in castle, campagna, and river. And because it seems to me that this interpretative faculty, this power to present "the living soul" of things is a peculiarly precious literary attribute, I have taken for translation poems that offered striking examples of its presence without regard to the fact that, in substance, they nearly all belonged to one type. In translation, of course, much of the original charm must be lost. One may preserve the thought, but to make another language recreate the same atmosphere, borders upon the impossible. In the present instance I have aimed simply at being as literal as was consistent with the chosen form of verse, trusting that in such wise some virtue of the original might still cling to its English rendering.
Washington, D. C, December, 1905.
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