Too romantic? 
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- Thread starter mikhail
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Yeah i think it's the kinda book you had to read when you were 14
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Too romantic?
Definitely feel a lot of nostalgia for it from reading it as an adolescent.Faust and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship are better works of literature, but Young Werther just has that sense of nostalgia for me that can’t be compared to the other two. Quite a few books like that for me that I read when young and probably wouldn’t be near as great reading them first time as an adult, but I still love them.
Are you a fan of the book (in German of course)?
Poetry of any sort is so hard to get a handle on in translation. Basically only way to make it decent is if an actual good poet translates it, but then it’s an entirely new poem. Literal translations of poems are god-awful.
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Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann was pretty great.
Poetry of any sort is so hard to get a handle on in translation. Basically only way to make it decent is if an actual good poet translates it, but then it’s an entirely new poem. Literal translations of poems are god-awful.
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Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann was pretty great.
How you liking Hauptmann? @Post Ironic
@Post Ironic
Since then fell into other unread books on shelves. Planning to read Atlantis sometime this year though.
Ah okay, another German. Very modern too. Sounds a bit like The Master and Margarita, which was wonderful
A history lesson on an interesting period
A history lesson on an interesting period
Faust is crazy book, i guess it will come with time that you rate it more and more. Was for me the case.
Young Werther, is to depressing for my taste. The character should have searched for another girl in my opinion, it's never good to be obsessed with someone.
Read Schnitzler's "Liebelei" finally, very nice. Everybody lying around to get someone into bed haha very honest book. Right now reading "Der einsame Weg" also from Schnitzler, it's okay till now
Love it.
Agreed but nobody can ever achieve the original sensation
Check out this verse, translated by three actual poets and yet something is missing in every one
Wenn ihr's nicht fühlt, ihr werdet's nicht erjagen.
Translation by Bayard Taylor in 1890
You’ll ne’er attain it, save you know the feeling,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Taylor
Translation by John Shawcross in 1959
Unless you feel, naught will you ever gain
https://www.amazon.com/John-T.-Shawcross/e/B001JSDGHG?ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Translation by David Luke in 1987
Give up pursuing eloquence, unless You can speak as you feel!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Luke
Taylor got the message across most accurately but lacks the imagery and rhythm is weird. Shawcross captured the emotional load of Faust's heated response to Wagner best
but gain is even worse than attain compared to erjagen and there is no object. David Luke committed a crime against humanity.
IMO Master and Margarita has many similarities to Faust and you only need to look at both devil characters to see that Bulgakov was heavily inspired by Goethe but still added something of his own.
Agreed but nobody can ever achieve the original sensation
Check out this verse, translated by three actual poets and yet something is missing in every one
Wenn ihr's nicht fühlt, ihr werdet's nicht erjagen.
Translation by Bayard Taylor in 1890
You’ll ne’er attain it, save you know the feeling,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Taylor
Translation by John Shawcross in 1959
Unless you feel, naught will you ever gain
https://www.amazon.com/John-T.-Shawcross/e/B001JSDGHG?ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Translation by David Luke in 1987
Give up pursuing eloquence, unless You can speak as you feel!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Luke
Taylor got the message across most accurately but lacks the imagery and rhythm is weird. Shawcross captured the emotional load of Faust's heated response to Wagner best
but gain is even worse than attain compared to erjagen and there is no object. David Luke committed a crime against humanity.
IMO Master and Margarita has many similarities to Faust and you only need to look at both devil characters to see that Bulgakov was heavily inspired by Goethe but still added something of his own.
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Hesse. I love him. Can never go wrong with Steppenwolf and Demian.
Romantic and depressing, a great combo. Definitely feel a lot of nostalgia for it from reading it as an adolescent.
Faust and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship are better works of literature, but Young Werther just has that sense of nostalgia for me that can’t be compared to the other two. Quite a few books like that for me that I read when young and probably wouldn’t be near as great reading them first time as an adult, but I still love them.
Definitely feel a lot of nostalgia for it from reading it as an adolescent.Faust and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship are better works of literature, but Young Werther just has that sense of nostalgia for me that can’t be compared to the other two. Quite a few books like that for me that I read when young and probably wouldn’t be near as great reading them first time as an adult, but I still love them.
It's just a different book. I'm not gonna teach you how to read poems but I think many people don't know how to read them, so they read them like newspapers, especially those who rarely read or usually read novels. Not aimed at you, just generally speaking.
But as for Faust, I think it's entirely different than majority of poems too. Books like Faust, Dante's Divine Comedy and Njegos' The Mountain Wreath/The Ray of the Microcosm. It's wrong to just read those without stops and without analysing verses because there are way too many hidden meanings, metaphors and huge amount of layers. There are analysis where entire books are defining those poems and those really help understand some stuff or parts you think are stupid/meaningless, since people study those works for years literally. I read 80 pages on The Ray of the Microcosm and I got to appreciate the work even more than I did when I first read it.
Looks good!
Hesse. I love him. Can never go wrong with Steppenwolf and Demian.
It's just a different book. I'm not gonna teach you how to read poems but I think many people don't know how to read them, so they read them like newspapers, especially those who rarely read or usually read novels. Not aimed at you, just generally speaking.
But as for Faust, I think it's entirely different than majority of poems too. Books like Faust, Dante's Divine Comedy and Njegos' The Mountain Wreath/The Ray of the Microcosm. It's wrong to just read those without stops and without analysing verses because there are way too many hidden meanings, metaphors and huge amount of layers. There are analysis where entire books are defining those poems and those really help understand some stuff or parts you think are stupid/meaningless, since people study those works for years literally. I read 80 pages on The Ray of the Microcosm and I got to appreciate the work even more than I did when I first read it.
Yeah maybe you're right about not knowing how to read a poem, can't say I've really read any before. I did enjoy it in parts though. Then again the translation probably doesn't do it justice. What language did you read it in?
Hesse. I love him. Can never go wrong with Steppenwolf and Demian.It's just a different book. I'm not gonna teach you how to read poems but I think many people don't know how to read them, so they read them like newspapers, especially those who rarely read or usually read novels. Not aimed at you, just generally speaking.
But as for Faust, I think it's entirely different than majority of poems too. Books like Faust, Dante's Divine Comedy and Njegos' The Mountain Wreath/The Ray of the Microcosm. It's wrong to just read those without stops and without analysing verses because there are way too many hidden meanings, metaphors and huge amount of layers. There are analysis where entire books are defining those poems and those really help understand some stuff or parts you think are stupid/meaningless, since people study those works for years literally. I read 80 pages on The Ray of the Microcosm and I got to appreciate the work even more than I did when I first read it.
