The Poems of Goethe | Page 3

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ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
The Poems of Goethe
Translated in the original metres
by Edgar Alfred Bowring
THE TRANSLATOR'S ORIGINAL DEDICATION.
TO THE COUNTESS GRANVILLE.
MY DEAR LADY GRANVILLE,--
THE reluctance which must naturally be felt by any one in
venturing
to give to the world a book such as the present, where the beauties of
the great original must inevitably be diminished, if not destroyed, in the
process of passing through the
translator's hands, cannot but be felt in
all its force when that translator has not penetrated beyond the outer
courts of the poetic fane, and can have no hope of advancing further, or
of reaching its sanctuary. But it is to me a subject of peculiar
satisfaction that your kind permission to have your name
inscribed
upon this page serves to attain a twofold end--one direct and personal,
and relating to the present day; the other reflected and historical, and
belonging to times long gone by. Of the first little need now be said, for
the privilege is wholly mine, in making this dedication: as to the second,
one word of explanation will suffice for those who have made the
greatest poet of Germany, almost of the world, their study, and to
whom the story of his life is not unknown. All who have followed the
career of GOETHE are familiar with the name and character of
DALBERG, and also with the deep and lasting friendship that existed
between them, from which SCHILLER too was not absent; recalling to
the mind the days of old, when a Virgil and a Horace and a Maecenas
sat side by side.
Remembering, then, the connection that, in a former century, was

formed and riveted between your illustrious ancestor and him whom it
is the object of these pages to represent, I deem it a happy augury that
the link then established finds itself not wholly severed even now
(although its strength may be
immeasurably weakened in the
comparison), inasmuch as this page brings them once more in contact,
the one in the person of his own descendant, the other in that of the
translator of his Poems.
Believe me, with great truth,
Very faithfully yours,
EDGAR A.
BOWRING.
London, April, 1853.
ORIGINAL PREFACE.
I feel no small reluctance in venturing to give to the public a work of
the character of that indicated by the title-page to the present volume;
for, difficult as it must always be to render satisfactorily into one's own
tongue the writings of the bards of other lands, the responsibility
assumed by the translator is immeasurably increased when he attempts
to transfer the thoughts of those great men, who have lived for all the
world and for all ages, from the language in which they were originally
clothed, to one to which they may as yet have been strangers.
Preeminently is this the case with Goethe, the most masterly of all the
master minds of modern times, whose name is already inscribed on the
tablets of immortality, and whose fame already extends over the earth,
although as yet only in its infancy. Scarcely have two decades passed
away since he ceased to dwell among men, yet he now stands before us,
not as a mere individual, like those whom the world is wont to call
great, but as a type, as an emblem--the recognised emblem and
representative of the human mind in its present stage of culture and
advancement.
Among the infinitely varied effusions of Goethe's pen, perhaps there
are none which are of as general interest as his Poems, which breathe
the very spirit of Nature, and embody the real music of the feelings. In
Germany, they are universally known, and are considered as the most
delightful of his works. Yet in this country, this kindred country,
sprung from the same stem, and so strongly resembling her sister in so

many points, they are nearly unknown. Almost the only poetical work
of the greatest Poet that the world has seen for ages, that is really and

generally read in England, is Faust, the translations of which are almost
endless; while no single person has as yet appeared to attempt to give,
in an English dress, in any collective or
systematic manner, those
smaller productions of the genius of Goethe which it is the object of the
present volume to lay