Faust

A Tragedy, Part I

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Eugene Stelzig, Eugene Stelzig, Eugene Stelzig

• Publisher: Bucknell University Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781684481446
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

Goethe is the most famous German author, and the poetic drama Faust, Part I (1808) is his best-known work, one that stands in the company of other leading canonical works of European literature such as Dante's Inferno and Shakespeare's Hamlet. This is the first new translation into English since David Constantine's 2005 version. Why another translation when there are several currently in print? To invoke Goethe's own authority when speaking of his favorite author, Shakespeare, Goethe asserts that so much has already been said about the poet-dramatist "that it would seem there's nothing left to say, " but adds, "yet it is the peculiar attribute of the spirit that it constantly motivates the spirit." Goethe's great dramatic poem continues to speak to us in new ways as we and our world continually change, and thus a new or updated translation is always necessary to bring to light Faust 's almost inexhaustible, mysterious, and enchanting poetic and cultural power. Eugene Stelzig's new translation renders the text of the play in clear and crisp English for a contemporary undergraduate audience while at the same time maintaining its leading poetic features, including the use of rhyme.Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide byRutgers University Press.

Faust, Part I

DEDICATION1

Once more you draw near, shifting shapes that

1

In early days appeared to my dim gaze.

Should I seek to hold you fast this time?

Is my heart still inclined to those illusions?

You press forward! Well, then, have your way

5

As you rise from the mist and fog surrounding me:

The enchanting breath of your magic train

Thrills my heart with youth’s vigor once again.

You bring with you images of happy days,

10

And many dear shadows reappear;

First love and friendship rise up like

An old, half-forgotten fairy tale;

The pain returns and repeats anew the woe

Of life’s labyrinthine errant ways,

15

And names those good souls who, cheated of happy hours

By fate’s decree, disappeared long before me.

They do not hear the ensuing songs,

Those souls to whom I sang my first;

20

Their friendly throng has been dispersed;

The first reverberation, alas, has died away

And now my sad song2 resounds to an unknown crowd

Whose very applause gives my heart a fearful start,

And those who once delighted in my song,

25

If still alive, now wander far and wide too long.

I feel again the long-lost yearning

For that serene and somber spirit world,

My lisping melody soars in uncertain

Tones like those of an antique wind harp,3

30

A shudder seizes me, tear follows tear,

The stern heart grows mild and soft,

What I possess seems so far from me,

And all that’s gone becomes a living reality.

PRELUDE IN THE THEATER4

DIRECTOR: Tell me, you two who have so often stood by

35

Me in need and adversity, what do

You expect from our enterprise

In the German-s...