Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
page 14 of 296 (04%)
page 14 of 296 (04%)
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sometimes so similar to that of the corresponding English metre, that
not only its harmonies and caesural pauses, but even its punctuation, may be easily retained. I am satisfied that the difference between a translation of _Faust_ in prose or metre is chiefly one of labor,--and of that labor which is successful in proportion as it is joyously performed. My own task has been cheered by the discovery, that the more closely I reproduced the language of the original, the more of its rhythmical character was transferred at the same time. If, now and then, there was an inevitable alternative of meaning or music, I gave the preference to the former. By the term "original metres" I do not mean a rigid, unyielding adherence to every foot, line, and rhyme of the German original, although this has very nearly been accomplished. Since the greater part of the work is written in an irregular measure, the lines varying from three to six feet, and the rhymes arranged according to the author's will, I do not consider that an occasional change in the number of feet, or order of rhyme, is any violation of the metrical plan. The single slight liberty I have taken with the lyrical passages is in Margaret's song,--"The King of Thule,"--in which, by omitting the alternate feminine rhymes, yet retaining the metre, I was enabled to make the translation strictly literal. If, in two or three instances, I have left a line unrhymed, I have balanced the omission by giving rhymes to other lines which stand unrhymed in the original text. For the same reason, I make no apology for the imperfect rhymes, which are frequently a translation as well as a necessity. With all its supreme qualities, _Faust_ is far from being a technically perfect work.[K] [K] "At present, everything runs in technical grooves, and the critical gentlemen begin to wrangle whether in a rhyme an _s_ should correspond |
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