Selected Poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Author), David Luke (Editor, Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: December 27, 2005

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 continuously since then.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140424563
• ISBN-13: 978-0140424560
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good collection of Goethe, October 1, 2006

By 

Jordan M. Poss (Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Selected Poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Yikes, November 28, 2011

By 

Barnaby Thieme (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Selected Poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must - have !, November 3, 2007

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Selected Poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Penguin Classics) (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.