Priapean Pursuits. Translation, World Literature, and Goethe’s Roman Elegies

Abstract

Goethe’s Römische Elegien (Roman Elegies, 1788) is probably the best‐known cycle of poetry in the German language that celebrates the joy of physical love as spiritual fulfillment. Furthermore, the cycle espouses a vision of human wholeness where physical love is an expression of content and completion, emotions that are not often discussed because they are seen as not problematic. Goethe’s Roman Elegies form a testament to the author’s connection, not only with his sexual partner, but also with the location in which the union took place, the symbol of European civilization, and thus with humankind in general. The cycle practices what the author himself, decades later, conceptualized as Weltliteratur (world literature), literature that transcends narrowly defined notions of national literatures. Because of their erotic content, the Roman Elegies have experienced a very varied publication and translation history. The selections and decisions English translators have made win particular poignancy against the background of a reading of the cycle as celebrating connection, as reuniting what had been severed, as engaging in an activity that the translator also defines as his own. They illustrate how in earlier translations moral concerns informed translational decisions that denied English readers a comprehensive appreciation of the very essence of the cycle while later translations adopt their own, often subtly different strategies to capture the sense of wholeness and completion that Goethe tried to convey. An investigation of translational practice and of the interpretation implicit to any translational decision can help to appreciate the significance of the cycle as a contribution to the (itself fundamentally translational) project of overcoming division that lies at the heart of Goethe’s concept of Weltliteratur.