Faust: A Tragedy, Part I by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Abstract

Reviewed by: Faust: A Tragedy, Part I by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Jessica C. Resvick Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: A Tragedy, Part I, trans. Eugene Stelzig (Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell Univ. Press, 2019). Pp. 246, $19.95 paper. “Given that there have been many English translations of Part I, and that there are several currently in print, why yet another one?” (viii). Eugene Stelzig poses this seemingly thorny question at the outset of his new translation of Goethe’s Faust. (This was a smart acquisition for the Bucknell University Press, which also puts out the series New Studies in the Age of Goethe.) Stelzig answers his question in a few different ways, but each time returns to the revivifying effects of translation: “The spirit of Goethe’s dramatic poem continues to speak to us in new and changing ways, as we and our world continually change, and thus new translations are always necessary to bring to light anew its almost inexhaustible power” (viii). The renewing potential of translation—indeed, of any act of cultural transmission—lies at the heart of so many of Goethe’s works, and Stelzig has succeeded in crafting a vibrant English version of this masterpiece. [End Page 225] With his short Translator’s Note, Stelzig addresses his motivations for retranslating Faust and highlights some of the most salient formal features of his translation. He stresses his flexible use of rhyme, rightly noting that consistent rhyming would have imposed a formal rigidity onto the text, distorting it in the process. The variable use of rhyme enables Stelzig to render the text in a freely flowing manner, and, by using rhyme more frequently as the drama progresses, he pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the work. The increasing frequency of rhyme tracks the building dramatic intensity, such that even those who have read the drama countless times before will be reluctant to put it down. As a minor point of criticism, Stelzig has curiously little to say about this delightful effect in his Translator’s Note. He offers perfunctory explanations for his focus on rhyme, but the reader is left wanting more detailed reflections on the remarkable effects of his formal choices. Stelzig’s language is crisp and lucid, and rarely does the reader stall at individual formulations, as Faust does when translating the Gospel of John (“Already I’m stuck! Who will help me onward?,” v. 1437). For the reader who indeed needs to be helped onward, the Introduction and Explanatory Notes provide clarification and context. The Introduction offers a brief overview of Goethe’s intellectual biography and includes sections covering the Faust legend, the genesis of Goethe’s text, and the major formal and thematic components of the latter. Stelzig also helpfully lists six contemporary Faust translations in a separate appendix, which will aid those who wish to compare versions. (As a warning to readers wishing to undertake such a comparison: both empty lines and stage directions are, for some reason, counted in the line numbering, so one must work from scene divisions.) A few examples give a sense of the texture of Stelzig’s own translation. One of his most memorable uses of rhyme comes in his rendering of the wager between Faust and Mephistopheles: “If ever I lie down and repose on a bed of ease, / Then you can take me as you please!” (vv. 1989–90). Contrast this with Atkins (“If on a bed of sloth I ever lie contented, / may I be done for then and there!”) or Greenberg (“If ever you see me loll at ease, / Then it’s all yours, you can have it, my life!”).1 Another happy formulation comes in the “Prelude in the Theater,” where Stelzig’s internal rhyme (“Thus don’t spare me on this day / Either fine scenery or stage machinery,” vv. 246–47) captures the spirit of a line that in the original emerges rhythmically. Stelzig also draws attention in his Translator’s Note to his efforts with the various songs, remarking that in his mixing of rhyme, assonance, and alliteration he has “tr[ied] at least to suggest the poetic brilliance and variety of Goethe’s language” (ix). To focus on one...