Does anybody know good English translations of Goethe's poems from German?

Question

Does anybody know good English translations of Goethe's poems from German? I am trying to find good English translations of Goethe's poems (his individual / miscellaneous lieder). Are there freely shared online German literature syllabuses which recommend versions of translations? Typically how do you know such translations exists and whether they are considered to have high merits by academic or literary communities?

Answer 1

Introduction

An earlier version of the question (which has since been rephrased) asked for the translations “that are considered most definitive”. But this is a mirage: you shouldn’t expect to find a definitive translation of a poem. The reason is that poetry compresses multiple features—literal meaning, metaphorical meaning, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, register, allusion, and so on—into each line. It is usually impossible to preserve all of these in a translation: for example, if you use the words that are closest in meaning to the original, then you can’t preserve the rhythm and rhyme, and vice versa. Each translator must make a choice about which features to preserve and which to drop, according to their taste, or their theory of translation, or the needs of their audience, or the difficulty of the language.

When reading poetry in translation it is a good idea to use multiple translations, where available, to get different views of what each translator thought was worth preserving from the original. In the case of Goethe we are in luck as there are several English translations.

In this answer I’m going to pick a single short poem by Goethe, give five English translations from a wide range of dates, and comment on the translator’s approach in each case. If you follow the links you’ll find the collections from which I took the translations, any of which might reward your further investigation.

Goethe

This short poem is a companion to ‘Wandrers Nachtlied’ published under the title ‘Ein gleiches’ (one similar), but sometimes called ‘Wandrers Nachtlied 2’ or other titles.

Ueber allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh’,
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest Du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur! Balde.
Ruhest du auch.

_{Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1780). ‘Ein gleiches’. In Goethe’s Werke (1815), volume 1, page 99. Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta.}

Here are ten features of this poem that I noticed, some of which a translator might want to preserve:

1. It is in irregular metre with 1, 2 or 3 stresses per line.
2. Every line rhymes, in the pattern ABABCDDC.
3. The A- and D-lines end on an unstressed syllable, the B- and C-lines on a stressed syllable.
4. The A- and B-lines are mostly stressed on every second syllable; the C- and D-lines are mostly stressed on every third syllable.
5. “Ruh” meaning “calm, quiet” in line 2 is related to “ruhest” meaning “sleep, rest” in line 8.
6. There is word-painting in line 2, “Ist Ruh’”, where the single stress in the line makes the reader pause.
7. Some of the vocabulary is from a poetic register, notably “Ruh” for “Ruhe” and the diminutive “Vögelein”.
8. The addressee is given the familiar pronoun “du”, not the formal/polite pronoun “Sie”.
9. There are some alliterative words (Wipfeln, Walde, Warte).
10. There are lots of voiceless fricative consonants (Gipfeln, Wipfeln, Spürest, Hauch, Vögelein, schweigen, Ruhest, auch), these sounds suggesting the “sh” that one uses to calm someone or request silence.

Longfellow

O’er all the hill-tops
Is quiet now,
In all the tree-tops
Hearest thou
Hardly a breath;
The birds are asleep in the trees:
Wait; soon like these
Thou too shalt rest.

_{Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1838). ‘Wanderer’s Night Song II’. In The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1841), page 340. New York: Houghton, Mifflin.}

Longfellow has preserved features 4, 7 (using “o’er”) 8, and 10 from my list, and partly preserved feature 2, although the A-rhymes are unstressed and the C-rhymes are assonances.

Bowring

Hush’d on the hill
Is the breeze;
Scarce by the zephyr
The trees
Softly are press’d;
The woodbird’s asleep on the bough.
Wait, then, and thou
Soon wilt find rest.

_{Edgar Alfred Bowring (1853). ‘The same’. In The Poems of Goethe, page 68. New York: Hurst.}

Bowring has preserved features 1, 7 (using “zephyr” and “woodbird”), 8, 9, and 10 from my list, and partly preserved feature 2, although dropping the A-rhymes. Goethe’s “Hauch” (breath) has been expanded into a “breeze” and a “zephyr” but “Spürest Du” (you sense) has been dropped to make way.

Gibson

Over all the great hills
Is rest;
And the woodland reveals
At its crest
Not a breath to view;
The birds are all silent in bower.
Wait! Comes an hour
Thou shalt rest too.

_{William Gibson (1883). ‘Evening’. In The Poems of Goethe, page 142. London: Simpkin Marshall.}

Gibson has preserved features 1, 2 (using consonance for the A-rhymes), 5, 6, 7 (using “bower”), and 10 from my list, and partly preserved feature 3 (the D-lines end on an unstressed syllable, but not the A-lines). “Spürest Du” has been compressed into “to view”, to make space for the rhymes in the first half.

Zeydel

Over every hill
Is repose.
In the trees, you feel,
Scarcely goes
The stir of a breeze.
Hushed birds in the forest are nesting.
Wait, you'll be resting
Soon too like these.

_{Edwin H. Zeydel (1955). ‘Wanderer’s Night Song II’. In Goethe, the Lyrist, page 79. University of North Carolina Press.}

Zeydel has preserved features 2 (using consonance for the A-rhymes), 4, and 10 from my list, and partly preserved feature 3 (the D-lines end on an unstressed syllable, but not the A-lines).

Hamburger

Over the hilltops all
Is still,
Hardly a breath
Seems to ruffle
Any tree crest;
In the wood not one small bird’s song.
Only wait, before long
You too will rest.

_{Michael Hamburger (1983). ‘Wayfarer’s Night Song’. In Goethe: Poems and Epigrams, page 25. Anvil Press Poetry.}

Hamburger has preserved features 1, 6, 9, 10 from my list, and partly preserved feature 2 (but dropping the A-rhymes, and using consonance for the B-rhymes). Goethe’s subjective “Spürest Du” has become the more objective “seems to ruffle”. The diminutive sense of “Vögelein” has been preserved in “small bird”.

Conclusion

Each of these translations has something to commend it, and all of the translators are attempting to preserve some of Goethe’s poetic features in addition to his literal meaning. And each of the features that I noticed has been preserved by at least one of the translators! But if we want to appreciate everything that Goethe put into the poem we can’t stick to one translation, we have to combine several of them.