Poetry in Translation
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine 1797-
1856
Heine was born in Düsseldorf to a Jewish family and attended the local Lyceum before moving to Hamburg where his uncle provided financial encouragement for him to attempt a business career, which, however, ended in failure.
From 1819, he attended universities in Bonn, where he benefitted from tuition under Schlegel who was of lasting influence, and the less satisfying Göttingen before finally attending Berlin university where he was able to meet numerous leading literary figures. Whilst there, he achieved limited success as a poet, journalist and playwright.
His early poems were influenced by the North Sea and by the Harz mountains both of which he visited during his studies.
For career reasons, he converted to Christianity shortly before graduating in 1825 afterwards briefly visiting England leaving with mixed feelings for an editorship in Munich. He travelled briefly to Italy thence to Hamburg but he finally departed for Paris in 1831 where he married Eugénie "Mathilde" Mirat.
He gained increasing recognition from his steadily greater output but suffered from a spinal disease which claimed his life in 1856 after 8 years bedbound existence.
Heine was the pre-eminent lyric writer of 19
th
century German poetry blending human expression with pastoral commentary often assisted by a degree of cynicism; and his works have gained wider fame in the lieder of several great composers.
