The Reason of Rhyme

The first translation of Shakespeare’s sonnets into German was in prose. So where’s the sonnet? Galway Kinnell translated the ballades of François Villon without rhymes. In that case they’re not ballades any more. Translators have an obligation to translate rhymes when the original poems. Fancy and evasive excuses to the contrary, there’s no option here. That undertaking is always perilous and can begin to smack of contrivance, even fraudulence, because of what I call the “Peru” problem—to be explained.