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In 1818 the first edition of Vuk's Dictionary appeared, which in its later form became an encyclopaedia of information and remains to this day an indispensable work of reference. The same year saw the publication in Berlin of Forster's Sängerfahrt, of interest here as it contained nineteen Serbian songs[1] translated by Jacob Grimm. Grimm held very definite opinions on the manner in which such renderings should be made. In his view there were two alternatives: either an almost word for word prose translation, or a version of the sort that was possible only to a Goethe[2].
The cult of the Serbian folk-song in Germany did not fail to attract attention in France. Madame de Stael hastened to assure Goethe that she was "ravie de la femme morlaque." In 1788 Justine Wynne published Les Morlaques, a book based on the work of Fortis[3]. Charles Nodier followed in 1821 with his Smarra, purporting to be a collection of Slavonic songs and tales. These, like the songs in Les Morlaques, were largely spurious; nevertheless, they served a certain purpose—as did Mérimée's literary jest, La Guzla—in preparing the way for honest and serious work such as Dozon's Poésies populaires serbes (1859).
- ↑ The first of these is "Marko's Hunting with the Turks." Grimm's title is "Die Jagd Muleys"; cf. (Ćurčin, p. 103, footnote; Grimm's Kleinere Schriften, iv. pp. 455-458. This is the only Marko ballad given by Grimm.
- ↑ Nevertheless Grimm made translations in verse as well as in prose. The pieces in the Sängerfahrt are non-metrical, line by line translations keeping extraordinarily closely to the original, but a number of renderings in the appropriate measures will be found collected in the Kl. Schr. IV. pp. 427-455.
- ↑ Les Morlaques, par J.W.C.D.U. et R. (Justine Wynne, Comtesse de Ursins-Rosenberg). Venice, 1788. Writing in 1825 Goethe says: "Schon sind es fünfzig Jahre, dass ich den Klaggesang der edlen Frauen Asan Agas übersetzte, der sich in des Abbate Fortis Reise, auch von da in den Morlackischen Notizen der Gräfin Rosenberg finden liess. Ich übertrug ihn nach dem beigefügten Französischen, mit Ahnung des Rhythmus und Beachtung der Wortstellung des Originals." Essay on "Serbische Lieder" in Über Kunst und Alterthum, 5 Band, 2 Heft, p. 35. (In Hempel's edition of Goethe's Works, vol. 29, p. 583.) Ćurčin, pp. 47—51. Ćurčin shows conclusively that Goethe suffered from a lapsus memoriae in making the statement above quoted.
