Faust E-Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Herausgeber: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

MEPHISTOPHELESSince Thou, O Lord, deign'st to approach againAnd ask us how we do, in manner kindest,And heretofore to meet myself wert fain,Among Thy menials, now, my face Thou findest.Pardon, this troop I cannot follow afterWith lofty speech, though by them scorned and spurned:My pathos certainly would move Thy laughter,If Thou hadst not all merriment unlearned.Of suns and worlds I've nothing to be quoted;How men torment themselves, is all I've noted.The little god o' the world sticks to the same old way,And is as whimsical as on Creation's day.Life somewhat better might content him,But for the gleam of heavenly light which Thou hast lenthim:He calls it Reason—thence his power's increased,To be far beastlier than any beast.Saving Thy Gracious Presence, he to meA long-legged grasshopper appears to be,That springing flies, and flying springs,And in the grass the same old ditty sings.Would he still lay among the grass he grows in!Each bit of dung he seeks, to stick his nose in.

Leseprobe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

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Table of contents

Preface

DEDICATION

PRELUDE AT THE THEATRE

PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

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 —