Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann (Penguin Classics) (51 page)

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The literal translation of the title does not do it justice.
Hundeblume
in the German, literally ‘dog flower’, is indeed a dandelion, but the English lacks the blossom’s bark.

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Here, again, the translator is at a loss. The German wild flower
Löwenzahn
, another name for
Hundeblume
, literally ‘lion’s tooth’, packs a barbarous bite that the English ‘dandelion’ can only meekly mimic.

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Reference to the play
Der Zerbrochene Krug
(
The Broken Jug
), by Heinrich von Kleist.