Alma Strettell

{{Infobox person | name = Alma Strettel | image = File:Sargent - Alma Strettell, c. 1889, nr. 223.jpg | other_names = Alma Gertrude Vansittart Harrison | birth_name = Alma Gertrude Vansittart Strettell | birth_date = 1853 | birth_place = Genoa | death_date = 1939 | death_place = Boston | citizenship = British | occupation = Translator, poet }}

'''Alma Gertrude Vansittart Harrison''' ({{Nee|'''Strettell'''}}; 1853–1939) was a British translator and poet known for her translations of folk songs, folk tales, and poems from Greek, Romanian, French, Provençal, German, Norwegian, and other languages.

==Early life and family== thumb|Mrs Peter Harrison (Alma Strettell), 1905 by Sargent Alma Gertrude Vansittart Strettell was born 1853, in Genoa, Italy, the daughter of Laura Vansittart (née Neale) and the Reverend Alfred Baker Strettell, the British consular chaplain in Genoa, and subsequently the rector of St. Martin’s Church in Canterbury.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Houston |first=Natalie M. |title=Alma Strettell (1853 – 1939) |url=https://1890s.ca/strettell_bio/ |access-date=2024-08-03 |website=Yellow Nineties 2.0 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=atkinson/> Strettell was brought up in Italy, and only moved to Britain in 1873 after her older sister, Alice Comyns Carr married and moved there, later becoming a costume designer and a leader of the Artistic Dress movement there.<ref name=":0" />

In 1890, Strettell married Lawrence Alexander "Peter" Harrison (1866–1937), an English painter, and continued to publish under her maiden name. They had three children.<ref name=":0" /> thumb|Sargent - A Game of Bowls, 1889, NT 826023

==Literary career== Strettell established a reputation as a translator with some forty translations that she contributed to the 1889 volume ''Selections from the Greek Anthology''.<ref name=":0" /> She is one of only five translators named on the title page.<ref name=":0" /> Over the subsequent decades of her career, critics complimented her on her "genius for felicitous paraphrases" from foreign languages<ref name=studio/> and on her ability to make her translations sound as if they were originally written in English.<ref name=harrison/>

Two years later, she collaborated with Elisabeth of Wied, Queen consort of Romania, who published under the pen name Carmen Sylva.<ref name=":0" /> Together they translated the Romanian-French writer Elena Văcărescu's Romanian folk songs into English under the title ''The Bard of the Dimbovitza''.<ref name=":0" /> The book proved popular and went through multiple reprints over the next decade, with selections being set to music by such composers as Charles Griffes, Arnold Bax, and Arthur Foote.<ref name=":0" /> They later (1896) collaborated on a second volume of translations, this time of folk tales.<ref name=":0" />

In 1894, Strettell published ''Lullabies of Many Lands'', which included translations from German, Norwegian, and Romanian.<ref name=":0" />

In 1897, she published a book of translations of Spanish and Italian folk songs.<ref name=":0" /> It was illustrated by Edwin Austin Abbey and John Singer Sargent.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Sargent, a close friend, painted Strettell's portrait twice, once around 1889 and again in 1905, and also included her in several group studies. She is among a group of figures in his 1889 painting ''A Game of Bowls, Ightham Mote, Kent''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Game of Bowls John Singer Sargent, RA (Florence 1856 - London 1925) |url=https://static.nationaltrust.org.uk/waf/waf.html?_event_transid=0 |access-date=2024-08-03 |website=static.nationaltrust.org.uk}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

In 1899, Strettell published ''Poems of Émile Verhaeren'', with an expanded version in 1915 that stood as the major English translation of Verhaeren's work for the remainder of the century.<ref name=":0" /> Another poet she translated was Frédéric Mistral; her versions were issued in tandem with the 1907 English translation of his memoirs edited by Constance Maud.<ref name=":0" /> Other poets she translated included Paul Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire.<ref name=":0" />

Strettell also published some of her own poetry in ''The Yellow Book'' and ''The Fortnightly Review''.<ref name=":0" />

==Publications== '''Translations''' *''Spanish and Italian Folk-Songs'' (1887)<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Spanish & Italian Folk-Songs {{!}} Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum |url=https://www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/collection/20474 |access-date=2024-08-03 |website=www.gardnermuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> *''Selections from the Greek Anthology'' (1889, edited by Rosamund Marriott Watson; some 40 translations) *''The Bard of the Dimbovitza'' (Vol 1 1891, Vol 2 1894), (translation with Carmen Sylva of Elena Văcărescu's ''Lieder aus dem Dimbovitzathal'' (Bonn, 1889), collection of Romanian folk-songs, etc)<ref>{{Cite web |title=YBV2_advertisements – Yellow Nineties 2.0 |url=https://1890s.ca/ybv2_advertisements/ |access-date=2024-08-03 |language=en-US}}</ref> *''Lullabies of Many Lands'' (1894, 1896) *''Legends from River & Mountain'' (1896, with Carmen Sylva) *''Poems of Émile Verhaeren'' (1899) *''The Metamorphosis'' (1922). London *''Memoirs of Mistral'' (1907, edited by Constance Maud, with translations from the Provençal) *''The Wreckers (les naufrageurs)'' (1909, with Ethel Smyth) '''Articles''' *"A Little Western Town" (1881, ''Macmillan's Magazine'') *"An Indian Festival" (1882, ''Macmillan's Magazine'')

==Extract== :Beware of black old cats, with evil faces; :Yet more, of kittens white and soft be wary: :My sweetheart was just such a little fairy, :And yet she well-nigh scratched my heart to pieces. :—Alice Strettell, from her translation of Heinrich Heine's poem "Hüt Dich, mein Freund, vor grimmen Teufelsfratsen"

==References== <references>

<ref name=atkinson>Atkinson, Damian. ''The Selected Letters of Alice Meynell: Poet and Essayist'', p. 126 FN.</ref>

<ref name=studio>"New Publications". ''The Studio'', vol. 5 p. 111. (Book review).</ref>

<ref name=harrison>Harrison, Frederic. "The Bard of the Dimbovitza". ''The Fortnightly Review'', vol. 56, pp. 715–718. (Book review).</ref>

</references>

==External links== * {{Gutenberg author|id=36607}} *[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33792/33792-h/33792-h.htm ''Poems of Émile Verhaeren'' (1899)] - Alma Strettell's translation at Project Gutenberg * {{Librivox author |id=17221}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strettell, Alma Gertrude Vansittart}} Category:1853 births Category:1939 deaths Category:19th-century British poets Category:19th-century British women poets Category:20th-century British poets Category:19th-century British translators