E-Book Overview
This new series brings into modern English a reliable translation of a representative portion of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's vast body of work. This edition, selected from over 140 volumes in German, is the new standard in English, and contains poetry, drama, fiction, memoir, criticism, and scientific writing by the man who is probably the most influential writer in the German language. The executive editors of this collection are Victor Lange of Princeton University, Eric Blackall of Cornell University, and Cyrus Hamlin of Yale University.Princeton University Press is proud to be the distributor of the twelve volumes in hardcover of the originating publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag. In addition, Princeton will issue paperback reprints of these volumes over the next two years, beginning with volumes one through three.Goethe, the founder of the poetry of experience, created a body of poetry that is unsurpassed in lucidity of speech and imagery and in instinct for melody and rhythm. Nonetheless, many of his poems are relatively unknown to English-speaking audiences, partly because of the difficulties they have posed to translators. This volume contains translations, side by side with the German originals, of Goethe's major poems--all prepared by eminent American and English writers, and all attesting to his poetic genius.Goethe's most complex and profound work, Faust was the effort of the great poet's entire lifetime. Written over 60 years, it can be read as a document of Goethe's moral and artistic development. Faust is made available to the English reader in a completely new translation that communicates both its poetic variety and its many levels of tone. The language is present-dayEnglish, and Goethe's formal and rhythmic variety is reproduced in all its richness.The reflections on art and literature that Goethe produced throughout his life are the premise and corollary of his work as poet, novelist, and man of science. This volume contains such important essays as "On Gothic Architecture," "On the "Laocoon Group," and "Shakespeare: A Tribute." Several works in this collection appear for the first time unabridged and in fresh translations.
E-Book Content
GOETHE SELECTED POEMS And to the wise should it be manifest That good things and things pleasing to God Have always been since he said Let there be Light Also therefore preserved parchments Which tell us how the spirit hovered Over the deep and brought life to it And writings enough remain to us So that we may know Wise men and good endeavoured To continue God's work and imagination To excite the activity of the spirit And morally to shape circumstances on earth Even if the original Inherited crudeness always stood in their way Giving them much to do And much to think about. Goethe, Paralipomena to Gedichte (Artemis II, 550) GOETHE SELECTED POEMS FAUST I & ll ESSAYS ON ART AND LITERATURE FROM MY LIFE: POETRY AND TRUTH (PARTS ONE TO THREE) FROM MY LIFE: CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE I792 • SIEGE OF MAINZ (PART FOUR) ITALIAN JOURNEY EARLY VERSE DRAMAS AND PROSE PLAYS VERSE PLAYS AND EPIC WILHELM MEISTER'S APPRENTICESHIP CONVERSATIONS OF GERMAN REFUGEES & WILHELM MEISTER'S JOURNEYMAN YEAR OR THE RENUNCIANTS THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER • ELECTIVE AFFINITIES ScmNTIFIC STUDIES Collected Works in 12 Volumes • NOVELLA EXECUTIVE EDITORIAL BOARD Victor Lange, Princeton University Eric Blackall, Cornell University Cyrus Hamlin, Yale University Goethe's Collected Works, Volume 1 Johann Wolfgang von GOETHE Selected Poems Edited by Christopher Middleton With translations by Michael Hamburger, David Luke, Christopher Middleton, John Frederick Nims, Vernon Watkins Princeton University Press Princeton, New Jersey Published by Princeton U