Open Access

Lăcrămioara Popa

• The present study intends to analyze the literary personality of the German-language writer and translator Alfred Margul-Sperber and his approach to Romanian folk poetry and Romanian folk ballads. Alfred Margul-Sperber is known as a classical German-language poet from Romania, as a discoverer and supporter of literary talent, but also as a brilliant translator. Impressions from his childhood and life experiences contributed to Alfred MargulSperber’s interest for Romanian poets and especially for Romanian folk poetry, which left its own mark on Sperber’s literary creation. The author was fascinated by its plurality of forms, its richness of rhymes, images and sounds. The masterpiece of Romanian folk poetry, “Mioriţa/The little Ewe”-ballad raised the interest of the multilingual translator who proved his outstanding talent by translating the original text into German as accurately as possible and remarkably close to the spirit of the Romanian folk poetry, thus popularizing it among the German readers at home and abroad.