Wagner, however, uses the version of Wolfram von Eschenbach,
modifying it and spiritualizing it to suit his purposes. The German
artist Franz Stassen, from whom our illustrations are taken, has entered
with perfect appreciation into Wagner's version of the noble legend.
The following rendering of the Parsifal is not a close translation of
the text, but rather a transfusion of the spirit. It is possibly as
nearly a translation as Fitzgerald's rendition of Omar Khayyam, or
Macpherson's version of the poems of Ossian. It is what may be called a
free rendering, aiming to give the spirit rather than the language of
the original.
The mere translations of the words of Parsifal, as given in the English
texts of H. and F. Corder and M.H. Glyn, do not adequately represent the
full value of the drama. Those versions were under the necessity of a
strictly literal translation, which was further hampered in order to
make the English words fit the music, and the result was far from
satisfactory. The literal translation also unfortunately over-emphasizes
certain parts and phrases in the drama which are somewhat harsh, but
which at Bayreuth become much modified and refined, and are, therefore,
so represented in this version.
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