F :rc1st,
Title: Faust
Release Date: Ja."'L'-'ary 4, 2CC5lEBook #:l4591J Language: English
Produced by Juhet Sutherland, Chuck Greif a."'ld the}\:'-.; Onhne Distributed P:coofreading Tea..rn FA.UST
by
johaEn \Volfgang VO!l Goethe \1/lTH II ,LUST'_RATIONS BY
Harry Clarke TFU\NSLATED INTC_;E:;:.JGLlSH, IN T_}---l.J:l: ORlGI:;:.JA:::_.l-/J:ET'RES, BY
l
Bayard Taylor
An Illustrated Edition
THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY CLEVELAND, OHIO NEW YORK, N.Y.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS PREFACE
AN GOETHE DEDICATION
PRELUDE AT THE THEATRE PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN FAUST
SCENE I. NIGHT (Faust's Monologue) II. BEFORE THE CITY-GATE
III. THE STUDY (The Exorcism) IV. THE STUDY (The Compact) V. AUERBACH'S CELLAR
VI. WITCHES' KITCHEN VII. A STREET
VIII. EVENING IX. PROMENADE
X. THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE XI. STREET
XII. GARDEN
XIII. A GARDEN-ARBOR XIV. FOREST AND CAVERN XV. MARGARET'S ROOM XVI. MARTHA'S GARDEN XVII. AT THE FOUNTAIN
XVIII. DONJON (Margaret's Prayer) XIX. NIGHT (Valentine's Death)
XX. CATHEDRAL
XXI. WALPURGIS-NIGHT
XXII. OBERON AND TITANIA'S GOLDEN WEDDING XXIII. DREARY DAY
XXIV. NIGHT XXV. DUNGEON
2
Preface
It is twenty years since I first determined to attempt the translation of Faust, in the original metres. At that time, although more than a score of English translations of the First Part, and three or four of the Second Part, were in existence, the experiment had not yet been made. The prose version of Hayward seemed to have been accepted as the standard, in default of anything more satisfactory: the English critics, generally sustaining the translator in his views concerning the secondary importance of form in Poetry, practically discouraged any further attempt; and no one, familiar with rhythmical expression through the needs of his own nature, had devoted the necessary love and patience to an adequate reproduction of the great work of Goethe's life.
Mr. Brooks was the first to undertake the task, and the publication of his translation of the First Part (in 1856) induced me, for a time, to give up my own design. No previous English version exhibited such abnegation of the translator's own tastes and habits of thought, such reverent desire to present the original in its purest form. The care and conscience with which the work had been performed were so apparent, that I now state with reluctance what then seemed to me to be its only deficiencies,--a lack of the lyrical fire and fluency of the original in some passages, and an occasional lowering of the tone through the use of words which are literal, but not equivalent. The plan of translation adopted by Mr. Brooks was so entirely my own, that when further residence in Germany and a more careful study of both parts of Faust had satisfied me that the field was still open,--that the means furnished by the poetical affinity of the two languages had not yet been exhausted,--nothing remained for me but to follow him in all essential particulars. His example confirmed me in the belief that there were few difficulties in the way of a nearly literal yet thoroughly rhythmical version of Faust, which might not be overcome by loving labor. A comparison of seventeen English translations, in the arbitrary metres adopted by the translators, sufficiently showed the danger of allowing license in this respect: the white light of Goethe's thought was thereby passed through the tinted glass of other minds, and assumed the coloring of each. Moreover, the plea of selecting different metres in the hope of producing a similar effect is unreasonable, where the identical metres are possible.
The value of form, in a poetical work, is the first question to be considered. No poet ever understood this question more thoroughly than Goethe himself, or expressed a more positive opinion in regard to it. The alternative modes of translation which he presents (reported by Riemer, quoted by Mrs. Austin, in her "Characteristics of Goethe," and accepted by Mr. Hayward),[A] are quite independent of his views concerning the value of form, which we find given elsewhere, in the clearest and most emphatic manner. [B] Poetry is not simply a fashion of expression: it is the form of expression absolutely required by a certain class of ideas. Poetry, indeed, may be distinguished from Prose by the single circumstance, that it is the utterance of whatever in man cannot be perfectly uttered in any other than a rhythmical form: it is useless to say that the naked meaning is independent of the form: on the contrary, the form contributes essentially to the fullness of the meaning. In Poetry which endures through its own inherent vitality, there is no forced union of these two elements. They are as intimately blended, and with the same mysterious beauty, as the sexes in the ancient Hermaphroditus. To attempt to represent Poetry in Prose, is very much like attempting to translate music into speech.[C]
[A] "'There are two maxims of translation,' says he: 'the one requires that the author, of a foreign nation, be brought to us in such a manner that we may regard him as our own; the other, on the contrary, demands of us that we transport ourselves over to him, and adopt his situation, his mode of speaking, and his peculiarities. The advantages of both are sufficiently known to all instructed persons, from masterly examples.'" Is it necessary, however, that there should always be this alternative? Where the languages are kindred, and equally capable of all varieties of metrical expression, may not both these "maxims" be observed in the same translation? Goethe, it is true, was of the opinion that Faust ought to be given, in French, in the manner of Clement Marot; but this was undoubtedly because he felt the inadequacy of modern French to express the naive, simple realism of many passages. The same
objection does not apply to English. There are a few archaic expressions in Faust, but no more than are still allowed--nay, frequently encouraged--in the English of our day.
[B] "You are right," said Goethe; "there are great and mysterious agencies included in the various forms of Poetry. If the substance of my 'Roman Elegies' were to be expressed in the tone and measure of Byron's 'Don Juan,' it would really have an atrocious ef-fect."--Eckermann.
"The rhythm," said Goethe, "is an unconscious result of the poetic mood. If one should stop to consider it mechanically, when
about to write a poem, one would become bewildered and accomplish nothing of real poetical value."--Ibid.
3
"All that is poetic in character should be rythmically treated! Such is my conviction; and if even a sort of poetic prose should be gradually introduced, it would only show that the distinction between prose and poetry had been completely lost sight of."--Goethe to Schiller, 1797.
Tycho Mommsen, in his excellent essay, Die Kunst des Deutschen Uebersetzers aus neueren Sprachen, goes so far as to say: "The metrical or rhymed modelling of a poetical work is so essentially the germ of its being, that, rather than by giving it up, we might hope to construct a similar work of art before the eyes of our countrymen, by giving up or changing the substance. The immeasura-ble result which has followed works wherein the form has been retained--such as the Homer of Voss, and the Shakespeare of Tieck and Schlegel--is an incontrovertible evidence of the vitality of the endeavor."
[C] "Goethe's poems exercise a great sway over me, not only by their meaning, but also by their rhythm. It is a language which stimu-
lates me to composition."--Beethoven.
The various theories of translation from the Greek and Latin poets have been admirably stated by Dryden in his Preface to the "Translations from Ovid's Epistles," and I do not wish to continue the endless discussion,--especially as our literature needs examples, not opinions. A recent expression, however, carries with it so much authority,