Lost in Translation (poem)

Merrill wrote in his lifetime mainly for a select group of friends, fans and critics, and expected readers of "Lost in Translation" to have some knowledge of his biography.

He enjoyed a privileged upbringing in economic and cultural terms, although his intelligence and exceptional financial circumstances often made him feel lonely as a child.

Given that his parents were often preoccupied, his father with business, his mother with social obligations, Merrill developed a number of close relationships with household staff.

In addition to playing with the boy's marionettes and doing jigsaw puzzles with him, Mademoiselle is teaching the young James Merrill languages which would be critical to making him the sophisticated and urbane lyric poet of later life.

We find out that Mademoiselle hid her true origins from the boy (and from his family) because of the political tensions leading up to 1939 and to the outbreak of World War II.

She presumably gained a French family name through marriage to a soldier who died in the Battle of Verdun in World War I (1914–1918).

This explains the fact that Merrill's own French, learned in imitation of his governess, was always spoken with a slight German accent.

A scene years later in which a mentalist determines that the contents of a sealed box is a single wooden jigsaw puzzle piece.