Laudator Temporis Acti

A sonnet by August von Platen (1796-1835), tr. Reginald B. Cooke:

What have you by your Rhine and Ister here
That may enthrone you with the ancient Greek?
The newspaper, the journal, the critique,
Ministers of police — tobacco — beer!

You who have never known those sisters dear,
Freedom and Art, who, girdled, there would seek
To place upon their heads crowns which bespeak
Perfection — would you pedants Greeks appear?

Nay, all your efforts are but mockeries.
For Greece knew how to spread th' eternal sheen
Of beauty over everything. What is

The art of which your boasts have ever been?
In a great ocean of absurdities
A few ingenious swimmers may be seen!

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Was habt ihr denn an euerm Rhein und Ister,
Um neben dem Hellenenvolk zu thronen?
Journale, Zeitungsblätter, Rezensionen,
Tabak und Bier und Polizeiminister!

Die nie ihr kanntet jene zwei Geschwister,
Freiheit und Kunst, die dort in schönern Zonen
Auf's Haupt sich setzen der Vollendung Kronen,
Ihr haltet euch für Griechen, ihr Philister?

Gestümpert habt ihr bloß nach vielen Seiten,
Da Griechenland der Schönheit ewigen Schimmer
Auf alles Seiende gewußt zu breiten.

Was ist die Kunst, mit der ihr prahlet immer?
In einem Ozean von Albernheiten
Erscheinen einige geniale Schwimmer!

My knowledge of German is meager but I wonder about "girdled" as a rendering of "in schönern Zonen". Zonen here seems to mean not belts or girdles but rather areas or regions. Could the poet mean that the Greek landscape, where the sisters Freedom and Art live, is more beautiful than the landscape by the Rhine and Danube rivers in Germany?