Seelenzauber: Thomas Mann und die Musik by Hans Rudolf Vaget

Abstract

284 Reviews rhetoric thathas sometimes plagued Rilke translation. Crucefix's verse isunforced, handling Rilke's subjunctives and complicated structureswith assurance. At times he is inspired: his version of 'die Spur der Fledermaus' in theEighth Elegy, for instance (the creature that 'musthurtle Ithrough the air theway a crack goes Ithrough a tea cup-so a bat's track Istreaks through the porcelain of evening' (p. 67)), is at least as good as theGerman. As thisexample suggests, his use of enjambment isanother ofhis strengths,as is theclassic translator's trickofusing repetition to echo an otherwise un translatable emphasis in theoriginal: 'Butwe, I who long forsuch greatmysteries, we, for whom I sorrow isoften thepath onwhich we progress-can we existwithout them?' (p. 2 I). The second 'we' here, not in theoriginal version, gives an ancillary thrust to Rilke's anguished doubt that isarguably necessary inEnglish, which tends to support long elegiac sentences with less ease than theHolderlinian German. Such comparisons are encouraged by thehelpful inclusion of theGerman in this facing-page translation. Despite its largely exemplary accuracy, however, there are also errors of emphasis in this translation. Both the force and tone ofRilke's rhetorical question 'Ist die Sage umsonst?' (at theend of theFirst Elegy) aremissed by translating itas 'is theold myth I really nonsense?' (p. 2I): 'nonsense' is too frivolous, and in any case lacks the sense of 'invain' conveyed by 'umsonst'. Elsewhere in theFourth Elegy, Crucefix's translation of 'Und irgendwo gehn Lowen noch und wissen, Isolang sie herrlich sind, von keiner Ohnmacht' as 'Somewhere else, lions Iroam unaware of anyweakness in their majesty' (p. 37) misses the thrust of Rilke's qualification 'solang': it is only so long as, only because the lions remain 'herrlich' that theyknow no weakness. For Rilke's distinction between theconsciousness ofhumans and animals, such nuances are not unimportant. The style of both the translation and the accompanying notes suggests that this version is aimed firmlyat the non-specialist reader. The translator's notes in par ticular are limited to a brief paraphrase of the content, rather than the poetic form, of the Elegies. They are clear and helpful, but (one assumes) deliberately modest, elucidating the philosophy rather than the poetry. Yet the greatest compliment one can pay is to say that the lucidity of this commendable new translation ensures that they are barely necessary. UNIVERSITY OF KENT BEN HUTCHINSON Seelenzauber: Thomas Mann und dieMusik. By HANS RUDOLF VAGET. Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer. 2006. 512 PP. ?22.90. ISBN 978-3-Io-o87003-2. Few novelists have drawn more inspiration frommusic for their compositions in prose thanThomas Mann. But what does 'inspiration' in this case mean? Arguably, and in line with Hans Rudolf Vaget's masterly study on Mann's indebtedness to music in itschieflyRomantic manifestations, the author ofBuddenbrooks and Doktor Faustus had been asking this question himself throughout his career, too.As amotto forhis investigations into the aesthetic and political dimension of thewriter's musi cal preoccupations Vaget used the confession Thomas Mann had tomake about his relationship with music: 'Die hochste Passion gilt dem absolut Verdachtigen.' This, then, is the most telling formula thatencompasses theessence ofVaget's find ingsand interpretations ofvirtually all relevantmusic-related textsbyThomas Mann: music was thiswriter's genuine passion and itsobject, in essence and expression, a manifestation of ambiguity, seduction, and suspicion. Music was, according toVaget's convincing analyses ofMann's view of his 'passion', the least trustworthyof arts. To my knowledge, Vaget is the first to show convincingly thatThomas Mann warned from I926 on against thepolitical instrumentalization ofmusic inGermany. At the same timeVaget explains that since the novella Der kleineHerr Friedemann MLR, I03.1, 2008 285 Thomas Mann's ambition pointed towards creating a 'music of narrating' through which he hoped toenrich, ifnot overcome, the aesthetics of naturalism. Such 'music' included thedevelopment of various epic strategies of literary Wagnerianism. One of themany insights intoThomas Mann's literaryand essayistic adaptations ofmusical themes in Vaget's study ishis discussion of the Wagnerian leitmotifas a compositional principle. Vaget points out thatThomas Mann's understanding of Wagner's concep tion and artistic usage of the leitmotifwas much closer toErnst Bloch's definition of itas a formof 'accelerating anticipation' than toAdorno's criticism of this...