Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium Volume 8 Issue 1 Article 22 3-26-1982 Faust in Translation: The Case of the Missing Echo Garold N. Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Davis, Garold N. (1982) "Faust in Translation: The Case of the Missing Echo," Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium: Vol. 8 : Iss. 1 , Article 22. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls/vol8/iss1/22 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Garo1d N. Davis Brigham Young University Faust in Translation: The Case of the Missing Echo In order to acquaint more students with the masteroieces of world liter ature, language deoartments are offering an increasing number of litera ture classes in translation. Although these classes can be an exciting challenge, the instructor ~ay aporoach them with some ambivalence. Even where the translations are good (as translations go) and the students demonstrate a positive response, one misses "das heil ige Original ," and may find oneself lamenting nostalgically with Goethe in the Faust "Zuei gnung" : "Ihr Beifa 11 se 1bst rnacht mei nem Herzen bang. ,I Neverthe less, Faust is excellent for such a course, and the situation is cer tainly not all negative. As a concept, "Faust" persists in the stu dents' minds like Oedipus and Hamlet. Students come to the course convinced that the encounter will be an exciting orre, and rightly so.