My name is Manfred Retzlaff; I sometimes use the Esperantized version of my name, Manfredo Ratislavo. With this database, which my son Max-Gerd has installed for me, I would like to present my attempts at translating poems into Esperanto (in particular from the German) over the last twenty years.

My intention is (and I've already begun to put this into practice) also to present poems translated by other persons. But, as a start, I would like to include my own translation attempts. Certainly these will not always have been successful and without fault. I therefore ask you, dear reader, to tell me if you find mistakes or if you have any suggestions for improvement. I have always included the original versions of the poems, and (if these were available and known to me) also translations by other persons and translations into other languages.

Unfortunately some authors (but relatively few) or their legal heirs did not grant me permission to publish the original versions, or even (in some cases) my own translations. These are stored in the database but are not accessible for you. I apologise for this, knowing that you will certainly understand that I am obliged to respect the wishes of the authors concerned. I also had to withdraw temporarily several of my translations for which I have not yet received permission to publish from the respective authors or the copyright holders. At the present time, the copyright of a particular work is valid for up to 70 years after the death its author.

It is possible to place the different versions in any chosen order alongside one another and print out the results in PDF- or PostScript-formats (with either portrait or landscape orientations) on standard DIN-A4 paper. I would advise you to make printouts using either one of the two formats mentioned above since the texts were created using LaTeX , a typesetting system which produces, in my view, a much more attractive result than can be obtained by simply printing out the Web-page image. Please just try it out and tell me whether the result is satisfactory.

Something about myself

I live in the small town of Oelde in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. I have been actively interested in Esperanto since about 1972. I have been occupied with the translation of poems into Esperanto since 1976. I began by translating children's songs and poems for my own children, who at that time were still very young. Later I ambitiously extended this interest to the translation of poems by well-known German poets and even to translations of poems from other languages. So far I have translated about four hundred poems. No doubt some of these translations have not been too successful. Please judge for yourself!

By the way, my pseudonym Manfredo Ratislavo is not really meant to be an alias. It is simply the Esperanto form of my own name; for the German name, or at least the surname part of it, Retzlaff, may not be so easy for Esperanto speakers whose mother tongue is not German. Moreover, by choosing the form Ratislavo, I have brought my surname closer to its Slavonic origin.

Manfred Retzlaff, December 6, 2003    

(Translated by D. Hopper on 22.12.2003.)