Faust: A Tragedy

Faust: A Tragedy by JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE. The First Part. Translated, in the original Metres, by BAYARD TAYLOR. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co.

WE need not enter upon the question, which Mr. Taylor considers somewhat in his Preface, whether he had a real vocation to the present work, since Mr. Hayward had already done it acceptably in one form and Mr. Brooks in another. Translation is a labor that almost in the nature of things must be renewed from time to time ; and the fact that we had no English version by a man of so much poetical repute as himself would to our thinking justify Mr. Taylor’s attempt. He warmly acknowledges the fidelity and conscientiousness of Mr. Brooks’s translation, which he says he could not but follow “ in all essential particulars,” and of which it seemed to him the only deficiencies were “a lack of the lyrical fire and fluency of the original in some passages, and an occasional lowering of the tone through the use of the words which are literal but not equivalent.”

Mr. Taylor translates “Faust” in the original metres, with the rhymes, monosyllabic and dissyllabic, almost invariably as they are in the German, and also with a very remarkable degree of literalness, though not with so great literalness as we could have desired. There is always a question in translation of ’what shall perish, and each translator must decide for himself. For our part − and we say this at once that we may be able to do justice to Mr. Taylor − we think that, for the sake of fidelity, the rhyme had better go, as being the least of the admirable qualities of poetry. For example, he has done very beautifully that song of the “ Spirits ” in the third scene : −

We believe it scarcely possible to make a better version than this, and keep the rhyme and rhythm ; but we think it would have been better to have made a rhymeless translation, keeping only the original movement, and the dissyllabic line-endings.¹ The translator would then have been able to reproduce the poet more truthfully, and need not, perhaps, have obliged him to say “tranquiller-hearted suns” and “loveliest weather born of blue ether,” instead of what he did say : −

We state these objections as the key to the criticism which we should have generally to make upon Mr. Taylor’s version. His translation of the rhyme and metre of the original−which he also forsakes at times − is a wonderful tour de force; but sometimes it prevents his rendering the German exactly ; sometimes it obliges him to invent epithets, and very often it forces him to the use of inversions which discord with the light colloquial tone of a great part of the play.

For this last reason the most successful passages of his translation are the loftier and tenderer ones, in which the poet’s diction is further removed from every-day parlance. He appears to admirable effect, for instance, in that soliloquy of Faust’s when he enters Margaret’s chamber : −

This is very finely and faithfully done, with all the remorseful passion, the selfpitying tenderness of the man for the helplessness he is to ruin, and the feeling of the sweet domestic charm of Margaret’s character transferred to the English. This sweetness and simple domesticity, so lovely in the German, is given again with great success in the version of Margaret’s own pretty and trustful speeches :-

Now and then a precious phrase is lost; but on the whole the translation is so good that if the reader does not recur to the German he will certainly not know from poverty of the English that he has suffered any deprivation. Here, as elsewhere in Mr. Taylor’s rendering, those who read the verse aloud will perceive how he has filled himself with the music of Goethe, and how perfectly he echoes it. In nothing is his success more notable than in this particular, and yet we will not be sure that the best done of all the lyrical passages is not that only one in which Mr. Taylor permits himself so far to depart from the original as to leave unrhymed the first and third lines, which Goethe rhymed. Each reader of the German might object to a word here or there, but all can see the extraordinary closeness of the version, and all must allow its melody and beauty : −

Among the parts of the poem that seem to us remarkably well done is the “ Prelude on the Stage,” which is at once very literal and very easy, − excellent Goethean and excellent English. We like also, but with more reserve, the “ Dedication,” and it seems to us that the last scene, in which Faust and Mephistopheles appear to rescue Margaret from prison, is as a whole good almost in proportion to the difficulties of its management. We cannot always see the reason Mr. Taylor has for lengthening certain lines by a foot or more, when a faithfuller version would apparently have retained the original measure, but we are ready to believe that a more careful examination of the poem than we have been able to give it would show this. At least, we feel that without study in some sort comparable to this translator’s, self-distrust is safety for his critic.

In the immensely difficult work which Mr. Taylor proposed to himself, it would be surprising if he had perfectly succeeded, or if he could always have adhered to his own plan. He has been obliged to swerve from it at times, now to sacrifice the rhyme that he may keep the measure, now to vary the measure that he may have the rhyme, and now to make free with his author’s expressions, that he may retain his graces. But these deflections are not characteristic of the work, which preserves in a very wonderful degree the meaning, the movement, the music of the German.

Translation has limitations as inexorable as mortality, and is like the body to the soul. At the very best, it can only allow the soul to shine through, and often must obscure it. Let us never expect too much of it; rather, let the exacting critic attempt to improve any faulty passage for himself, and then he will recognize its difficulties and the narrowness of its province. Above all, it should be remembered that it is not for those who can read the original, but for those who cannot, and to whom the form and the sense are more precious than the exquisite expression, the irretainable aroma.

“Faust” presents singular difficulties to the translator. We do not generally understand that much of it is purposely common to commonplaceness, though redeemed by the vastness and grandeur of the whole design. Against this prepossession the translator sets his face with danger, and if he is true to the poet he runs the grave risk of being blamed with his diffuseness and mistiness. Add to this essential trouble the great and capricious variety of the metres which Mr. Taylor proposed to keep, and the dissyllabic rhymes which he reproduces in a language not rich in them, and some idea may be formed of the labor he has performed. The spirit in which he has performed it is one of perfect humility and devotion to the original and of the most patient art; so that where the translation seems least successful, his regret is almost sensible to the sympathetic reader, who cannot help rejoicing in his success.

Following the poem is a very interesting, full, and satisfactory mass of notes for the elucidation of the text, and the discussion of the various versions, − evidently the fruit of careful study and thorough knowledge of Faust-lore ; and then there are valuable appendices giving the legend of Faust, and the chronology of Goethe’s play.

The work appears in the sumptuous style of Mr. Longfellow’s Dante and Mr. Bryant’s Homer, and adds another to those American translations which, while they appeal to the national pride, may be read without an effort of patriotism. Let us not forget to speak of the graceful German poem which the translator addresses to Goethe, and of which the closing lines so well describe the intention, largely fulfilled, of his labor : −