T S Eliot - The Waste Land - 5 - English-German & Italian torrent

April ist der übelste Monat von allen, treibt
Flieder aus der toten Erde, mischt
Erinnerung mit Lust, schreck
Spröde Wurzeln auf mit Frühlingsregen.

Aprile è il più crudele dei mesi, genera
Lillà da terra morta, confondendo
Memoria e desiderio, risvegliando
Le radici sopite con la pioggia della primavera.



Eliot's Waste Land read in English, German and Italian

The Wasteland read in a flat, matter of fact, po mo North American voice. Quite effective I think (but judge for yourself) Librivox 2006.

Next, Gert Heidenreich reads the fairly recent German version by Norbert Hummelt. The first four lines are spot on but I have not closely examined the rest. Downloaded from Audible, and including a number of other Eliot poems (note especially Hans Magnus Ensenzberger reading his own translation of Gerontion)

And Stefano Benni reads the poem in the Sanesi translation, which seems to be the standard version in Italian (there is also a version by Montale but I have not been able to track it down, as too a classic version in German by Ernst Robert Curtius, approved by Eliot himself.) Extreme Latin expressiveness as compared to the more stolid German version. A CD rip but also available at Audible. Kindly seed