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This is to be the first verse translation of Goethe's poetry in penguin classics and replaces Luke's own 1964 prose translation which has been in print continously since then (life sales 43,000).
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, novelist, playwright, courtier, and natural philosopher, one of the greatest figures in Western literature. He gained fame early with The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), but his most famous work was the poetic drama in two parts, Faust.
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Wie herrlich leuchtet Mir die Natur! Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If, like me, you're new to Goethe but enjoy poetry, then this is a great place to start.David Luke's translation is full of life and brings this great poets best works to you in a simple and very readable format. The introduction is a fascinating insight to Goethes life and the poems chosen resonate with a fear, lust and passion that is both relevant and refreshing.
This is no dusty old collection but a careful selection that is overflowing with breathtaking power and colour.An interesting addition is the original German alongside each translation,if you're multilingual you can compare' if you're not it's a facinating insight into couplets working in another language.
This may well lead you further into Goethes works or can stand very respectably as your one point of reference, either way if you enjoy poetry then this is a superb volume that is well worth your time and represents excellent value for money.Buy with full confidence.
This is no dusty old collection but a careful selection that is overflowing with breathtaking power and colour.An interesting addition is the original German alongside each translation,if you're multilingual you can compare' if you're not it's a facinating insight into couplets working in another language.
This may well lead you further into Goethes works or can stand very respectably as your one point of reference, either way if you enjoy poetry then this is a superb volume that is well worth your time and represents excellent value for money.Buy with full confidence.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Good collection of Goethe
1 Oct 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This new, bilingual selection of Goethe's poetry is very good. The editor and translator, David Luke, has brought together one volume of some of Goethe's best. Luke presents the poems in chronological order, allowing the reader to follow the development of Goethe's genius over his long and fruitful career.
This volume includes 100 of Goethe's best and most famous, including "An den Mond," an early poem and one of my personal favorites, and extensive selections from Goethe's masterpiece, Faust. The selection is very broad--you're sure to find something you like in this one.
The only real flaw is easily overlooked... if you speak German. The book is bilingual--Goethe's originals face translations by Luke, the book's editor. Luke's translations are good, but not great. He strains the meaning and accuracy in an effort at rhyme and meter. Sometimes it works; many times it doesn't. I'd still recommend this book to people who don't speak German, but with the reservation that the English translations pale in comparison to the originals.
All in all, though, a very good book--money well-spent.
Highly recommended.
This volume includes 100 of Goethe's best and most famous, including "An den Mond," an early poem and one of my personal favorites, and extensive selections from Goethe's masterpiece, Faust. The selection is very broad--you're sure to find something you like in this one.
The only real flaw is easily overlooked... if you speak German. The book is bilingual--Goethe's originals face translations by Luke, the book's editor. Luke's translations are good, but not great. He strains the meaning and accuracy in an effort at rhyme and meter. Sometimes it works; many times it doesn't. I'd still recommend this book to people who don't speak German, but with the reservation that the English translations pale in comparison to the originals.
All in all, though, a very good book--money well-spent.
Highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A must - have !
3 Nov 2007
Format:Paperback
The creative linguistic force of this master flows with particular resonance, because of his genius, whose mind like an admirable labyrinth of livings, experiences, prodigality, mythic inspiration seem to gather in just a man the strength and voices of thousand poets; from the stormy and wild sketch to the instinctively breath to the most polished small jewel; from the funny idea to the most concentrated vital wisdom.
Goethe' s poems will always reign among the most notable works of the universal literature; almost fifteen hundred pages, that describe since the spring to the winter stages of the existence of this multidimensional human being; where we may contemplate the grandness and the smallness of the universe even in its most ultimate details.
Every time we reread his chained Prometheus, we will feel how the long expected cry of freedom waited for so many centuries until to find the adequate poet, capable to carve in relief, with unquestionable ardor, the majestic rage expressed as the last frontier of the epic effort.
Hermann Hesse affirmed that Goethe was the greatest German poet in the last two centuries. So, don't miss these jewels out your invaluable library. They are a must-have.
Goethe' s poems will always reign among the most notable works of the universal literature; almost fifteen hundred pages, that describe since the spring to the winter stages of the existence of this multidimensional human being; where we may contemplate the grandness and the smallness of the universe even in its most ultimate details.
Every time we reread his chained Prometheus, we will feel how the long expected cry of freedom waited for so many centuries until to find the adequate poet, capable to carve in relief, with unquestionable ardor, the majestic rage expressed as the last frontier of the epic effort.
Hermann Hesse affirmed that Goethe was the greatest German poet in the last two centuries. So, don't miss these jewels out your invaluable library. They are a must-have.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Yikes
28 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The translations in this volume are mediocre and misleading. To illustrate what I find so objectionable, let's look at a line from Goethe's "Prometheus":
"Und meine Huette, die du nicht gebaut, / Und meinen Herd, / Und dessen Glut, / Du mich beneidest."
Our translator gives:
"And my hut which you did not build / And my hearth, the glowing / Home fire which fills you / With such envy."
A literal translation would be closer to:
"And my hut which you did not build / And my hearth, / And its glow that / You envy."
Naturally, there are different schools of thought regarding translation, but a first-rate poet like Goethe is extremely sensitive to the power and the function of words. The unwarranted addition by the translator of the redundant "glowing home fire which fills you" completely alters the sense of the line, and bloats its graceful economy with stuffy ornamentation.
This is what you'll find in this collection - translations that substantially modify and reorder Goethe's lines, in allegiance to David Luke's aesthetic sensibility, which is completely inscrutable to me.
"Und meine Huette, die du nicht gebaut, / Und meinen Herd, / Und dessen Glut, / Du mich beneidest."
Our translator gives:
"And my hut which you did not build / And my hearth, the glowing / Home fire which fills you / With such envy."
A literal translation would be closer to:
"And my hut which you did not build / And my hearth, / And its glow that / You envy."
Naturally, there are different schools of thought regarding translation, but a first-rate poet like Goethe is extremely sensitive to the power and the function of words. The unwarranted addition by the translator of the redundant "glowing home fire which fills you" completely alters the sense of the line, and bloats its graceful economy with stuffy ornamentation.
This is what you'll find in this collection - translations that substantially modify and reorder Goethe's lines, in allegiance to David Luke's aesthetic sensibility, which is completely inscrutable to me.
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