Translating An Ode To A German Mercenary

by James P. Pierce

An example of mid-eighteenth century neo-classical German poetry of the form pioneered by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was composed to honor the commander of a contingent of German mercenaries from Braunschweig (Brunswick), General Friedrich Baron von Riedesel on his birthday, the third one he had spent in North America. The Brunswickers under General Riedesel were sent as mercenaries to Canada to join the army of General John Burgoyne, thus to be part of the British expeditionary force sent down from Canada to join with General Howe's force that was to march up from New York for a linking up at Albany, thereby cutting the Rebels in half. The story of how that campaign went sour for the British ending with their capitulation at Saratoga is too well known to need repeating here. However, the failure of the invasion was through no shortcomings on the Brunswickers' part. Before the campaign began, General Riedesel had trained his troops in the spread out flexible American fighting style and on two occasions early in the campaign the Brunswick batallion saved the day on the battlefield for the British. In the end, though, they all surrendered to General Gates at Saratoga in October of 1777.. Then came the long cold march of the Brunswickers, now prisoners of war, to Cambridge, Massachusetts. General Riedesel, his wife the Baroness Friederika von Riedesel, and their three daughters, Gustava, aged 6, Friederika, 3, and Caroline, 1 accompanied the Brunswickers into imprisonment although they, having been taken under the protection of General Philip Schuyler, did not live as spartan an existence as did the troops. General Riedesel stayed with his troops and constantly looked out for their benefit. Had it not been for his efforts, that first winter of captivity at Cambridge would have been disastrous for them. The poem was written at Cambridge in the late Spring of 1778. The Brunswickers had endured a harsh winter as prisoners of war and had not yet been marched to Virginia where they would be in the same situation for several more years. Riedesel's staff officers knew well what he had done to support both them and their troops. This was not out of character for him; he had always held his troops' welfare very high on his lists of responsibilities. Add to this his personal bravery in battle and his quick wits for battlefield manoevers and you have the outline of a leader that was loved by his troops, both officers and men, almost to the point of adoration. His wife and their children, also mentioned in the poem, were likewise highly regarded. The Baroness was the General's equal in all ways, it seems. Her journals make some of the most interesting original documents about the time and place in existence. She always did her best to inject optimism into the situation. She organized the party where the poem that follows was first read. She and the children endured bombardment and acted as battlefield medical aid station assistants. On one occasion, she collared one of General Burgoyne's junior officers and sent a message to Burgoyne telling him that some of his wounded officers hadn't eaten in two days and what was he going to do about it? Burgoyne, engaged in the first phases of negotiating the surrender at Saratoga, nevertheless was impressed enough to personally correct the problem, also sardonically thanking her for "showing him his duty". The sarcasm was completely lost on her. Handwriting comparison shows that the poem's author, "H.A.L", was General Riedesel's secretary, an officer named Langemeier. A university graduate, he was aware of the newer poetic forms such as Klopstock's dactylic verse and tried to emulate it in his work. In total, he did not do too badly. This was the first appearance of German verse in this form on the North American continent. To my knowledge, this is the first translation of the work into English. The arrangement is pretty simple: German original in modern type to the left, English translation to the right, one line under the German, except for the title, which is line to line. I have made no attempt to keep the rhyme or the meter of the German original; that will take a better wordsmith than I am. I have tried to keep the translation on a line for line basis but, because of the relatively rigid word order requirements of English, I was not able to do this in every case. Anyway, here it is:    

• *. Trois Rivieres.
• *. Three Rivers
• **d. 19.tn Septbr: 1777.
• **. the 19th of September, 1777
• ***d. 7.tn octobr:1777.
• ***the 7th of October, 1777