The Project Gutenberg EBook of Faust, by Goethe
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Faust
Author: Goethe
Release Date: December 25, 2004 [EBook #14460]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAUST ***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Bidwell and the PG Online
Distributed Proofreading Team
FAUST
A TRAGEDY
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
OF
GOETHE
WITH NOTES
BY
CHARLES T BROOKS
SEVENTH EDITION.
BOSTON
TICKNOR AND FIELDS
MDCCCLXVIII.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856,
by CHARLES T. BROOKS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
of the District of Rhode Island.
UNIVERSITY PRESS:
WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY,
CAMBRIDGE.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Perhaps some apology ought to be given to English scholars, that is, those
who do not know German, (to those, at least, who do not know what sort of
a thing Faust is in the original,) for offering another translation to the
public, of a poem which has been already translated, not only in a literal
prose form, but also, twenty or thirty times, in metre, and sometimes with
great spirit, beauty, and power.
The author of the present version, then, has no knowledge that a rendering
of this wonderful poem into the exact and ever-changing metre of the
original has, until now, been so much as attempted. To name only one
defect, the very best versions which he has seen neglect to follow the
exquisite artist in the evidently planned and orderly intermixing of
_male_ and _female_ rhymes, _i.e._ rhymes which fall on the last syllable
and those which fall on the last but one. Now, every careful student of
the versification of Faust must feel and see that Goethe did not
intersperse the one kind of rhyme with the other, at random, as those
translators do; who, also, give the female rhyme (on which the vivacity of
dialogue and description often so much depends,) in so small a proportion.
A similar criticism might be made of their liberty in neglecting Goethe's
method of alternating different measures with each other.
It seems as if, in respect to metre, at least, they had asked themselves,
how would Goethe have written or shaped this in English, had that been his
native language, instead of seeking _con amore_ (and _con fidelità_) as
they should have done, to reproduce, both in spirit and in form, the
movement, so free and yet orderly, of the singularly endowed and
accomplished poet whom they undertook to represent.
As to the objections which Hayward and some of his reviewers have
instituted in advance against the possibility of a good and faithful
metrical translation of a poem like Faust, they seem to the present
translator full of paradox and sophistry. For instance, take this
assertion of one of the reviewers: "The sacred and mysterious union of
thought with verse, twin-born and immortally wedded from the moment of
their common birth, can never be understood by those who desire verse
translations of good poetry." If the last part of this statement had read
"by those who can be contented with _prose_ translations of good poetry,"
the position would have been nearer the truth. This much we might well
admit, that, if the alternative were either to have a poem like Faust in a
metre different and glaringly different from the original, or to have it
in simple and strong prose, then the latter alternative would be the one
every tasteful and feeling scholar would prefer; but surely to every one
who can read the original or wants to know how this great song _sung
itself_ (as Carlyle says) out of Goethe's soul, a mere prose rendering
must be, comparatively, a _corpus mortuum._
The translator most heartily dissents from Hayward's assertion that a
translator of Faust "must sacrifice either metre or meaning." At least he
flatters himself that he has made, in the main, (not a compromise between
meaning and melody, though in certain instances he may have fallen into
that, but) a combination of the meaning with the melody, which latter is
so important, so vital a part of the lyric poem's meaning, in any worthy
sense. "No poetic translation," says Hayward's reviewer, already quoted,
"can give the rhythm and rhyme of the original; it can only substitute the
rhythm and rhyme of the translator." One might just as well say "no
_prose_ translation can give the _sense and spirit_ of the original; it
can only substitute the _sense and spirit of the words and phrases of the
translator's language_;" and then, these two assertions balancing each
other, there will remain in the metrical translator's favor, that he may
come as near to giving both the letter and the spirit, as the effects of
the Babel dispersion will allow.
As to the original creation, which he has attempted here to reproduce, the
translator might say something, but prefers leaving his readers to the
poet himself, as revealed in the poem, and to the various commentaries of
which we have some accounts, at least, in English. A French translator of
the poem speaks in his introduction as follows: "This Faust, conceived by
him in his youth, completed in ripe age, the idea of which he carried with
him through all the commotions of his life, as Camoens bore his poem with
him through the waves, this Faust contains him entire. The thirst for
knowledge and the martyrdom of doubt, had they not tormented his early
years? Whence came to him the thought of taking refuge in a supernatural
realm, of appealing to invisible powers, which plunged him, for a
considerable time, into the dreams of Illuminati and made him even invent
a religion? This irony of Mephistopheles, who carries on so audacious a
game with the weakness and the desires of man, is it not the mocking,
scornful side of the poet's spirit, a leaning to sullenness, which can be
traced even into the earliest years of his life, a bitter leaven thrown
into a strong soul forever by early satiety? The character of Faust
especially, the man whose burning, untiring heart can neither enjoy
fortune nor do without it, who gives himself unconditionally and watches
himself with mistrust, who unites the enthusiasm of passion and the
dejectedness of despair, is not this an eloquent opening up of the most
secret and tumultuous part of the poet's soul? And now, to complete the
image of his inner life, he has added the transcendingly sweet person of
Margaret, an exalted reminiscence of a young girl, by whom, at the age of
fourteen, he thought himself beloved, whose image ever floated round him,
and has contributed some traits to each of his heroines. This heavenly
surrender of a simple, good, and tender heart contrasts wonderfully with
the sensual and gloomy passion of the lover, who, in the midst of his
love-dreams, is persecuted by the phantoms of his imagination and by the
nightmares of thought, with those sorrows of a soul, which is crushed, but
not extinguished, which is tormented by the invincible want of happiness
and the bitter feeling, how hard a thing it is to receive or to bestow."
DEDICATION.[1]
Once more ye waver dreamily before me,
Forms that so early cheered my troubled eyes!
To hold you fast doth still my heart implore me?
Still bid me clutch the charm that lures and flies?
Ye crowd around! come, then, hold empire o'er me,
As from the mist and haze of thought ye rise;
The magic atmosphere, your train enwreathing,
Through my thrilled bosom youthful bliss is breathing.
Ye bring with you the forms of hours Elysian,
And shades of dear ones rise to meet my gaze;
First Love and Friendship steal upon my vision
Like an ol
没有合适的资源?快使用搜索试试~ 我知道了~
资源推荐
资源详情
资源评论
收起资源包目录
MapXtreme For Java简单例子 (1433个子文件)
Storage.as 12KB
DojoExternalInterface.as 8KB
DojoExternalInterface.as 7KB
ExpressInstall.as 2KB
upload.cgi 1KB
MapServer.class 15KB
dwrService.class 833B
.classpath 473B
org.eclipse.wst.common.component 435B
tundra.css 35KB
soria.css 31KB
dijit.css 25KB
flags.css 20KB
images.css 7KB
tundra_rtl.css 5KB
dojo.css 5KB
noir.css 4KB
Grid.css 4KB
firebug.css 4KB
mail.css 3KB
dijit_rtl.css 3KB
FloatingPane.css 2KB
SlideShow.css 2KB
soria_rtl.css 2KB
Show.css 2KB
FileInput.css 2KB
offline-widget.css 2KB
ThumbnailPicker.css 2KB
SortList.css 2KB
ColorPicker.css 2KB
Lightbox.css 1KB
dndDefault.css 1KB
SlideShow.css 813B
Toaster.css 778B
dnd.css 715B
RadioGroup.css 702B
chat.css 664B
picasaDemo.css 650B
flickrDemo.css 495B
flickrDemo.css 495B
FisheyeList.css 459B
ResizeHandle.css 443B
TableContainer.css 443B
Loader.css 376B
Gallery.css 127B
movies2.csv 319B
movies.csv 317B
patterns.csv 143B
storage_dialog.fla 336KB
flash6_gateway.fla 40KB
about_back.gif 22KB
testImage.gif 14KB
roller.gif 7KB
mapinfologo.gif 5KB
editor.gif 4KB
editor.gif 4KB
loading.gif 4KB
indeterminate_progress.gif 3KB
icons.gif 3KB
checkmark.gif 2KB
checkmarkNoBorder.gif 2KB
icon32.gif 2KB
dijitProgressBarAnim.gif 2KB
progressBarAnim.gif 2KB
navBtns.gif 1KB
treeExpand_loading.gif 1KB
treeExpand_loading.gif 1KB
font_button.gif 985B
globe.gif 960B
zoomalls.gif 917B
closed.gif 907B
open.gif 907B
zoomall.gif 901B
viewentirelayer.gif 901B
projection.gif 889B
visible.gif 861B
i_rtl.gif 857B
i_half_rtl.gif 848B
arrow-down.gif 842B
arrow-up.gif 837B
flatScreen.gif 824B
1pixel.gif 807B
loading.gif 751B
loading.gif 751B
trash.gif 554B
treeExpand_minus_rtl.gif 553B
treeExpand_plus_rtl.gif 553B
treeExpand_minus.gif 552B
treeExpand_plus.gif 552B
treeExpand_minus_rtl.gif 550B
treeExpand_plus_rtl.gif 550B
treeExpand_plus.gif 547B
treeExpand_minus.gif 547B
routing.gif 393B
label_button.gif 380B
visible_button.gif 367B
arrowUp.gif 337B
arrowDown.gif 336B
arrowRight.gif 335B
arrowLeft.gif 332B
共 1433 条
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 15
资源评论
- syh2292017-10-19老大,com.mapinfo.dp 和 com.mapinfo.util等jar包在哪下啊?
caotch925
- 粉丝: 0
- 资源: 5
上传资源 快速赚钱
- 我的内容管理 展开
- 我的资源 快来上传第一个资源
- 我的收益 登录查看自己的收益
- 我的积分 登录查看自己的积分
- 我的C币 登录后查看C币余额
- 我的收藏
- 我的下载
- 下载帮助
安全验证
文档复制为VIP权益,开通VIP直接复制
信息提交成功