When Hamann starts his "Aesthetica in nuce" with the exclamation: "Nicht Leier! – noch Pinsel! – eine Wurfschaufel für meine Muse, die Tenne heiliger Litteratur zu fegen! – –", he obviously, as also the German edition (Reclam) notes, alludes to Matthew 3:12: "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire". With other words, like it or not, Hamann is assigning the role of Jesus to his muse. If you work with the Cambridge Edition, you will read "A winnowing-fan for my Muse", and loose, as seemingly the very studious Cambridge editor does, the link to the "winnowing fork", and to Matthew. Translate badly just one word, and nothing will be understood.
