimar Republic in "Chimese" disguise (a deliberate "Verfremdung of "Chinese"). Fascism, for instance, is presented in the guise of "Denkism" which is a brilliant word play with the typically German tradition of idealistic thought ("denken"/"to think"),[38] the intellectual predilection for creating abstract "isms" out of just about anything, and the contemporary case of a mass-murderer whose name, Karl Denke, again invited to exploit the thought-metaphor. Over a ten-year period, meak and unobtrusive Denke had murdered and consumed a fair number of neighbourhood children. What he couldn't eat, he processed and sold as "goat meat", and he offered the occasional leather by-product, like suspenders and sturdy shoe-laces, as well. In this context, Brecht cleverly integrated the eloquent invectives of his highly admired model Swift in general, and the "Modest Proposal" in particular.[39] The Germans, "das Volk der Dichter und Denker", has been given by Karl Denke another "idea" (ein Gedanke), and after the consequences, there only remains the belated reflection on a desastrous past, "das Nachdenken". 

Brecht was a fervent Marxist, Swift was a Tory, and the kindred-spirited Voltaire was an enlightenment aesthete who prided himself for his eminently boring and rightfully forgotten tragedies more than for his timeless and still much admired satires. The common motivation for satirical expression -- with its typical expressiveness -- is believed to be the intense, moral indignation about obviously unjust conditions, and the painful realization that a superior set of values is utterly insufficient in changing unfortunate, but definitely prevailing givens -- that is, the experience of utter helplessness in the face of reality.

Greve and Grove's creativity can be judged mediocre in comparison with his brilliantly receptive and critical abilities. Greve's numerous translations were a formal recasting of existing texts whose content appealed to his personal sense of enjoyment, providing a welcome opportunity to identify himself with them or their authors. The range of his literary interests from 1898 to 1909 is remarkable, and allows some observations about his aesthetic development.

Even before he started courting the circles dominated by Stefan George in Munich, he was influenced by neo-romantic preferences which included the medieval and renaissance periods, whether absorbed through German, English or other literary preoccupations. It is true that even during his student days in Bonn, George was actively received, his native Bingen being just a short distance away. Therefore, the budding George-cult may have been a factor, and coincided with or even activated Greve's particular preoccupation with Dante and Petrarca. Then came the period of intense identification with Oscar Wilde, but also his precursors; namely the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was obsessed with the Italian Trecento and the Italian Renaissance,[40] and Dante G. Rossetti is considered to have provided an ideal translation of the Vita Nuova. 

A noticeable change takes place during and after Greve's prison term. It is reflected in polarized attitudes towards Wilde in Greve's two essays which were written before and during his confinement. When Greve visits Gide immediately after his release from prison in June, 1904, he states explicitly that the art and life poles of the decadent l'art-pour-l'art principle have been reversed in his value-scale: "Je ne suis pas un artiste. C'est le besoin d'argent qui maintenant me fait écrire. L'oeuvre d'art n'est pour moi qu'un pis-aller. Je préfère la vie."[41] That consequently his translations become more and more classic from then on may have been dictated in part by Kippenberg's conservative programme of "Weltliteratur" for the Insel,[42] but it also corresponds directly to Greve's new position. Flaubert is his adopted model now, and it remains in place for the rest of his life: although an exceptionally rich intertextuality is always operational, Grove's fiction and poetry essentially adhere with remarkable rigidity to Flaubert's and George's aesthetics.[43]

Not only did Greve translate most of Flaubert's correspondence, his own two novels about Else imitate Madame Bovary and L'Education sentimentale in particular. As Else aptly recalls twenty years later, "he esteemed Flaubert highly as stylist...so he tried to be Flaubert...".[44] His last original contribution in Germany was the article "Reise in Schweden" which matches the travel essays in Grove's first Canadian publications Over Prairie Trails and The Turn of the Year. And his novels reflect the narrative techniques of Flaubert's symbolism and realism about which both Greve and Grove also wrote critical essays.

At the time of his departure, Greve was working on Dicken's David Copperfield and Swift. Among previous texts like Balzac, Lesage, Cervantes, the Arabian Nights, Meredith, etc., H.G. Wells Ausblicke and The Letters of Junius deserve special mention since their political character corresponds with Grove's only known translation of Amann.

Translating means by definition re-creating rather than creating. In that sense, Greve's immense translation experience is the very foundation of Grove's equally impressive artistic output which is largely imitative, and therefore follows not dissimilar mechanisms. If Grove's creative endeavours are not fueled by first- or second-hand realities as are his two brilliant autobiographical accounts, or by the fires of admiration for a large variety of literary models, they are sadly devoid of inspiration and originality. His voluminous Canadian pioneer novels are tiresome in their two-dimensional character representation and in their tedious, forced symbolism. A near-complete lack of humor certainly does not help alleviate the task of reading them. The fragment Consider Her Ways, published in 1947, but conceived almost four decades earlier and referred to as his "ant book" during its intermittent genesis, is a refreshing exception. But then, it is clearly an imitation of Swiftian satire.

Thus, Else's pertinent judgement in relation to Greve's two novels, namely, that he was a highly skilled craftsman and imitator, endowed with a keen mind and considerable marketing skills, but without creative talent of his own can be applied to Grove's literary writings as well, and may serve here as conclusion:

"He made, in spite of his intelligence, the mistake of thinking himself an artist. How that is possible I don't know! He was just the opposite of it...[It] shows an amazing lack of observation, self-analysis and intellect." [underlined in typescript, p.34]. And: "He even thought of himself as a genius, art genius... until the end when he broke off, or down, his career deciding to become a business genius, or potato king in America. Felix had written two novels. They were dedicated to me in so far as material was concerned; it was my life and persons out of my life. He did the executive part of the business, giving the thing the conventional shape and dress...He took it all outwardly as mere industry, except for the material in it. They must be fearful books as far as art is concerned." (Autobiography, pp. 34-35).

Gaby Divay, Archives & Special Collections, University of Manitoba

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Notes

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Bibliography

Blätter für die Kunst, 1892-1919.  Düsseldorf: [Neudruck], 1967.

Brecht, Bertolt. Der Tui-Roman (Fragment). In: Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 12, pp. 587-727.

Brümmer, Franz. Lexikon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten. 6. Aufl. 8v. Leipzig: Reclam, 1913.

Dante, [Alighieri]. "Aus Dantes Vita Nuova." (6 sonnets transl. by F. P. Greve, ca. 1902), Stefan George Archiv, Stuttgart.

Dante Alighieri. Vita Nuova. Transl. and essay, Mark Musa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973.

Divay, Gaby. "Greve's 'Fanny Essler' Poems: His or Hers?" [Forthcoming in Arachne also summary in: Proceedings of the Linguistic Circle of Manitoba and North Dakota, v. 31 (1991), pp. 14-15].

Essler, Fanny. "Gedichte.  Ein Porträt: drei Sonette.  Gedichte." Die Freistatt 6-7 (1904/5), pp. 700-701, 840-841; 185-186. Also in: Grove, Poems, 1993, pp. 39-46.

Freytag-Loringhoven, Else Baroness von. Autobiography [typescript, 205p.]. University of Maryland, College Park. [Also: University of Manitoba].

George, Stefan. Stefan George, Friedrich Gundolf: Briefwechsel. Hrsg., Robert Boehringer mit Georg Peter Landmann. München: H. Küpper, 1962.

Gide, André. "Conversation avec un allemand." Bulletin des amis d'André Gide no. 32 (Oct., 1976), p. 23-41. (Two letters by Greve, 7.6. & 17.10., 1904, pp. 39-41).

Greve, Felix Paul to Franz Brümmer, 6.3.1907. In: F. P. Grove, Letters, 1976, pp. 538-541.

Greve, Felix Paul. Wanderungen.  Berlin: O. v. Holten, February,1902.

Grove, Frederick Philip. Consider Her Ways. Toronto:  Macmillan, 1947.

Grove, Frederick Philip. The Letters of Frederick Philip Grove.  Ed., Desmond Pacey. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976.

Grove, Frederick Philip. Poems/Gedichte. Von F.P. Grove, F.P. Greve und Fanny Essler. Ed., G. Divay. Winnipeg:  Wolf-Verlag, 1993.

Hofmannsthal, Hugo von. Briefwechsel mit dem Insel-Verlag, 1901-1929. Hrsg., Gerhard Schuster. Frankfurt: Buchhändler-Vereinigung, 1985.

Kippenberg, Anton to Else Greve, 21. 9. 1909. In: F. P. Grove, Letters, 1976, pp. 550-552.

Kluncker, Karlhans. Blätter für die Kunst: Zeitschrift der Dichterschule Stefan Georges.  Frankfurt: V. Klostermann, 1974.

Knönagel, Axel. "Grove's first translation." Canadian Literature 1o8 (Winter 1986), pp. 214-220. (about O. Wilde's aphorisms, Lehren und Sprüche..., ca. May, 1902).

Knönagel, Axel. Nietzschean Philosophy in the Works of Frederick Philip Grove. Frankfurt: P. Lang, 1990.

Knopf, Jan. Brecht-Handbuch: Lyrik, Prosa, Schriften. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1984.

Lepsius, Sabine. Ein Künstlerleben um die Jahrhundertwende. München: G. Müller, 1972.

Pacey, Desmond. Introd. in: Grove, F.P., The Letters of F. P. Grove, 1976, pp. ix-xxvi.

Petrarca, Francesco. Canzoniere. Ed., Alberto Chiari. Roma: A, Mondadori, 1991.

Reichel, Klaus. Vom Jugendstil zur Sachlichkeit: A. Endell, 1871-1925. Bochum, 1974.

Spettigue, Douglas O. "Felix, Elsa, André Gide and Others: Some Unpublished Letters of F. P. Greve." Canadian Literature 134 (Autumn 1992), pp. 9-39.

Spettigue, Douglas O.  FPG: The European Years.  [Ottawa]: Oberon Press, 1973.

Spettigue, Douglas O. Introd. in: E. v. Freytag-Loringhoven, Baroness Elsa. [Ottawa]: Oberon Press, 1992a, pp. 9-40.

Swift, Jonathan. "Ein bescheidener Vorschlag, wie man...". In his: Prosaschriften, Bd. 1, 1909, pp. 321-336. Also in Swift, Satiren, Insel Vlg., 1975, pp. 21-32.

Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal...". In his: Historical and Political tracts, Irish, 1905, pp. 207-216. (Orig. 1729). Grove's personal copy annotated.

Swift, Jonathan. Satiren. Mit einem Vorwort von Martin Walser. [Übersetzt (revidiert) von Felix Paul Greve]. Frankfurt: Insel-Verlag, 1975.

Weiss, Peg. Kandinsky in Munich: the Formative Jugendstil Years. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.

Wolfskehl, Karl und Hanna. Briefwechsel mit Friedrich Gundolf. 2. Aufl. 2 v. Amsterdam: Castrum Peregrini, 1977.

Originally published in:
Deutschkanadisches Jahrbuch=German-Canadian Yearbook XIV (1995), 107-128

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How to cite this e-Version:
Divay, Gaby. "F. P. Greve's First & Last Translations: Dante's Vita Nuova & Swift's "Modest Proposal". rev. e-Edition, ©November 2005 at: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~divay/ps/fpgTrDaSw.html (Accessed ddmmmyyyy [ex: 18nov2005]. [browser preview: 20 p.])