It is SUCH a good translation! Give me the translation every time that gets the point of the original across <3 I did check out a couple of other translations after reading this and they all made it seem boring, which makes me kind of sad because it's really really not.
eeeee thank you for the added history, I always love this!
Re: rhyme - you can tell a professional playwright crafted this English version, because this is something actors can actually recite and have fun with. I first saw it on stage in Stratford, that’s how I know about it.
Oh, I'm so jealous! I would LOVE to see this version!
In the German original, Goethe is very playful with the various modes and speech and rhyme he employs, too. For example, when Faust and Mephisto visit the Classical Walpurgis Night, and then Helen shows up, all Greek mythological characters speek in Greek hexameters. (While Faust and Mephisto are still in couplets or blank verse.) When with Faust, Helen adopts the rhyming couplets he uses, but once she’s gone, he adopts her Greek hexameters and remains in that mode for the rest of the play.
This is really cool.
Mephisto poses as Faust to give the students his guidance councellor speech, which is a hilarious satire on (not just) German universities and their introduction courses. I mourned its cut, though I can see why for a stage version it was left out, as it’s pretty self contained.
Oh man, this sounds hilarious. I'll have to look this up, even in a subpar translation. :D
Printing money satire: in Stratford I heard someone doubt this is in the original, but it so is. Goethe: playwright with working experience as minister in a dukedom where “how do we make/keep Weimar solvent?” Is an ongoing question!
Heh, I didn't doubt it -- but I suppose I just took it for granted that writers at that time were interested in all kinds of things, I hadn't thought about Goethe's working experience!
Mephisto in general: best fictional devil ever. No offense to Marlowe’s guy or Milton’s.
YUP. No argument here.
I really like the Sayers play! I think it's worth checking out, even if her Mephistopheles is not the best fictional devil ;)
eeeee I've watched the first two scenes, they are awesome (Mephistopheles in particular is amazing!) -- I'm going to watch the others soon but I want to get to reading group before bed :)
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Re: Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, den können wir erlösen…
Date: 2021-09-24 05:06 am (UTC)eeeee thank you for the added history, I always love this!
Re: rhyme - you can tell a professional playwright crafted this English version, because this is something actors can actually recite and have fun with. I first saw it on stage in Stratford, that’s how I know about it.
Oh, I'm so jealous! I would LOVE to see this version!
In the German original, Goethe is very playful with the various modes and speech and rhyme he employs, too. For example, when Faust and Mephisto visit the Classical Walpurgis Night, and then Helen shows up, all Greek mythological characters speek in Greek hexameters. (While Faust and Mephisto are still in couplets or blank verse.) When with Faust, Helen adopts the rhyming couplets he uses, but once she’s gone, he adopts her Greek hexameters and remains in that mode for the rest of the play.
This is really cool.
Mephisto poses as Faust to give the students his guidance councellor speech, which is a hilarious satire on (not just) German universities and their introduction courses. I mourned its cut, though I can see why for a stage version it was left out, as it’s pretty self contained.
Oh man, this sounds hilarious. I'll have to look this up, even in a subpar translation. :D
Printing money satire: in Stratford I heard someone doubt this is in the original, but it so is. Goethe: playwright with working experience as minister in a dukedom where “how do we make/keep Weimar solvent?” Is an ongoing question!
Heh, I didn't doubt it -- but I suppose I just took it for granted that writers at that time were interested in all kinds of things, I hadn't thought about Goethe's working experience!
Mephisto in general: best fictional devil ever. No offense to Marlowe’s guy or Milton’s.
YUP. No argument here.
I really like the Sayers play! I think it's worth checking out, even if her Mephistopheles is not the best fictional devil ;)
eeeee I've watched the first two scenes, they are awesome (Mephistopheles in particular is amazing!) -- I'm going to watch the others soon but I want to get to reading group before bed :)