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Catherine Winkworth
1827 - 1878 Translator of "My Savior, What Thou Didst of Old" Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used in many modern hymnals. Her work was published in two series of Lyra Germanica (1855, 1858) and in The Chorale Book for England (1863), which included the appropriate German tune with each text as provided by Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt. Winkworth also translated biographies of German Christians who promoted ministries to the poor and sick and compiled a handbook of biographies of German hymn authors, Christian Singers of Germany (1869).
Bert Polman
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Winkworth, Catherine, daughter of Henry Winkworth, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, was born in London, Sep. 13, 1829. Most of her early life was spent in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Subsequently she removed with the family to Clifton, near Bristol. She died suddenly of heart disease, at Monnetier, in Savoy, in July, 1878. Miss Winkworth published:—
Translations from the German of the Life of Pastor Fliedner, the Founder of the Sisterhood of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, 1861; and of the Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863.
Her sympathy with practical efforts for the benefit of women, and with a pure devotional life, as seen in these translations, received from her the most practical illustration possible in the deep and active interest which she took in educational work in connection with the Clifton Association for the Higher Education of Women, and kindred societies there and elsewhere. Our interest, however, is mainly centred in her hymnological work as embodied in her:—
(1) Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 1855. (2) Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858. (3) The Chorale Book for England (containing translations from the German, together with music), 1863; and (4) her charming biographical work, the Christian Singers of Germany, 1869.
In a sympathetic article on Miss Winkworth in the Inquirer of July 20, 1878, Dr. Martineau says:—
"The translations contained in these volumes are invariably faithful, and for the most part both terse and delicate; and an admirable art is applied to the management of complex and difficult versification. They have not quite the fire of John Wesley's versions of Moravian hymns, or the wonderful fusion and reproduction of thought which may be found in Coleridge. But if less flowing they are more conscientious than either, and attain a result as poetical as severe exactitude admits, being only a little short of ‘native music'"
Dr. Percival, then Principal of Clifton College, also wrote concerning her (in the Bristol Times and Mirror), in July, 1878:—
"She was a person of remarkable intellectual and social gifts, and very unusual attainments; but what specially distinguished her was her combination of rare ability and great knowledge with a certain tender and sympathetic refinement which constitutes the special charm of the true womanly character."
Dr. Martineau (as above) says her religious life afforded "a happy example of the piety which the Church of England discipline may implant.....The fast hold she retained of her discipleship of Christ was no example of ‘feminine simplicity,' carrying on the childish mind into maturer years, but the clear allegiance of a firm mind, familiar with the pretensions of non-Christian schools, well able to test them, and undiverted by them from her first love."
Miss Winkworth, although not the earliest of modern translators from the German into English, is certainly the foremost in rank and popularity. Her translations are the most widely used of any from that language, and have had more to do with the modern revival of the English use of German hymns than the versions of any other writer.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Hymn Writers of the Church
Catherine Winkworth
Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Freiherr de La Motte-Fouqué
1777 - 1843 Author of "My Savior, What Thou Didst of Old" Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Carl de la Motte, was born Feb. 12,1777, at Brandenburg on the Havel, where his father, of an ancient and noble Huguenot family, was a retired officer of dragoons. Educated under the training of the French Reformed Church, it was intended that he should enter the University of Halle as a student of law. By his own preference however he entered the army, and in 1794 was appointed cornet in the Duke of Weimar's regiment of cuirassiers. In 1803 he married and retired to Nennhausen near Rathenow, Brandenburg. When, in March, 1813, the King of Prussia invited his people to arm against France, Fouqué offered himself as a volunteer and served as a lieutenant of cavalry till he was disabled at the battle of Lützen, May 2, 1813, and with the rank of major retired once more to Nennhausen. After the death of his wife, in 1831, he resided for some time at Halle, where he gave lectures in the University on the history of poetry; and finally settled in Berlin, where, two days after a stroke of apoplexy, he died Jan. 23,1843 (Koch, vii.6-20; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vii. 198-201, &c).
Fouqué is best known as one of the leaders of the "Romantic" school of German literature, and by his wonderfully successful efforts to make the best features of the knight and minstrel life of the 12th century, live again in the pages of his romances as an example and incitement to his own times. His fame rests not on his poems, but on his romances, especially that of Undine (1st ed. Berlin, 1811, 17th ed. 1870—frequently translated into English). His hymns, while affording a true and thought¬ful reflex of his religious feelings, cannot be said to have either great depth of Christian experience or genuine churchly ring, and hardly any have come into Church use in Germany. He himself only published 15 Mission hymns at Leipzig, 1822, as Geistliche Lieder, Erstes Bandchen. From his papers his second wife issued two collections, the Geistliche Gedichte, Berlin, 1846, and Christlicher Liederschatz, Berlin, 186', but they contain few compositions that can be called hymns, and of these hardly any are suitable for church use.
Of his hymns those translated into English are:—
i. Was du vor tausend Jahren. Christ our Light. Founded on St. Mark x. 46-52, and included 1846, p. 1, in 6 stanzas of 8 lines, entitled, "The Faithfulness of the Saviour." Previously in Bunsen's Versuch, 1833, No. 761. Translated as:—
A thousand years have fleeted, a good and full translated by Miss Cox in her Sacred Hymns from the Germans, 1841, p. 105, repeated, omitting stanzas ii.-iv., as No. 567 in Hedge and Huntington's Hymns for the Church of Christ, Boston, U.S., 1853.
Other translations are: (1) "Thy mercy, Lord, is still the same," by Lady E. Fortescue, 1843. (2) "My Saviour, what Thou didst of old," by Miss Winkworth, 1855, p. 53.
His hymns not in English common use are:—
ii. In die Segel sanft und linde. Missions. 1822, p. 13, in 4 stanzas entitled “Prosperous Voyage," i.e. to the mission field. Translated as "In our sails all soft and sweetly," by Miss Winkworth, 1858, p. 115.
iii. Wie schäumt so feierlich zu unsern Füssen. Missions. For missionaries about to set out on their voyage. 1822, p. 11, in 8 stanzas, entitled "At the Sea." The translations are: (1) "Thou solemn Ocean, rollest to the strand," by Miss Winkworth, 1858, p. 112. (2) "Dark, mighty Ocean, rolling to our feet," by Miss Borthwick, in Hymns from the Land of Luther , 1858, p. 26, repeated in L. Rehfuess's Church at Sea, 1868, p. 5. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Freiherr de La Motte-Fouqué
