:D I had no idea that Ted Hughes did these translations, actually! (I feel kind of like -- perhaps just because Plath was American and Hughes was English, -- Hughes is relatively not well known over here. I mean, he's known, I found him as a poet as an adult, but when I was in high school I'd read a bunch of Plath and only knew Hughes as Plath's husband.) (eta: Wow, it's not just me! I just looked up Hughes in the local library; our library isn't the best, but... well, Plath has 23 hits to Hughes' 15, and almost all of Hughes' seem to be his books for children; only a couple of books of adult poetry, and none of his translations. They do have Bate's recent biography, though.)

They're also by terrific poets, which means when you read these works in English, you get something of the visceral excitement and beauty of the originals, not a sense of dutiful bland dictionary (or worse, bowlderized) rendition.

YESSSSS. The only thing prose translations are good for are when I'm trying to read in the original and I really do want to know what the thing says exactly. (Which is... rare for poetry :P ) (eta: well, okay, also useful when I'm comparing a free poetry translation to the original :PP) I want to know why people wanted to read the original!

(Also, again, <33333 to the Faust translation :D )