Sunday, March 15, 2009

In deinem lieben Lichte gehn

O sähst du, voller Mondenschein,
Zum letztenmal auf meine Pein,
Den ich so manche Mitternacht
An diesem Pult herangewacht:
Dann, iiber Bfichern und Papier,
Triibsel'ger Freund, erschienst du mir!
Ach! konnt' ich doch auf Bergeshoh'n
In deinem lieben Lichte gehn,
Um Bergeshohle mit Geistern schweben,
Auf Wiesen in deinem Dammer weben,
Vori allem Wissensqualm entladen,
In deinem Tau gesund mich baden!
This is an extract from Act 1, Scene 1 of Goethe's Faust. It is the 13th entry in T.E. Lawrence's manuscript pocket book which he called Minorities. I've given some English translations below.










{These illustrations come from old editions of Faust}




Three renderings in English:
O full and splendid Moon, whom I
Have, from this desk, seen climb the sky
So many a midnight, — would thy glow
For the last time beheld my woe!
Ever thine eye, most mournful friend,
O'er books and papers saw me bend;
But would that I, on mountains grand,
Amid thy blessed light could stand,
With spirits through mountain-caverns hover,
Float in thy twilight the meadows over,
And, freed from the fumes of lore that swathe me,
To health in thy dewy fountains bathe me!
{From: FAUST, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY Harry Clarke, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, IN THE ORIGINAL METRES, BY Bayard Taylor}


O, may you look, full moon that shines,
On my pain for this last time:
So many midnights from my desk,
I have seen you, keeping watch:
When over my books and paper,
Saddest friend, you appear!
Ah! If on the mountain height
I might stand in your sweet light,
Float with spirits in mountain caves,
Swim the meadows in twilight’ waves,
Free from the smoke of knowledge too,
Bathe in your health-giving dew!
{From: Faust Part I, (Scenes I to III) A. S. Kline 2003}


O couldst thou, light of the full moon,
Look now the last upon my pain,
Thou for whom I have sat belated
So many midnights here and waited
Till, over book and papers, thou
Didst shine, sad friend, upon my brow.
{Louis MacNeice's translation of the first half of the extract, from: Goethe's Faust, a review of a translation by Randall Jarrell (STEPHEN SPENDER, Books, New York Times, January 2, 1977. Spender calls this translation "a tour de force of formal virtuosity."}



Some sources:

Minorities, by T E Lawrence; ed. by Jeremy Wilson (London, Cape, 1971).

Faust (1838)

FAUST, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY Harry Clarke, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, IN THE ORIGINAL METRES, BY Bayard Taylor

Faust Part I, (Scenes I to III) A. S. Kline 2003

Faust Faust: a tragedy
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Bayard Taylor, James Adey Birds
Translated by Bayard Taylor
Published by F.A. Brockhaus, 1881

Songs and scenes from Goethe's Faust, ed. by Theodore Martin, et. al. 1883

Goethe's Faust, a review of a translation by Randall Jarrell (STEPHEN SPENDER, Books, New York Times, January 2, 1977

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