Selected Poetry

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, David Luke (Editor)

Goethe viewed the writing of poetry as essentially autobiographical, and the works selected in this volume represent more than sixty years in the life of the poet. In early poems such as 'Prometheus,' he rails against religion in an almost ecstatic fervor, while 'To the Moon' is an enigmatic meditation on the end of a love affair.  The Roman Elegies  show Goethe's use of Classical meters in an homage to ancient Rome and its poets, and 'The Diary,' suppressed for more than a century, is a narrative poem whose eroticism is combined with its morality. In selections from  Faust , arguably his greatest and most personal work, Goethe creates an exhilarating depiction of humankind's eternal search for truth.


   • Dual-language edition
   • David Luke's exquisite verse translations are arranged chronologically
   • Includes an introduction and notes that place the poems in the context of the poet's life and times, as well as indexes of German and English titles and first lines
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, German Literature, Fiction, Germany, Literature, 18th Century

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

A master of poetry, drama, and the novel, German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent 50 years on his two-part dramatic poem Faust , published in 1808 and 1832, also conducted scientific research in various fields, notably botany, and held several governmental positions.

George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .

With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.

Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.

Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.

Reviews

[BJ Lillis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Erlkönig” (Erlking or Elf King) is one of my all-time favorite poems. Goethe’s sinister-romantic supernatural ballad captured my imagination the first time I encountered it (read aloud in an asmr video—perhaps the perfect way to experience the poem in our disenchanted present). At the time, I was only just beginning to love formal poetry, and I was struck, maybe for the first time, by the subtle power of the carefully-chosen rhyme. Goethe uses rhyme to create a sense of foreboding and inevitability. The moment you see the word “Not” (trouble, distress) in the second to last line, you know what the rhyme has to be. “Tot.” Dead. It’s only a matter of watching it come.

Goethe’s other fantastical poems are equally captivating. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which needs no introduction. “The Fisher,” about a beautiful mermaid who takes revenge on a fisherman for “luring my brood, with human wit and cunning, up into the light of death” [Was lockst du meine Brut / Mit Menschenwitz und Menschenlist / Hinauf in Todesglut?] “Hochzeitlied” (Wedding Song), about dwarves feasting in a not-quite-empty castle. Goethe’s language sparkles, each line inevitable and surprising.

Perhaps my command of German is not quite subtle enough to appreciate the less obviously magical poems (I read an 1884 selection, in German and frakturschrift, with notes, at turns tiresome and fascinating, by a presumably long-forgotten and certainly long-dead scholar named Friedrich Zimmermann), but I found the less directly magical poems somewhat boring. The love poems, especially, are all beautifully done, I’m sure, but they didn’t capture me. I found myself wishing the book over, and so decided, somewhere around the three-quarter mark, that it is.

[Théo d'Or]

" Woher sind wir geboren ?

Aus Lieb.

Wie wären wir verloren ?

Ohn Lieb.

Was hilfst uns überwinden ?

Die Lieb.

Kann man auch Liebe finden ?

Durch Lieb.

Was läßt nicht lange weinen ?

Die Lieb.

Was soll uns stets vereinen ?

Die Lieb. "

[Eadweard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Translated poetry... and most of it rhymed...




(from Prometheus)

"Have you ever soothed
The pain that burdened me?
Have you ever dried
My terrified tears?
Was I not forged into manhood
By almighty Time
And everlasting Destiny,
My masters and yours?
Perhaps you thought
I should find life hateful
And flee into deserts
Because not all my dreams
Blossomed to ripeness?
Here I sit, making men
In my own image,
A race that shall be like me,
A race that shall suffer and weep
And know joy and delight too,
And heed you no more
Than I do!"
----



(from his Classical / Middles Years / Roman journey)

"And when she sinks into sleep, wakeful and thoughtful I lie.
Often I even compose my poetry in her embraces,
Counting hexameter beats, tapping them out on her back
Softly, with one hand’s fingers. She sweetly breathes in her slumber,
Warmly the glow of her breath pierces the depths of my heart.
Eros recalls, as he tends our lamp, how he did the same service
For his Triumvirs, the three poets of Love, long ago."

[...]

"Tenderest love is the bond between us, and faithfullest longing;
Only our mutual desire varies, as appetites do.
If I so much as press on her hand, I shall see her enchanting
Eyes reopen – ah no! let me still study her shape!
Eyes, stay closed! you make me confused and drunken, too soon you
Bring to an end this pure, quiet, contemplative joy.
Look, how splendid these forms, how nobly moulded her limbs are!
Did Ariadne sleep so? Theseus, oh how could you leave? Only one kiss on those lovely lips – flee, Theseus! she wakes! Now
You are her captive – her gaze holds you for ever in thrall."
-


" True love is love that stays constant for ever, whatever its fortune: Whether requited or scorned, filled or sent empty away."

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bibliographical note and acknowledgements

I. The younger Goethe (1770-1786)

--1. May Song / Mailied
--2. Welcome and Parting / Willkommen und Abschied
--3. Ganymede / Ganymed
--4. Prometheus / Prometheus

from the 'Urfaust', c. 1774
--5. 'Well, that's Philosophy I've read' (lines 354-97) / 'Habe nun, ach! Philosophie'
--6. 'In life like a flood' (501-9) / 'In Lebensfluten'
--7. 'There once was a King' (2759-82) / 'Es war ein König in Thule'
--8. 'My heart's so heavy' (3374-413) / 'Meine Ruh ist hin'
--9. 'What are the joys of heaven' (3345/65) / 'Was ist die Himmelsfreud'
--10. 'Who killed me dead?' (4412-20) / 'Meine Mutter, die Hur'

--11. On the Lake / Auf dem See
--12. Restless Love / Rastlose Liebe
--13. 'Why was deep insight given to us' / 'Warum gabst du uns die tiefen Blicke'
--14. A Wanderer's Night Song I: 'Messenger of heaven' / Wandrers Nachtlied I: 'Der du von dem Himmel bist'
--15. A Wanderer's Night Song II: 'Now stillness covers' / Wandrers Nachtlied II: 'Über allen Gipfeln'
--16a. To the Moon (First version) / An den Mond (Erste Fassung)
--16b. To the Moon (Final version) / An den Mond (Letzte Fassung)
--17. The Fisherman / Der Fischer
--18. The Elf King / Erlkönig
--19. [The Song of the Fates] / [Das Lied der Parzen]
--20. Human Limitations / Grenzen der Menschheit
--21. Divinity / Das Göttliche
--22. 'Oh do you know the land' / 'Kennst du das Land'
--23. 'Only the lonely heart' / 'Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt'
--24. 'Who never wept to eat his bread' / 'Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß'
--25. Anacreon's Grave / Anakreons Grab

II. Classical and middle years (1786-1810)

from the Roman Elegies, 1788-90
--26. II. 'Speak to me, stones' / 'Saget, Steine, mir an'
--27. III. 'More than I ever had hoped' / 'Mehr als ich ahndete schön'
--28. VII. 'Now on classical soil I stand' / 'Froh empfind ich mich nun'
--29. XV. 'Eros was ever a rogue' / 'Amor bleibet ein Schalk'
--30. XVII. 'You were two perilous serpents' / 'Zwei gefährliche Schlangen'
--31. XVIII. 'Caesar would hardly have got me' / 'Cäsarn wär ich wohl nie'
--32. XXIII. 'Strength, and a bold and liberal' / 'Zieret Stärke den Mann'
--33. XXIV. 'Once in the garden's far corner' / 'Hinten im Winkel des Gartens'

from the Venetian Epigrams, 1790
--34. 1. 'Pagan burial-urns and sarcophagi' / 'Sarkophagen und Urnen'
--35. 9. 'Give me, Priapus, another name for it!' / 'Gib mir statt "der Schwanz"'
--36. 16. 'If I'd the husband I need' / 'Wär ich ein häusliches Weib'
--37. 21. 'Dear little shape that might have' / 'Wie von der künstlichsten Hand'
--38. 28. 'Show us the parts of the Lord!' / 'Heraus mit dem Teile des Herrn!'
--39. 30. 'Goats, go and stand on my left!' / 'Böcke, zur Linken mit euch!'
--40. 33. 'Oh, how intently I used to observe' / 'O wie achtet ich sonst'
--41. 40. 'It is such joy to hug my beloved' / Wonniglich ists, die Geliebte'

Miscellaneous classical epigrams, c. 1796
--42. '"Why", asked Beauty, "oh Zeus,"' / 'Warum bin ich vergänglich'
--43. 'True love is love that stays constant' / 'Das ist die wahre Liebe'
--44. 'Whom shall you trust, honest friend?' / 'Wem zu glauben ist'
--45. 'Strive towards wholeness' / 'Immer strebe zum Ganzen'
--46. 'Let us not all be the same' / 'Gleich sei keiner dem andern'

from Hermann and Dorothea, 1796-7
--47. 'Thus the men talked' (Canto IV, lines 1-104) / 'Also sprachen die Männer'
--48. 'So together they walked' (Canto VIII, 1-104) / 'Also gingen die zwei'

from Faust, Part One, 1797-1808
--49. Dedication (lines 1-32) / Zueignung
--50. [Song of the Archangels] (243-70) / [Gesang der Erzengel]
--51. 'Ice thaws on the river' (903-40) / 'Vom Eise befreit'
--52. 'In the beginning was the word' (1224-37) / 'Geschrieben steht'

--53. The God and the Dancing-girl / Der Gott und die Bajadere
--54. Permanence in Change / Dauer im Wechsel
--55. Nature and Art / Natur und Kunst
--56. Nocturne / Nachtgesang
--57. The Diary / Das Tagebuch

III. The later Goethe (1810-1832)

from the West-Eastern Divan, 1814-1818
--58. Hegira / Hegira
--59. Singing and Shaping / Lied und Gebilde
--60. A Phenomenon / Phänomen
--61. A Past within the Present / Im gegenwärtigen Vergangenes
--62. Talismans / Talismane
--63. Unbounded / Unbegrenzt
--64. Suleika speaks / Suleika spricht
--65. The Secret / Geheimes
--66. Engulfed / Versunken
--67. 'Love for love and hour for hour' / 'Lieb um liebe, Stund um stunde'
--68. 'Beloved, let me show you' / 'An vollen Büschelzweigen'
--69a. 'As I sailed on the Euphrates' / 'Als ich auf dem Euphrat schiffte'
--69b. 'This I'm happy to interpret!' / 'Dies zu deuten bin erbötig!'
--70. Ginkgo biloba / Gingo biloba
--71. The Night of the Full Moon / Vollmondnacht
--72. 'West wind, how I envy you' / 'Ach, um deine feuchten Schwingen'
--73. 'King Behramgur, they say, invented' / 'Behramgur, sagt man, hat den Reim'
--74a. Summer Night / Sommernacht
--74b. 'Well, so at last I've learnt' / 'So hab ich endlich'
--75. Privileged Animals / Begünstigte Tiere
--76. Higher and Highest Matters / Höheres und Höchstes
--77. Ecstatic Longing / Selige Sehnsucht

Miscellaneous late poems and epigrams
--78. Old Age / Das Alter
--79. Advertisement / Annonce
--80. 'If a man's dead idle' / 'Wer aber recht bequem ist'
--81. 'A man's a misfit' / 'Dem ist es schlecht'
--82. 'The hero Napoleon came' / 'Am Jüngsten Tag'
--83. [The Death of a Fly] / [Fliegentod]
--84. At Midnight / Um Mitternacht
--85. Primal Words. Orphic / Urworte. Orphisch
--86. The Pariah / Paria
--The Pariah's Prayer / Des Paria Gebet
--Legend / Legende
--The Pariah's Thanksgiving / Dank des Paria
--87. A Trilogy of Passion / Trilogie der Leidenschaft
--To Werther / An Werther
--Elegy / Elegie
--Reconcilement / Aussöhnung
--88. The Bridegroom / Der Bräutigam
--89. [On Contemplating Schiller's Skull] / Bei Betrachtung von Schillers Schädel]
--90. 'Dusk has fallen' / 'Dämmrung senkte sich von oben'
--91. To the Rising Full Moon / Dam aufgehenden Vollmonde
--92. [A Legacy] / [Vermächtnis]

from Faust, Part Two, 1800-1831
--93. 'When a fragrance has descended' (lines 4634-65) / 'Wenn sich lau die Lüfte füllen'
--94. 'How strong and pure the pulse' (4679-727) / 'Des Lebens Pulse schlagen'
--95. 'So much admired and so much censured' (8488-515) / 'Bewundert viel und viel'
--96. 'The jagged summits on its mountain' (9526-61) / 'Und duldet auch auf seiner Berge'
--97. 'We shall dwell amid this tremor' (9992-10038) / 'Wir in dieser tausend Äste'
--98. 'A watchman by calling' (11288-303) /'Zum Sehen geboren'
--99. 'Woods, hitherwavering' (11844-89) / 'Waldung, sie schwankt heran'
--100. 'All that must disappear' (12104-11) / 'Alles Vergängliche'

Notes
Index of German titles and first lines
Index of English titles and first lines

[Jane Butane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. This is possibly the first book of poetry I have found myself totally lost in. It got to the point where my husband would try to talk to me and I was getting resentful every time he interrupted me haha.
Goethe writes so unflinchingly and beautifully. I enjoyed it immensely.

[Anima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dedication
‘Uncertain shapes, visitors from the past
At whom I darkly gazed so long ago,
My heart’s mad fleeting visions – now at last
Shall I embrace you, must I let you go?
Again you haunt me: come then, hold me fast!
Out of the mist and murk you rise, who so
Besiege me, and with magic breath restore,
Stirring my soul, lost youth to me once more.

You bring back memories of happier days
And many a well-loved ghost again I greet;
As when some old half-faded legend plays
About our ears, sorrowing strains repeat
My journey through life’s labyrinthine maze,
Old griefs revive, old friends, old loves I meet,
Those dear companions, by their fate’s unkind
Decree cut short, who left me here behind....’

Unbounded

‘That you can never end, that makes you great,
And to have no beginning is your fate.
Your circling song is like the vault of stars,
Its end is its beginning, and what was
Before all things and after all shall be
Moves in the midst of all for all to see.

From you, true poet, fountain of delight,
Wave upon wave flows, countless, infinite:
Your lips for ever poised to kiss,
Your soul outstreaming its sweet note,
Your loving heart outpoured, your throat
Thirsty for wine’s deep mysteries...’

Primal Words. Orphic

DAIMON   Destiny
As on the day that gave you to the world,
As then the planets stood to greet the sun,
Even so since then your life has all unfurled
By that same law at that same hour begun.
You are, as seers and sibyls have foretold,
Yourself, and from yourself you cannot run;
For neither time nor any power can shatter
The evolving life-form of imprinted matter.

TYCHE   Chance
And yet a pleasing, changeful element
Moves with us, round us, mitigates that stern
Restriction; you are not alone, you are meant
To do as others do, from them to learn.
Life is a toy, and toying it is spent;
It takes a lucky or an unlucky turn.
The quiet years have passed now, and time came
Full course; the lamp awaits the enkindling flame...’

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goethe belongs in the same breath as Shakespeare and Dante, albeit a definite third place. He doesn’t have their Christian vision, though. While Romanticism is never boring, it’s hard to synthesize within a Christian worldview. Goethe’s value, though, is showing what Romanticism looks like in the real world. Ideas are never in abstraction.

I want to call attention to some passages that have a pan(en)theistic flavor to them.

I don’t know if I want to call Goethe a pantheist. He might have been, but that accusation is so cliche. I think panentheist might be closer. Goethe notes,

“Lightlier now I pass through all the
Timeless cycles God created
Which by his pure word and living
Motion all are penetrated” (“Higher and Highest Matters,” 181).

He goes on to speak that we “vanish” in “visions of eternal/Love.” In “On Contemplating Schiller’s Skull” he does broach full pantheism: “Than knowing God and nature, which are one” (225). Indeed, he claims he can “A beauty eternal/In all things I see” (243). That’s not necessarily pantheistic, though.

Fate and Destiny

“Yourself and from yourself you cannot run’
For neither time nor any power can shatter
The evolving life-form of imprinted matter” (191).

[Hania · Rating 4 out of 5]

przeczytalam na dwa razy u babci, LOVE IT

[Thrasymachus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even in translation, Goethe’s poetry is moving, humane, profound, and (occasionally) amusingly naughty. This volume contains selections from across his life and career, spanning his 20s to his 80s, so it gives a sense of his development and maturation. His poems are often personal so the introductory biography provided helpful context.

[Richard Epstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

If only you were really fluent in German, people always say, you'd appreciate Goethe. I'm not really fluent in German.

[hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5/5

[Rebeka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nav diez ko daudz, ko teikt. Atradu ne šo izdevumu, bet kādu latviešu Ārijas Elksnes atdzejojumu, kas nav atrodams Goodreads.

Galvenokārt tematika rosījās par un ap seniem grieķu, arābu, indiešu varoņiem un mītiem, no tāda leģendāra stāstnieka skatījuma. Gēte ir apsēsts ar ziediem un sievietēm - bija dzejoļi veltīti teju katram vācu sieviešu vārdam, un bieži salīdzinājumi ar visdažādākajiem ziediem.

Jāsaka gan, ka Gētes dzeja ir daudz seksuālāka par to, ko esmu lasījusi līdz šim - bet nu, nez vai Padomju vara būtu Ziedonim vai Vācietim ļāvuši būt tik izvirtīgiem, un Džona Miltona dziļā ticība gan jau viņu cenzēja tikpat spēcīgi, kā Stūra māja.

Simttūkstoš formās ieslēpties tu vari,
Es tevi, visumīļā, pazīstu;
Var tevi ietīt burvju auti gari,
Es tevi, klātesošā, pazīstu.

Es redzu cipresi ar slaidu stumbru:
Es tevi, visudaiļā, pazīstu;
Un, kaut man nāktos brist pa tumšu dumbru,
Es tevi, visumaigā, pazīstu.

Kad ūdensstrūkla kāpjot šķīst un kaisās,
Es tevi, rotaļīgā, pazīstu;
Kad mākoņkalni vienojas un raisās,
Es tevi, daudzveidīgā, pazīstu.

[..]

Es tevis dēļ simttūkstoš formās dzimtu,
Lai tevi, visugudrā, pazītu;
Un, saucot Allahu ar vārdu simtu,
Es katrā vārdā tevi nosaucu.

[Jess Magee · Rating 5 out of 5]

a brilliant read if you are looking to expand your knowledge of the creation of Weimar Classicism and the birth of World Literature itself.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have kept several favorite quotes from this author in a small book and thought I would enjoy a book of his poetry. However, it was heavy going at times, and I resorted to some skimming, rather than reading word for word.

[Garrett Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to Goethe (and my first introduction to him).

100 poems & excerpts divided into sections (his younger, middle and older years). What I liked about this edition is that every poem has a note in the back explaining as much as possible that’s known about what works influenced it, what might have been going on in his life at the time (romances, travels, etc.)

Some of the most fun are his passionate erotic poems, which includes a hilarious one about his frustratingly uncooperative erection while in bed with a virgin.

I enjoyed the darker poetry best. The Elf King is one of the most unsettling and surreal poems I’ve read. Another favorite was The Song of the Fates.

My favorite poem is Goethe contemplating the skull of his contemporary, Schiller. When his remains had to be re-buried, the skull was kept at Goethe’s home which inspired the poem.

Again, overall this is a great introduction and made me want to finally dive into some of Goethe’s main works like Faust, Young Werther, or his Italian Diaries.

[Brandon Sitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatest artist of the last quarter millennium wrote (mostly) average poetry until his mid-thirties. This brings me overwhelming, unearned comfort.

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

And have I lost thee evermore,
Hast thou, oh, fair one, from me flown?
Still in mine ear sounds, as of yore,
Thine every word, thine every tone.

As when at morn the wanderer's eye
Attempts to pierce the air in vain,
When, hidden in the azure sky,
The lark high o'er him chants his strain:

So do I cast my troubled gaze
Through bush, through forest, o'er the lea;
Thou art invoked by all my lays;
Oh, come then, loved one, back to me!

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Goethe: everything I know from lieder, nature, nice rhymes
Middle Goethe: horny and mad (?) about it (?)
Late Goethe: sublime (and that one poem about a dog)

My German is nonexistent but I enjoyed reading the facing page text for the rhythms and rhymes!

[Eric Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favourites:

1) A Wanderers Nightsong II
2) Prometheus
3) Nature*
4) Elf King
5) Human Limitations

[Plato · Rating 5 out of 5]

4am and I be practicing on the good stuff

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will probably be a short review as I'm tired and my brain is operating like it is porridge at the present moment.

This collection is translated by David Luke, who also provides a useful introduction and some excellent in-depth notes. It was first published by Penguin Classics in 1999 but version is a 2005 re-print I got from the library. It also has the original German versions so that, if you fancy correcting David Luke's work and you're German is good enough then you can. David Luke splits the poems up by Goethe's age so there's a 'Young Goethe' section, a 'Classical and Middle Years' one, and finally 'The later Goethe', which gives us samples of work from his 60 years of poetic composition.

I'll say this for Goethe: he knows how to write poetry. The main themes seem to be love, lust, and nature. There's some erotic poems in here, like 'The Diary', that were quietly ignored for a long time. There's also a poem which seems to indicate that Goethe isn't a fan of anal sex. It's quite a flippant little poem, but you don't expect that sort of thing from great figures of German literature.

He's fantastic on the power of love. A power that can hurt as well as reward. It's ability to shake and change your world whether it is falling in love or falling out of love.

So, I'd recommend this collection. The only other Goethe I've read was Faust, Part I. I'd like to read some more of his work now. You can see how his work could influence not just German writers but writer's from all the world. It is interesting as well to see how he draws his influences from China, from Persia, from Islam, and elsewhere. The beginnings of world literature?

Anyway have a read. You might surprise yourself. I know I did.

[Asiana Circus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first poem I fell in love with and made me emotional and wanting to be a writer was Goethe’s “The Erl-King”. I was about nine years old and was practicing for the school’s poetry competition with other students. I enjoyed being with kids who also loved poetry but hated to stand on the stage alone in front of all those people. I remember this older girl almost literally falling into the classroom, late and in a hurry. Since she had to leave early she came up next. I never heard her recite before… and it was perfect. Her voice was filled with fear, temptation, uncertainty, rush, and agony. I fell in love with her, the poem, and Goethe.

I like to go back to this poem which now I know by heart. I love to read other poems and works of his as well, including Faust. Which is also a great read if you’re struggling with understanding life’s meaning, death, human morality, and faith.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Such a beautiful name!) was one of the key figures of the Weimar Classicism the movement coincided with Enlightenment, Sentimentality, Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism.

https://asianacircus.com/11-best-poet...

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Selected Poetry of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe is an excellent collection which provides both the original German as well as the English translation. The original German is naturally perfect in structure and rhyme, and although the translation can not exactly replicate, it does do an excellent job conveying the meaning AND giving a very fair attempt at replicating the rhyme structure as well. 
Many poems are incredible with the rhyme structure being an exact copy, while others, a rhyme poem will have parts that don’t rhyme. 
But this is to be expected, and the meaning is in my mind the most important factor of a translation of poetry (and the German is right there too if you would like to enjoy the intended rhyme). 
In a sense there are similarities to reading Edgar Allen Poe, in which you can see some very obvious style changes and content changes in a relatively short collection.
If you are even more interested having read the introduction to Goethe, and then read through this collection, there is a reasonably detailed account of all the poems included in the back of the book.

[Dylan]

This book provides both the original German and the English translation by David Luke. I can't read German, but I can more or less pronounce German, and pronouncing some of the original poems made me feel that the translations did not scan half as well. Which is not necessarily a fault of the translator, although many of the poems I read in other translations elsewhere and liked better (mainly in The Essential Goethe), although perhaps something else is lost in those translations, I don't know.

Can't say I'm 100% sold on Goethe's poetry after this. The Roman Elegies were the best thing here.

[Jonathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

i tried. i kinda, sorta, really, maybe, tried. as a non-german speaker and reader, this is definitely better in its native german language. poetic translations always lose their native sounds (impossible to replicate in translation) and this poetry clearly relies on sound. even if i was a german reader, i probably would not enjoy the writing, but i’d at least have the sound and rhythm, as it is, i have neither.

i’ve never read goethe before, but i’m probably done with goethe, i’m definitely not reading werther.

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goethe is great, but I feel like this translation loses a lot bc it keeps the rhyme patterns even after translation- makes me want to learn german so I don't have to put up with this. Goethe is so classic, but there's something about how simple and understated his poetry is that goes farther than overdone poetry from this era. 4/5, would be 5/5 if translation was questionable

[James Violand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something is wanting because this is an English translation. Goethe’s poetry is renowned in the original German and a hint of his brilliance shines through. Still, disappointing only because I don’t know German.

[Alejandro Higuera Sotomayor · Rating 5 out of 5]

La selección de poemas que hace De Greiff de Goethe me pareció espectacular. Me gusta las reflexiones que Goethe hace sobre la humanidad a través de las imágenes y de los mitos clásicos. Un romántico profundamente humanista. "Las elegías romanas" y "Prometeo" tal vez los mejores.

[Peyton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels silly to give this a mediocre score but making translated poems rhyme is so tough to do effectively IMO and the result here was that they felt kind of sing songy and trite which I'm sure is not the case in the original.

[sqrt2 · Rating 1 out of 5]

this gets 1 because at least you get Goethes actual German on the left. The translation is a total freestyle , DAVID LUKE has written his own new poems and placed them next to Goethe’s . It’s a DAMN SHAME!