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 [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.