Auden, Wystan Hugh: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. New York, Freitag, 11. Dezember 1964
author: Auden, Wystan Hugh
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Copyright by the Estate of W. H. Auden. By courtesy of the Estate of W. H. Auden. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

77 St Mark’s Place
New York City 3
New York 10003

Dec 11th 1964[^1]
Dearest Hans:

[^1: In this letter, Auden suggests sending a note signed by the librettists to Schott via their agent Curtis-Brown, which was actually sent on 20 December 1964. See Auden's letter to Henze dated 21 December 1964.]

Just received Teil I of Becky and a photoshot of Reinold’s translation.[^2]

[^2: Reinold's translation of the libretto from English to German was ultimately not accepted by the three authors. The study score of The Bassarids states indeed that the text was arranged by Reinold, but the libretto was translated into German by Maria Bosse-Sporleder. For more information see the correspondence between Henze and Reinold kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation.]

I see a problem. German is not my mother tongue nor Chester’s. If Reinold intends to make trouble, his lawyer will dwell on this fact, and demand that we[^3] justify an objection by chapter and verse citations.

[^3: This strange misspelling (see line below) suggests that Auden was copying from a copy of this letter and that at this point he made a mistake, that is, he had written the next sentence before the one he actually had to transcribe.]

The only solution I can see is that you write a fairly detailed description of what is wrong with the translation from both a literary and a musical point of view, which Chester and I could then present under our names (via Curtis Brown). [As stated in Auden's letter of 21 December 1964, the librettists actually signed a telegram, expressing their disapproval with Helmuth Reinold's translation.]

As the composer, you, after all, are the only one who can really say why the translation will not do.

love
Wystan.

P.S. Schott also sent mimeographs of the symbols[^4] and German program notes. A few still curious which I will correct and send back to S.

[^4: The word is difficult to decipher, but it could be symbols. However, there is no legend of symbols in the score of The Bassarids. Perhaps Auden may have wanted to print the list of accented words he sent to Henze in the previous letter. Among the documents preserved in the W.H. Auden Collection of Papers at the New York Public Library is a 57-page typescript (mimeographed) libretto of The Bassarids. This document might help to clarify this word.]