Where Pumpurs
used four-, six- or eight-line stanzas, I have done the same. Later,
where Pumpurs used very long stanzas, I have returned to an
eight-line or four-line format, largely depending on the number of
syllables in a line. I have also sometimes inserted four-line
stanzas into sections otherwise consisting of eight-line stanzas, in
order to mark a turning point in the action.
Pumpurs also used differing metrical forms, the number of syllables
in a line ranging from six to eighteen. In my translation I have
used the iambus as the basic metrical unit throughout the entire
poem. The most common metrical form in my translation is iambic
pentameter. However, where Pumpurs used eight-syllable lines I have
done the same. In such cases I have also often switched to four-line
stanzas, in order to increase the "staccato" effect of the shorter
lines. The original Latvian is largely unrhymed. I have translated
into rhyming verse, mainly using the rhyme scheme a, b, a, b, c, d,
c, d. In the six-line stanzas the rhyme scheme is a, b, a, b, a, b;
in the four-line stanzas a, b, a, b.
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