The Life of Carmen Sylva (Queen of Roumania)

Chapter 2: TRANSLATOR’S NOTE.

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About This Book

The biography traces the life of a German princess who becomes the consort of a Balkan monarch, beginning with her ancestral roots and the cultured environment of her childhood at Monrepos. It follows her education, travels, courtship and marriage, and adjustment to life in her adopted country, including joys and sorrows of motherhood. The narrative examines her public duties, charitable and national initiatives, and responses to wartime hardships, and it presents her literary output under the pen name Carmen Sylva, with selections of poetry and reflections on philosophy and cultural life.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE.

The following pages are a translation of Baroness Stackelberg’s book, “Aus dem Leben Carmen Sylva’s.”

Having known “Monrepos” from my childhood, and “Segenhaus” since it was built, it was but a labour of love to me to render this account of “Carmen Sylva,” and the distinguished family to which Her Majesty belongs, in English.

I have also thought that many who do not read German might be interested thus to become acquainted with so gifted a writer, so noble a woman.

My thanks are due to Sir Edwin Arnold for kindly translating some of the poems, as well as to Professor Max Müller for his advice regarding the translation of the philosophical pages.

HILDA DEICHMANN,
née de BUNSEN.

London, 1890.