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Abstract Hannelore Michel SCHLUTZ Studies to Stefan George's Abstract Hannelore Michel SCHLUTZ Studies to Stefan George's Translation of Shakespeare's Sonnets Department of German. Thesis for Master of Arts degree. Stefan George translated Shakespeare's Sonnets because their theme lends itself to a supra-sexual interpretation, which was in accord with his view of life and art. He failed, however, to reproduce convincingly the emotional content of the original poems. This failure is due to differences in personality between the two poets as mani­ fested in their lives and works. To verify the change in emotional content, verbal analysis has been employed, with concentration on diver­ gencies in imagery, diction and syntax and the effect of these divergencies on the emotional content of the sonnets. Studies to Stefan George's Translation of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Hannelore Michel Schlutz A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research of McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirernents for the degree of Master of Arts. April 1969. @ Hannelore j·iichel Schlut.7. lOt.n , l wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to Prof. Dr. A. Arnold, Chairman of the Department of German, for his valuable help in the prepara­ tion of this thesis. Contents I. George and Shakespeare Page 1 II. A Comparison o~ the Original with the Translation 17 III. What is "Emotional Content"? 19 IV. From the Concrete to the Abstract A. Intellectualization o~ Imagery 22 B. Generalization of Particulars 33 V. Diction A. Emotional Value of Words 44 B. Omission of Single Words or Repetitions 65 VI. Technicalities Pertaining to Language A. Loss o~ Connective Elements 71 B. Omission of ÂI'1ti thetical Expï'essions 74 c. Loss o~ Puns 77 VII. Summary gl Footnotes gg Bibliography 94 1 l. George alld Shakelipeare; Shakespeare's Sonnets were ~irst published in May 1609. Since that date the contradictory judgments and conjectures o~ literary critics have at times obscured the ~act that the sequence contains some o~ the.best peetry in the English language. Lever asserts, There is no parallel in-the whole corpus of Renais­ sance poetry to Shakespéare's sustained exploration of the theme of friendship through more than one hundred and twenty sonnets.l Dover Wilson calls them "the greatest love poetry in the worldtt2 and C. S. Lewis, "the supreme lQve poetry of the world,,3. It is interesting to note, as an example of the contradiction referred to above, that one of the critics emphasizes the concept of friendship, the other two that of love. Stefan George became acquainted with Shakespeare's works during his high school years. He visited England in 1888, and May have widened his knowledge then. One would think, however, that he would have been repelled rather than attracted by the English poet. Shakespeare's genius was gigantic, but untidy. He was passionate, emotional, sentiment­ al, and vulgar; he understood - and apparently also liked - the uncouth rabble. He loved women and could be obscene and loud. We know that George was aware of these characteristics 2 from a letter that Gundolf wrote to the poet and in which he says,' lm Grillparzer fand ich einige Saetze ueber Shakespeare die mit Deiner Lehre ueber den Dramatiker ueberraschend einstimmen ••• : dass nur ein M6nsch von den wildesten Leidenschaften Dramatiker sein koenne und in Sh. die Moeglichkeit zum Moerder Dieb und Schurken gewesen sei ••• 4 These attributes are reflected in Shakespeare's work, and it is surprising, therefore, that the reticent and fastidious George developed such great interest in the English poet. George was deliberately exclusive; he dis­ dained the masses and surely would have had little under­ standing for Shakespeare's sympathy with the "groundlings" (those visitors of the theatre who could not afford balcony seats and therefore had to stand in the pit and on the ground). Despite his foilowing of dedicated disciples, none of George's works became generally known or popular. Erich von Kahler explains, Die Bewegung, die vor. George ausgegangen ist, ••• war eine eminent aristokratische, massenfeind­ liche Bewegung.5 George had set himself the task of stemming the decay of culture and restoring poetry to pristine purity, perfect­ ion, and dignity. He looked upon the writing of poetry as the conscious creation of culture; Shakespeare wrote to make 3 a living. Shakespeare's outstanding female characters are witnesses to his liking for the fair sex and to his un­ derstanding and knowledge of it. George, on the other hand, found warnen, "too hound up with primitive natural forCes"6, and Kahler remarks, Prinz Indra, Gift àer Nacht, Einer Sklavin, Die Sirene zeigen das Weibliche als das untere, aufwuehlenàe, aufloesende Element, aIs die schwerste Gefaehrdung des Dichtèrs."7 A comparison of the works of the two poets shows few parallels. George was an idealist in discord with his time.Gerhard says,"er war von der Zeitstunde durch 8 eine abgruendige Fremdheit getrenntn • AlI his works are didactic; he pronounces and prophesies. In his early writing he dwells on aesthetic dreams and symbols; in Jahr der Seele, he proclaims the existence of a supra­ individual, given unity of nature and man. Algabal shows us the contrast between poetic vocation and the baseness of everyday life; Der Siebente Ring accuses; Der Stern des Bundes decrees the laws for a Georgèan humanity. Shakespeare was a man of his time who wrote success- fuI plays for the Elizabethan taste. Even the sonnets are 4 at times conventional in imagery and secondary themes., and they show us pictures of the daily life: the land~cape, the rainy weather (S.34), the father and his child (S.37), the tired horse (S.50 and 51), the thrifty housewife who chases after a run-away hen (S.143). Shakespeare was an actor, an author, the owner of a theatre and other real estate. Not mere luck, but a knowledge of people and his time made him successful in aIl these enterprises. He recognizeà the worth and simple wisdom of the commoner - witness the gravediggersin Hamlet, the shepherd Gerin in As You Like It. His philosophy, as revealed in his plays, is largely a reflection of the thought of his era. He hai no ethical message to prQnounce and the life of man in this world was a puzzle to him, " ••••••••••••••• men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither. Ripeness is aIl." (King Lear, V,2, 9-11) and "the rest is silence" (Hamlet V, 2,) George held his work so rare that he did not even offer the first edition for sale. He presented it to se­ lected friends and sponsors who admired him as the "Master" and addressed him so. In comparison, Shakespeare concerneà himself so little with the future of his works, that the first complete edition was published only after his death - even though he had retired from the theatre several years 5 ea~lier. He used his plays for immediate working mate rial but hardly saw in them the possibility of later fame~ George consciously occupied himself with "great thoughtstl , expressing them in artistic and precious hyper­ bole and monumental "Spruchdichtung". Shakespeare prefer­ red drama and blank verse (the former for its saleability, the latter for its adaptability). He gave to the English language more commonly-used expressions than any other English writer and did so because much of what he said was c~mmon property to begin ~th. The Sonnets are personal confessions of Shakespeare - not only of his love, but also of his fears and desires. Of aIl of George's works, only Jahr der Seele approaches the personal confession. We say "approaches" by design, for George had left behind him aIl that was personal and all that was experience. Shakespeare's rich personality and al1- embracing humanism were foreign to him. Why did Stefan Georgê -thhee hundred years after their first printing - translate the Sonnets into German? Why did he, who was so different from Shakespeare in character, philosophy, and taste, undertake the gigantic task of trans­ lating aIl of the one hundred and fifty-four sonnets with painstaking exactitude into his own language? 6 This question could be answered by pointing out that a considerable part Gr George's work consists of translations, and that therefore no special reason for his including the Sonnets need be advanced. Throughout his lire George worked on translations, and often acquir­ ed the necessary knowledge of other languages solely for this purpose. He translated from French, English, Italian, Danish, Dut ch , and Polish wri·tings. Unlike Many poets, however, (and Rilke is a good example of these) George did not translate only in those periods when his own muse had forsaken him. He regarded the translation of poetry not as a literary exercise, but as a task of poetic creation. This fact, and the stimulation he re­ ceived by assisting his friend Gundolf w~th his trans­ lation of Shakespeare, might be regarded as sufficient motivation for the tremendous work. One cannot help noticing, however, that aIl of George's other translations are selections; as a rule he translated only parts of a work by authors of a like poetic vein, as Dante, Dowson, d'Annunzio, and Baudelaire. Why dïd,he.:riot cQJlfine himself to a selection from the Sonnets? Surely he had noticed that some of the sonnets arE: not of high quality and could easily be omitted. But George trans­ lated the entire sequence, the good as weIl as the bad and 7 mediocre poems. This seems to indicate that he had recogn­ ized an underlying theme which emerges only when we con­ sider the whole sequence, and that he thought the theme too important to obscure it by limiting his translation to sections of the sequence.
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