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

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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 [email protected], [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. There are cautions, however. As teachers of literature in translation we soon become aware that each translation has its own peculiar problems. Faust is no exceotion, Quite the contrary. And in addition to the normal problems one might exoect in over twelve thousand lines of rhymed verse there is one oarticu1arly troublesome problem in all Faust translations which if not identified and understood can cause students to miss many imoortant 1inau;stic clues to an understandina of the text and miss, as well, much of the stylistic pleasure. This is the problem of the "missinq echo."

Goethe I S fondness for echoes, for the constant recurre,nce of themati c and symbolic words, is well known. That these echoes in Faust seldom occur in exact repeating patterns, but in kaleidoscopic variety, becomes evident as one studies the text. The more obvious of these passages seems to pose no difficulties beyond those ~orma11y encountered by translators when working with rh.Y'11ing verse. 'Here, for example, is a well-known passage with which the translators have been relatively suc­ cess ful . Gretchen, devastated emotionally and spiritually fo110w;ng the visit with Lieschen at the well turns to the Mater dolorosa to find sympathy for her sufferinqs (3587 ff.):l Ach neiae, Du Schmerzenreiche, Dein Antlitz gnadig meiner Not! Over eleven thousand lines later Gretchen again aporoaches Mary, the Mater gloriosa, and her prayer is now the antithetical joyful echo of her earl i er sorrowful supol i ca ti on (12069 ff.): Neige, neige, Du Ohnegleiche, Du Strahlenreiche, Dein Antl itz gnadia meinem Gluck! The apoeal "neige" repeated in both cases, the echo of "Schmerzenreiche" as "Ohnegleiche," "Strahlenreiche," and the repetition of "Dein Antlitz

21.1 gnadi gil wi th the shi ft of "mei ner Not" to "mei nem Gl Lick" is all cl early intended to arouse in our ear and mind the linguistic-poetic relatio~ ship of the two passages. As one can see from the following English . examples, the translators have identified this poetic relationship and have translated the echoing patterns with some skil1.2 Lines 3587-89 compared with lines 12069-72: Walter Arndt: Incline, Thou rich in grief, oh shine Thy grace upon my wretchedness! Incline Thou past comoaring, Thou radiance bearino, Thy grace upon my happiness. Walter Kaufmann: Incline, Mother of pain, Your face in grace to my desoair. Incline, incline That art di~ine, Thou that dost shine, Thy face in grace to my sweet ecstasY! Charles E. Passage: o deiqn Amid your pain To look in mercy on my grief. Deign, 0 deign, Amid thy reign In radiance, To look in mercy on my joy. George Madison Priest: Oh, bend Thou, Mother of Sorrows; send Thou a look of pity on my pain. Bend, oh bend now, Matchless, attend Thou, Thy radiance soend now, Look upon my bl iss in charity. Bayard Taylor: Incline, 0 Maiden, Thou sorrow-laden, Th" graci ous contenance uoon mv oa in! I ,cline, 0 Maiden, With Mercy laden, In light unfading, Thy gracious countenance uoon my bliss!

21.2 It is not difficult to draw students' attention to the 1 inguistic-poetic relationship of these two passaaes, even in the translations. As the passages expand from two to four (and more), however, the orobl ems of translating become more complex, and consequently the echoes fainter. The difficulty lies in the fact that these echoinq oassages ~ay be sepa­ rated by hundreds or even thousands of lines, and the translators do not always maintain the echoing patterns of the rhyme as the text would force them to do, for example, if they were dealing with succeedinq lines in a short lyriC ooem. Even after Dointinq out the thematic rel~­ tionshio of one passage to another, if the rhyming or linguistic echo is not oresent the students may still not fully aporeciate either the Drob­ lem or the structure. A qood illustration is the sequence of thematic ideas deriving from Faust's confrontation with the Erdqeist, beginning at line 512, as the Erdqeist says to Faust: Du gleichst dem Geist, den du begreifst, Nicht mirl An understandi ng of thi s Dassaqe is cruci al at several ooi nts in the drama, and Goethe often gives 'us the necessary echoinq clue. At line 623, for example, Faust is reflectin~ on the experience he has had with the Erdqeist and (rather hastily) concludes: Nicht darf ich dir zu gleichen mich vermessenl In the second act as Thales leads Homunculus to an audience with the misanthrooic Nereus we hear Nereus' sarcastic comments on humankind, who are never satisfied to remain in their proDer station (8096-97): Gebilde, strebsam, Getter zu erreichen, Und doch verdammt, sich immer selbst zu qleichen. The echo of "gleichen" is heard once again in the final scene of the drama, this ti~e suggesting a realization of the unity imolicit in the words of the Erdgeist. The "SUsserin, sonst Gretchen qenannt" SnyS (12084-87) : Vom edl en Gei sterchor umgeben, Wird sich der Neue kaum qewahr, Er ahnet kaum das frische Leben, . So gleicht er schon der heiligen 5cha~. It is i~portant to discuss the thematic si~nificance of those sections in the text where the echoes occur, but these echoes are likely to be absent from the translation. The Enqlish translations of the lines Quoted above read: 3 ' Close to the wraith you comorehend, Not me! No, I may not oresume to be your equa 1 : Those artifacts, to godly likeness Drone, Yet sentenced to be ever but their own. 'Mid soirit choirs fresh life commencing, The novice scarce regains his wit, The heavenly host but dimly sensing, Already he has merqed with it. In tne German text the '.Alard "gleichen" is reoeated as a significant echo, joining these four passages toaether into a reference of meaning.

21.3 The English translations of "gleichen" in these passages are: "close to," "equal," "their own," and "merged," which althouqh adequate for the individual passages do not convey the same interrelated meaning, at 1east no tin the same way. I n each case the echoi ng key word is mi ssi nq. Here, some linguistic explanation and a readinq of the pertinent pas­ sages in German will be of significant help to the student confronting the text in English.

Finally, there is a more complex echoing pattern which can be vitally significant to an overall understanding of Goethe's Faust. This is a pattern in which the echo is heard frequently and throuqhout the text, building a subtle and at the same tiTTle more profound linquistic and poetic relationship of meaninq.

The very important eoi sode of the second Study scene in which Faust beqins his translation of das Wort is an example of such a oattern. The sequence of 'Hart, Si nn, Vafr:-and Tat is echoed throuqhout the text, but the echoTrit1pattern is overlooked Tn most translations. This oar­ ticular oattern, ''Ihich is extremely comolex, will reauire a more thor­ ough treatment than the 1 ilTlits of thi s paper all ow. I wi 11 conclude, rather, with another p~ttern, eaually subtle and equallv imoortant, involving only a sing.l€~ word and conseauently one easier to treat as an examole with little commentary. This is the echoinq pattern of the key symbolic word ewig.

When one looks closely at the text one finds that the concluding "Ewiq­ ~~eibl iche" is not an isol ated and unusual adjective-noun construction. "Ew;g," as it turns out, is more ubiquitous than unusual, and the "Ewiq-itJeibliche" is the culmination of a long series of anticioatory constructions, which, with their echoinq patterns, build toward the ma~ nificent conclusion of the Chorus Mvsticus. Once havinq seen this oat­ tern it is not difficul t to i denti fy it for students readinq the text in translation, provided constant reference is -made to the German original. The comoounds of eternity begin early in the drama. During his first confrontation with Mephistooheles, Faust contrasts the eternal creative power with Meohistooheles' daemonic futility. Having Quickly recoq­ nized the nihilistic ambitions of the "Geist der stets verneint," Faust says (1379 ff.): So setzest du der ewig reaen, Der heilsam schaffenden Gewalt Die kalte Teufelsfaust entqeqen, Die sich vergebens tUckisch ballt!4

The echo of ewiq scattered thouqh Part I increases in freauency throuqh­ out Part II.---rhis linguistic key is directed against Meohistooheles in still another oassage, this time by the chorus of Trojan wo~en who rec­ oqnize hi~ i~ his most hideous disauise as the nihilistic anta~onist to the creative and beautiful (8744 ff.): Doch uns Sterbliche notigt, ach, Leider trauriqes MiSaeschick Zu dem unsaqlichen Auaenschmerz, Den das Yerwerfliche, Ewig-Unselige Schonheitl iebenden rege macht.

21.4 Another of these compounds of eternity spoken also by the chorus of Tro­ jan women anticioates Mephistopheles' speech following Faust's death (llS9S ff.L which echos with the line, "Ich liebte mir dafUr das Ewiq­ Leere.~ The Trojan women, directed to return to Hades, ask themselves (9117 ff.): Blinkt nicht der Qoldne Stab Heischend, qebietend uns wieder zurUck Zu dem unerfreulichen, grautagenden, Ungreifbarer Gebilde vol len, Uberfullten, ewig leeren Hades?

Thi s comoari son of Mephi stoehel es' "eternal empti ness 10 wi th the over­ filled yet vacuous Hades to which they must return is an imoortant echo­ ing nattern, since in the speech of the Trojan women the powerful series of adjectives gives a vivid oicture of the sterility of the anti-cre­ ative forces of Hades and consequently of the neaative Meohistooheles hi mse 1 f. From the time of Faust's death and MephistoQheles' expression of love for the "Ewig-Leere," the cOMpounds of eternity begin to ring forth in a virtual chorus; never in syrnetrical or exact oatterns but, as is ah/ays Goethe's way, in continually varied and varvinq forms. And as these forms multiply in frequency and intensity toward the conclusion, we begin to understand more clearly the imoortant time motif that is woven into the Faust drama, but now in relation to the timeless. Throuahout the "Grab 1eguna ,. and the "Berqschl uchten" scenes, the echoes of "ewig" alternate between i1ephistooheles, with his cacaphonic nihilis­ tic satire, and the anqelic hosts, until ~e!Jhistooheles is finally silenced. The varyinq echoes continue to build, however, culminatinq in the total harmony of the "E'l/iC1-I,·leibliche." Following are further exarn­ Dles of this echoing Qattern, which, as c~n be seen from the Table, are not present in the Enqlish translations.- Mephistooheles, commenting on the jaws of hell \11646-47): Und in dem Siedequalm des Hinterqrundes Seh' ich die Flarnmenstadt in ewiger Glut. Meohi stophel es, on the acproach of the "Himmel i sche Heerschar" (11697 - 98 ) : Hier zu verlieren, w~r' euch ew'qe Schande; Ans Grab heran und haltet fest am Rande! Chorus of Angels, strewing the roses (11731-34): Worte, die wahren, i!ther im K1 aren, Ewigen Scharen Uberall Tag! Meohistopheles, gerverting his feeling of love into a pederastic attrac­ tion, with ironic mockery (11789-91): FUrwahr, der Ernste steht euch recht schon; Doch macht' ich ellch nur einmal lacheln sehn! Oas ware m;r ein ew;qes Entzucken.

Following the departur~ of ~ephistooheles, the eternal compounds are extremely positive in nature in preparation for the fi nal sonq of the Mys ti ca 1 Chorus.

21.5 Pater Ecstaticus (11854 and 11862 ff): Ewiger Wonnebrand, Gluhendes Liebeband, Siedender Schmerz der Brust, SchauMende Gotteslust ••.• DaB ja das Nichtige Alles verfluchtige, Glanze der Dauerstern, Ewiger Liebe Kern. Pater Profundis (11882-83): Sind Liebesboten, sie verkUnden, Was ewig schaffend uns umwallt. Pat2r Seraphicus (11918 ff): Steiqt hinan zu hoherm Kreise, 'Hachset immer unvermerkt, Wie, nach ewio reiner Weise, Gottes Gegenwart verstarkt. Denn das ist der Geister Nahrunq, Die im freisten ~ther waltet: Ewiqen Liebens Offenbarunq, Die zur Sel iqkeit p.ntfaltet. Di e '1011 endeteren Enger (11958 ff.): Wenn starke Geisteskraft Di e E1 emen te An sich heranqerafft, Kein Engel trennte Geeinte Zwienatur Der innigen beiden, Die ewige Liebe nur Vermag's zu scheiden. Chor der Busserinnen (12032 ff.): Du schwebst zu Hahen Der ewigen Reiche, Vernimm das Flehen Du Ohnegleiche, Du Gnadenreiche! All of which culminates both thematically and linguistically in the Cho­ rus i4ysticus \T2104 ff.): Alles VerganQliche 1st nur ein Gleichnis; Das Unzulanqliche, Hier wird's Ereiqnis; Das Unbeschreibliche, Hier ist's getan; Oas Ewig-Weibliche Zieht uns hinan.

Translations can hinder the students from complete enjoyment of the li~ gui stic echoes Goethe so carefully orovided for an understandi:1Q am! apDreciation of the drama, but with careful guidance and constant tex­ tual and oral reference to the original, the beauty 3nd significance of Goethe's Faust will not be lost. --

21.6 Notes

1 The GerTilan text ouoted throughout is the Goethes I~erke, Band I I I, edited by Erich Trunz (Hamburg: Christian Wegner Verlaq, 1960). 2 The English translations auoted for comoarison are those of Walter Arndt, A Norton Critical Edition, edited by Cyrus Hamlin (New York: VoI.W. Norton, 1976); Wal ter Kaufmann (Garden Ci ty, New York: Anchor Books, 1963); Charles E. Passage, The Library of Liberal Arts (Indian­ apolis, New York, Kansas City: Babbs-Merrill, 1965); Georqe Madison Priest, Great Books of the ~estern World, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Edi­ tor in Chief, (Chicaqo, London, Toronto: Encyclonaedia Britannica, 1952); Bayard Taylor (New York: Washington Square Press Pocket Books, 1964). Other translations consulted are those of Philio Wayne, Barker Fairley, and B.O. 'Morgan (arose).

3 For comparison only the Walter Arndt translation is used here as an example of a common problem. 4 To avoid interrupting the text with Enol ish examoles, the Table fol­ lowina;s provided for a comparative reference to the German oassaqes cited.

21.7 TABLE

Goethe ---Arndt KaufrrEnn Passage Priest Taylor

1380 eNig regen ever sanely ever live endless never actively reposing eternal

8747 Ewig- forever unholy ever acurst, Unselige deplorable accursed rep

9121 ewig leeren eternally eta.""Ilally ever empty etemally void errpty ~ty

11598 erN I ge constant eternally all this pe.q:etual endlessly SC"1affen doing creation creating creation creating

11603 Ewig-Leere Ever-errpty Eternal Eternal Everlast- void Emptiness Emptiness ing void forever

11646 ewiger Glut blaze. " eternal glcw all aglcw eternal e.'1dless infernal glow glCW'

11697 eN ' ge sharre eternal eternal e.'1dless lasting Schande eternal sharre sharre sharre shane

11733 Ewigen Heave.1'l I s hosts Eternal hosts in Eternal SC"1arren catpany hordes verity Hosts

11 791 ewiges delight of eta.1'"!lal pleasure un- eternally everl EntzUcken it all trance surpassed e.1'ltrancing rapture

11854 Ewiger joy ever Blaze of Love's holy endless ec-Endless 'v'lonnebrand searing on eternal bliss treasure static fire static

11865 Ewiger Liebe Timeless Love IS ever- essence of core of Etenlal Kern love's core lasti..""1g core e.'1dless love eternal love Love

11883 ewig all-creative creative ceaseless creative aye sC'1affend eve..""YNhere ·NOrking p:::iWers creative

11920 ewig reiner Purity pure and "Ways for- fashions pure, Weise unending clear ever pure pure orders

11924 Ewige Liebe.1'lS Timeless Timeless revelation Endless Love's Offenbarung loving's loving is of eternal loving's revelati(]l revelation revealed love revelation

11964 ewige Liebe Eternal love Eternal love Eternal love Eternal love Eternal

12033 eNigen Reiche realms As thou art eternal realms e.'1dless undying soari..'1g real..ms eteIT'.al Eden

12110 Ewig- li'btEn Eta.1'"!lal- Etc-r:lal- EteIT'.al- ~'leibliche Etemal Femi.rune Fe.rninine Wananly 'Nanan 21.8