Kinbote's Mistranslation of The Erlking

Kinbote praises Shade for his translation of Der Erlkonig, saying in his commentary, "One cannot sufficiently admire the ingenious way in which Shade manages to transfer something of the broken rhythm of the ballade (a trisyllabic meter at heart) into his iambic verse: Who rides so late in the night and the wind... It is the father with his child." What Kinbote fails to realize is that this is a literal translation of the poem. Shade does not come up with the wording that fits his poem perfectly. This is a literal translation of the original German words. Rather than changing Goethe's poem to fit Pale Fire, Shade writes his poem Pale Fire to fit in around this literal translation.