At the top of Chapter 2 stands a quotation from Goethe’s Faust, Part 1: 1112. The renderings I have found so far are mostly unsatisfactory in relation to Steiner’s reasons for placing this profound expression of the human experience of duality here.
The German is idiosyncratic, fitting a gallon of ingenuity into a pint-sized rhyme scheme. This is poetic genius where form is as significant as content. The latitude of expression available to a translator leaves little freedom in relation to the form.
Goethe’s German Dust is not the English word dust but probably derived from the German word duster meaning dark and gloomy. This understandable error is made by all the translations I have read.
The universally missed subtlety is that the word Ahnen has a sound-alike relative, ahnen, which is a verb meaning presentiment or inkling, which is often used by Steiner in his Soul Calendar. It appears to be a pun by Goethe that points to both past and future. This pun masterfully reflects the overcoming of apparent separation, which is a major theme in PoF.
The original German text:
Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust, (rhyme A)
Die eine will sich von der andern trennen; (rhyme B – weak emphasis)
Die eine hält, in derber Liebeslust, (rhyme A)
Sich an die Welt mit klammernden Organen; (rhyme B – strong emphasis)
Die andere hebt gewaltsam sich vom Dust (rhyme A)
Zu den Gefilden hoher Ahnen. (rhyme B - strong emphasis)
Die eine will sich von der andern trennen; (rhyme B – weak emphasis)
Die eine hält, in derber Liebeslust, (rhyme A)
Sich an die Welt mit klammernden Organen; (rhyme B – strong emphasis)
Die andere hebt gewaltsam sich vom Dust (rhyme A)
Zu den Gefilden hoher Ahnen. (rhyme B - strong emphasis)
The translation of Faust by Bayard Taylor (1887) earns my highest respect. Taylor keeps to the original metres:
Two souls, alas! reside within my breast;
And each withdraws from and repels its brother.
One with tenacious organs holds in love
And clinging lust the world in its embraces;
The other strongly sweeps this dust above
Into the high ancestral spaces.
And each withdraws from and repels its brother.
One with tenacious organs holds in love
And clinging lust the world in its embraces;
The other strongly sweeps this dust above
Into the high ancestral spaces.
My somewhat free version (sorry for the intentional pun) lifts out the point in the pun of the final couplet, which indicates the origins of thinking and the resolution of the pulling apart of higher and lower:
Each tears apart from the other it detests;
The one with lusty passion strenuous
Clings to the world its organs grip best;
From gloom, the other one rises portentous
To fields above where legacies rest.
Revised Michaelmas Day:
Two souls are dwelling in my breast, alas,
They tear apart from one another in detest;
The one with lusty passion strenuous
Clings to the world where its grip holds best;
The other rises from gloominess portentous
To fields above where legacies rest.
I can see for myself that it is an intellectual contrivance and less harmonious than Taylor’s masterpiece. But I believe it has merit for a frontispiece for Chapter 2. Constructive comments and feedback, please.
Ahnen, ahnen, ähnlich, Aehnlichkeit
The relationship between the German noun Ahnen to the German verb ahnen Mr. Ralph merely describes as "sound-alike" - perhaps he needs Der Grundtrieb zur Wissenschaft?
Conscious Human Action by Mr. Ralph would show the English word alike might appear similar to ähnlich.
Both aehnlich and its noun Aehnlichkeit are in the original German version a few sentences later in the same paragraph - to be found by the Conscious Human Reader.
Thank you
Beginer has been very helpful here in pointing to connections in a part of the German text that I have not worked on yet. I will see if I can make out further connections when I come to it. Steiner did say once that every word in PoF is significant. I do not know if previous translators have considered the sort of connections that Beginner asks us to look at here.
Thank you, Beginner. What do you think of the Goethe translation? Can you recommend a better one? Please continue to throw clear light on the path to come, as well as on the path behind.
Why Mr. Ralph's meditation on the Goethe translation?
I already replied that Mr. Ralph does not present any research of the relationship of the German noun Ahnen in this quotation to the German verb ahnen,
his mention of this could become useful, if it would be researched to help make the Steiner text be understood better,
which is also why meditation on the other relationship between Ahnen in the quotation of Faust and Steiner's own use of aehnlich/Aehnlichkeit belongs to text study of Der Grundtrieb zur Wissenschaft.
How does Steiner's text translate Goethe's text?
Elementary Analysis of Faust I, 1112-1117:
zwei Seelen
Verbcomplex 1. will sich trennen die eine [Seele] (nominative) von der andere [Seele]
Verb 2. sich halten an die Welt mit klammernden Organen Die eine [Seele] (nominative)
Verb 3. sich heben vom Dust zu Gefilden Die andere [Seele] (nominative)
Note:
1. verbal: sich halten versus sich heben, three reflexive verbs, one modal
2. Welt (not in Conscious Human Action) versus vom Dust zu Gefilden,
3. Organ
4. modal verb wollen (introduced as full verb and substantive in Conscious Human Action / Das bewusste menschliche Handeln)
Thank you for this explanation
Thank you, Beginner.
I am starting to get a little more of where your 'hints' are leading. You are looking at the structuring of the German language used by Goethe. You are suggesting that there is an explicit reference in Chapter 2's intuitive thought content by Steiner that represents or expresses a metamorphosis of Goethe's intuitive thoughts in Faust I: 1112-1117. Is this correct?
It is obvious that this respectful reference of Steiner to Goethe honours the formative place Goethe has in Steiner's thinking. This stands in counterpoise to all the quotes in Chapter 1 that Steiner has discredited, except the Hegel quote. Hegel is quoted as using the word Geiste and he was definitely not a Theosophist.
At the Hegel quote Steiner 'turns the corner' into the direction of Chapter 2. This is the point in Steiner's text that it is most important to link to the title of Chapter 2. I hope this answers one of your earlier questions, Beginner.
Would you be so kind as to show the next step as clearly as the above post, please?
Etymology
My assertion about Dust is based entirely on my own judgement and consultation with a native German speaker. The word appears to be a contraction for the sake of rhythm and rhyme by a Master Poet who doubtlessly did not consult a dictionary. Do you have other information about Dust?
Do let me know what you found out about this word from the dictionaries you have consulted because I do not possess one with etymological information. It does not appear in my Cassell's.
Many thanks.
Creative Rendering
Hi John and all,
As a contribution, here's a creative response based on the above - certainly it can't claim to be a translation as I don't know German very well!
Two souls – alas! - are dwelling in my breast,
Struggling to get out in their disgust.
The one, loving this world best,
Clings to its ground with vigorous lust;
The other rises up, at heaven’s behest,
Gathering stardust.
I know "behest" is kind of archaic but maybe it fits here and it rhymes. Hopefully "Gathering stardust" captures the ultimate union of the two, past and future etc.
Mr. Ralph, der Volksetymologist
Mr. Ralph might ask his German source to explain to him the meaning of Volksetymologie.
Thanks to Tim & Beginner and...
Thank you Beginner for defining my role, however I would like to point out how helpful it will be for us all if you would freely share any information that is available to you. I do not wish to persuade you, but such sharing would be a kindness to busy people who are squeezing this work into many other work commitments. Time pressure is the reason that my posts are not sufficiently referenced to Steiner's text. Time is a finite dimension while we work in human bodies.
Thank you Tim for a brave new take on the Goethe. The introduction of the mental image of antagonism represented by 'disgust' and 'detest' is not present in Goethe's verse. Note that Taylor's rendering does not introduce it.
How can we clean out the idea that the 2 different souls are antagonistic? They are just different and their difference draws them apart towards their separate origins (Grundtrieb).
Brave
Brave, yes... ;-)
Really I was mainly focussing on playing with the rhymes as it seems Goethe was very fond of rhymes; it's easy to be brave when you are playing with wooden swords. I was very tempted by the rhyming potential of "disgust"!
I think this image of the "two souls in the human breast" is one that we in our time need to grasp by whatever means are at our disposal - perhaps the picture of the chambers of the heart, for example, and Steiner's polarity of the nerve/sense system as against the limbic/digestive system with the heart/respiratory system holding the balance is a more grounding image here?
I will try and return in seriousness to your rendering in the context of Chapter 2. Here is an offered re-rendering of your rendering with some comments. Not very good as usual but just offered in a spirit of evolution, brainstorming and as a possible source of additional inspiration for someone.
Two souls are dwelling in my breast, alas,
They tear apart from one another in detest;
The one with lusty passion strenuous
Clings to the world where its grip holds best;
The other rises from gloominess portentous
To fields above where legacies rest.
Two souls - alas! Are dwelling in my breast; (I really like putting the "alas!" there)
They buffet one another without rest. (maybe gives more of the "Gemini" feel? Less violent?)
The one clings fast with lust and love (obviously trying to rhyme with "above" at the end ;-)
To the world that it can hold; (sorry but seems sort of OK)
The other rises from its dark fold (well it kind of works - double meaning and sort of like your portentous gloom ;-)
To archetypal spheres above. (at least no dust ;-)
Gemini
It may be useful to consider that Goethe's verse conveys and invokes esoterically the dichotomy of the Gemini Imagination.
Source: creative thinking
Transitional destinations: Bayard Taylor (see his rendering) and the author of this post
My apologies for having no time to define the Gemini Imagination. I do not remember a useful source.
PS: Folklore as a source is one that is given great respect by Steiner as its origin is a community folk spirit A.K.A. a Genius of Language. I do not know the correct Theosophical term [insert smile] but Steiner refers to these fellows as archangels or Primal Origins. Respect.
Is this better?
Two souls, alas, are in me placed;
They pull apart at every turn.
One clasps with passionate embrace
The World, for which its organs yearn;
The other from gloominess rises, chaste,
To higher archaic fields eterne.
Sorry, no ‘stardust’. I liked stardust.
Nice
Nice John, I like that very much... though "archaic fields eterne" is not ideal ;-)
Is this more ideal?
Taking on board Tim's feedback and the controversy over 'Dust' here is another version with amendments to the last two lines.
Two souls, alas, are in me placed;
They pull apart at every turn.
One clasps with passionate embrace
The World, for which its organs yearn;
The other, from mere dust, arises chaste
To a heritage of higher concern.
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