Dear Gunnar,

 

What bothers you about the capitalization, since unless I have forgotten everything from four years of German, those words would all simply be in caps?  And why would "Irisch" not be in caps?  It is capitalized like any name of a nationality of language, like English or French or German.  It may not be spelled that way in Wagner--is it?

Nancy

the wider context   Incidentally, the poet of TWL must have taken cognizance of the note of caution implied in the sailor's song from Tristan und Isolde :   Frisch weht der Wind Der Heimat zu. Mein Irisch Kind, Wo weilest du?   (Fresh blows the Wind From Home. My Irish Child, Where are you lingering?)    [from memory only]   The initial capitals of Wind, Home, and Child are remarkable.   ... the violet hour, the evening hour that strives Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea   In my reading, the dry salvages fail to bring the voyagers back home in every sense of the term.   CR