Goethe's "Wandrers Nachtlied" Viewed in the Light of Longfellow's Translation

By Julian Scutts, Student

A discussion of Goethe's "Wandrers Nachtlied" in the light of its translation by Longfellow. I take a particular interest in whether the english vern "to wander" adequately conveys the same range of poetic associations as the German "wandern".

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

1: GOETHE'S "WANDRERS NACHTLIED" VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF
LONGFELLOW'S TRANSLATION

WANDRERS NACHTLIED

Der du von dem Himmel bist,

Alles Leid und Schmerzen stillst,

Den, der doppelt elend ist,

Doppelt mit Erquickung füllest,

Ach, ich bin des Treibens müde,

Was soll all der Schmerz und Lust?

Süßer Friede, Komm, ach komm in meine Brust!



EIN GLEICHES

Über allen Gipfeln

Ist Ruh,

In allen Wipfeln

Spürest du

Kaum einen Hauch,

Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.

Warte nur, balde

Ruhest du auch.



WANDERER’S NIGHT-SONGS (AFTER GOETHE) - H. W.Longfellow

I

Thou that from the heavens art,

Every pain and sorrow stillest,

And the doubly wretched heart

Doubly with refreshment fillest,

I am weary with contending!

Why this rapture and unrest?

Peace descending

Come ah, come into my breast!



II

O'er all the hill-tops

Is quiet now,

In all the tree-tops

Hearest thou

Hardly a breath;

The birds are asleep in the trees:

Wait; soon like these

Thou too shalt rest.










The Question of how to translate "Wand(e)rer" into English


When translating Goethe's "Wandrers Nachtlied" into English, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, a scholar versed in German literature as well as a celebrated poet,
rendered its title as "Wanderer's Night-Songs". His choice of the word "Wanderer"
raises an interesting question. Anyone who has learned a foreign language is likely to
be familiar with the concept of "false friends" - words in different languages which
share a similar outward form but which convey quite different meanings, e.g. English
"deception" and French "déception". When located in a non-fictional text, the
German "Wanderer" is as likely to find its English equivalent in "traveller," "wayfarer,"
"migrant" or even "hiker" as it is in "wanderer". The translator's choice of word will
reflect his or her assessment of the General sense of the passage in question. In the
case of "Wandrers Nachtlied", however, it is not possible to determine which
particular meaning of "Wandrer" has precedence over others. The two short poems
which singly or jointly bear the title of "Wandrers Nachtlied" evoke the sentiments of
a pilgrim on life's journey. The second poem in this pair depicts a nocturnal scene
witnessed by a speaker that the reader might imagine to be a traveller or rover. The
poems are also "songs", expressions of a poetic or artistic vision. The only English
word to convey a comparable range of associations is "wanderer". Its quality of
ambiguity and vagueness, which might disqualify it as a precise logical term,
commends itself to use in poetry. In the course of ensuing discussion we shall
consider which ways in Longfellow's translation significantly departs from the original,
as these divergences throw much light on matters concerning the interpretation of
"Wandrers Nachtlied". The first divergence we encounter is found in the poem’s title.


Implications of Divergences between Longfellows’s Translation and the German
Original

"Night-Songs" does not correspond to "Nachtlied" in number. Goethe's use of the
singular emphasises the unity evinced by the two poems. Longfellow's use of the
plural emphasises their respective singularity. The question of the poems' unity is
best elucidated by reference to the time and circumstances of their origin. The first
"Night-Song" was written in l776, when Goethe was still a newcomer to the court in
Weimar. We note a correspondence between the mood of the first "Night- Song" and
the young poet’s situation in that year. He was then still recovering from the trauma
of his Sturm und Drang years when he had felt himself to be a Cain-like fugitive.

By 1776, Goethe was afforded the promise of relief from his woes by the consoling
influence of Frau von Stein. By 1780, largely as a result of being subject to this
influence, Goethe had acquired the virtues of self-possession, patience and a sense
of the objectivity inculcated by the contemplation of physical nature and works of art.
As a minister charged with responsibility for the supervision of mines, he frequently
visited Ilmenau, and it was in the close vicinity of this town that he wrote the second
"Night-Song" and inscribed its words into the boards of a wayfarer's hut set in the
hills. The most probable date of this event was the 6th of September 1780. 1

When Goethe approached the end of his life, he returned to this hut. On reading the
second "Night-Song" carved in the boards of a wall, Goethe could not help weeping,
so deeply was the poem connected with his memories of Frau von Stein. Goethe
himself set the precedent for having the poems appear either separately or together. If
the poems appear singly, each bears the title of "Wandrers Nachtlied"; if together,
only the first is thus entitled, while the poem of 1780 bears the title "Ein Gleiches"",
(meaning here "a poem of the same kind"). Let us now go on to consider words found
in the poems and difficulties Longfellow faced when translating them.

The words "Spürest du" in the second "Night-Song" are rendered by Longfellow as
"Hearest thou". Any English translation of the German "du" in a poetic text cannot
quite convey the force of the German pronoun. The English "you" neither specifies a
reference to only one person, nor does it in itself indicate that there is a close or
familiar relationship between the speaker and the person addressed. "Thou"
corresponds to "du" in terms of number and familiarity, but carries possibly unwanted
associations with certain biblical and literary traditions. An evocation of tradition may
well be consistent with the lofty tones of the first "Night-Song" so reminiscent of the
Lord's Prayer in the King James Bible. However, the self-same tone loses something
of the intimate feeling conveyed by "du" in the second "Night-Song".

The German verb "spüren" has meanings in the range "to trace", "to sense", "to
make out" and "to discern under difficult conditions". Why did Longfellow render this
verb using "to hear"? It seems unlikely that the answer will be found in any need to
make concessions to demands of metre. "Spüren" does not suggest which of the five
senses allows one to be aware of some object. In the given context Longfellow's
choice of the verb "to hear" suggests that the speaker relies exclusively on the
auditory channel of perception when detecting the slightest movement in the
tree-tops to which he refers. Common sense tells us that despite the advent of
darkness it is often possible to see objects at night. Even if we allow that the speaker
can attune his hearing to movements in tree-tops (as opposed to those in their lower
branches), we still have to consider the hill-tops referred to in the poem. Longfellow
establishes by the very use of the verb "to hear" that the reader records his physical
perceptions. To suggest that the vision of the hills is not physical in character, but
rather some projection of the imaginative faculty is to deny the unity and consistency
of the poem itself. We face none of these objections if we accept that the second
night-song depicts a nocturnal landscape as seen by the speaker. Professor E.M.
Wilkinson suggests in an appreciation of the poem that the speaker sees what he
describes by the twilight of evening. 2 The only other source of light capable of
illuminating the hills and trees to which the speaker refers is that of the moon. When
faced with two equally plausible explanations, even a rigorously objective critic may
find it appropriate to consider one poem in the light of another written by the author,
preferably at about the same time.

In one of the draft versions of "Wandrers Nachtlied" the opening line runs "Über allen
Gefilden" ("Above every field").6 This evinces a strong similarity with words found in
"An den Mond," which Goethe dedicated to Frau von Stein.


Here is the second strophe of this poem:


Breitest über mein Gefild

Lindernd deinen Blick

Wie der Liebsten Auge, mild

Über mein Geschick.



You spread over my pastures

Your softening glance

Like the eyes of the dearest one, mildly

Over my destiny.



If we concede that "An den Mond" evinces a deep affinity with the poems that share
the title of "Wandrers Nachtlied", it follows that the second person pronoun situated
in the first line of"Wandrers Nachtlied" (1776) contains the same dual reference. As
the poems entitled "Wandrers Nachtlied" form a unity, we have a basis for inferring
that the speaker describes a moon-lit landscape in the poem of 1780. But if this is
the case, why should this poem contain no explicit reference to the moon? I offer an
explanation of this absence at a later juncture in this section. However, I now briefly
submit reasons why the poem's implicit suggestions concerning the effect of
moon-light are compatible with the deep psychological influences which Professor
Willoughby discusses in association with Goethe's use of the word "Wanderer."

In poetic usage the English and German words sharing the form "Wanderer" arouse
identical or similar associations, among them those of the "Wanderer" and the moon.
Indeed, Shelley's "Lines written in the Bay of Lerici" begins with an apostrophe to the
moon with the words "Bright wanderer". In my view there is an implicit association of
the "Wanderer" and the moon in Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In his
article entitled "Romanticism and 'Anti-Self-Consciousness"'. 4 G.H. Hartman
identifies the Mariner as the "Wanderer" or "Wandering Jew". The Mariner is finally
released from the curse that he brought upon himself when he blesses sea-serpents
he sees by the light of the moon. Parallel treatments of the associated themes of the
Wanderer and the moon in German and English poetry cannot be readily explained in
terms of adherence to some convention or well-established tradition. In my view an
explanation of this phenomenon must be sought in the deep levels of the psyche. Dr.
C. G. Jung constantly elucidated his theories by referring to the archetypal wanderers
that appear in ancient mythologies. 5 In this connection he pointed to "solar" heroes
driven by a libidinal impulse to achieve union with that aspect of the consciousness
that gives rise to the image of a goddess of the night, sometimes the moon,
representing the anima, the female aspect of the self, sought by the libido.

In an article to which I have already referred G.H. Hartmann interprets poems that
present the theme of a journey as expressions of the imaginative process when
engaged in the composition of poetry. I continue this discussion exploring ways in
which words and images encountered in "Wandrers Nachtlied" mirror the quality and
nature of the poems themselves. Let us once more consider aspects of "Wandrers
Nachtlied" in the light of Longfellow‘s translation. Longfellow's rendering of "Vögelein"
as "birds" in the second "Night-Song" does not convey the diminutive force of the
suffix indicating "liitle birds". What is lost by this inaccuracy? We are surely not
considering here some aspect of ornithogy but a reflection of an internal aspect of the
poem itself. I find corroboration for this conclusion in a word that also implies a
reference to poetry and poetic inspiration, namely in "Hauch" ("breath"), which
immediately precedes the line beginning "Die Vögelein", for the words "die Vögelein"
and "kaum einen Hauch" share the feature of denoting a slight measure.These
intimations are consonant with the tone of the second "Night-Song" with its quality of
reticence and lack of any superfluous word or image. It is the bare economy of
language evident in the poem, with its tendency to stress the minimal or negative
aspects of what it describes, which lends the poem its specially vibrant qualities and
its density of associations. Again the line "Die Vöglein schweigen im Walde" will
serve to illustrate this point. In the normal way it should be translated as "The little
birds are silent in the wood". Longfellow's translation of this line offers one possible
explanation of the birds' silence, but forfeits the stark simplicity of the original, which
stresses absence and negation. If, as I earlier argued, a perception of light is implied
by the speaker s reference to inaudible objects, the absence of any reference to a
source of light again reflects the poet's avoidance of any superfluous statement.

The minimalism that characterises "Wandrers Nachtlied" enhances the suggestive
power those few words that compose it, making us unusually aware that words exist
in their own right and are not merely subservient to a concise referential and
designating role. This is nowhere more clearly evident than in the case of the word
"Wanderer". In the introduction of this inquiry I focussed on possible reasons why
Longfellow chose the word "Wanderer" as the appropriate translation of "Wandrer".
No Synonym of "Wanderer," whether "wayfarer", "pilgrim", or "itinerant artist" covers
the full range of meaning that inheres in "Wanderer", and no dramatic or contextual
setting foregrounds one sense of "Wanderer" at the expense of another. Any
resultant ambiguity does not lead to confusion or contradiction, as interpretations of
the poem based on a regard for one of its meanings complement and enhance
alternative interpretations based on another understanding of the word's possible
meaning. This ambiguity comes to light if we reflect on the nature of the "rest" that is
finally promised to the Wanderer. This might be construed as physical rest on a
traveller's return to home and family after the rigours of a long journey. It could
betoken the rest of a believer after life's journey is over, or a release from tensions
that assail the poet's peace of mind. In recognition of what Goethe called
"Wiederspiegelung", the interaction of art and life, we gather that all the aspects of
"wandering" just mentioned colour the full meaning of the word "Wanderer". We
should not consider this word only in terms of its power to define subject-matter. It
implies structure, contrast, relationships and reciprocity. This is clearly evident in the
antithesis of "Wanderer" and "rest" in "Wandrers Nachtlied," or indeed, within the
general context of Goethe's poetic works, as Professor L.A. Willoughby convincingly
demonstrates in his article "The Image of the 'Wanderer' and the 'Hut' in Goethe's
Poetry".6

If, as I suggested earlier, the associations of "Wanderer" and other forms derived from
the verbs "wandern" and "to wander', harbour the same wealth of implications, we
should expect to discover similar themes and antitheses in poems in which such
forms occur. Certain similarities of this kind may be the result of "influence". As I
noted in another connection, according to Jonathan Wordsworth, his renowned
forebear, William Wordsworth, was deeply impressed by Goethe's "Der Wandrer" as
mediated to him by a translation of this poem by William Taylor of Norwich. 7 In
entitling the translation "The Wanderer", Taylor anticipated Longfellow’s choice of the
same word in the title "Wanderer's Night-Songs". In Jonathan Wordsworth's view,
Goethe's influence gave rise to the figure of the Wanderer in The Excursion. It is,
however, in a comparison of "Wandrers Nachtlied" and "I wandered lonely as a cloud"
that I believe we are able to discover the deepest affinities shared by Goethe and
Wordsworth. In both poems we witness a vision of natural objects which effects a
perfect balance of subjectivity and objectivity. The communion of the observer and the
observed springs from a harmony of the self-conscious and the unconscious
operations of the poet's mind. The merging of these modes of consciousness does
not result in either poem in an obliteration of references to recalled experience.
Indeed, we can even assign precise dates to the experiences which prompted
Goethe and Wordworth to write these poems. However, the poems also evince that
power which transcends the normal individual or personal consciousness, the power
the Romantics called "the imagination".

Professor E. .M. Wilkinson observes in connection with the second "Night-Song" that
the poem reveals the essential order of language itself. 8 I believe a similar claim can
be made for "I wandered lonely as a cloud", for reasons that should become clear in
the following discussion. It is noteworthy that both poems begin with the word
"Wanderer" or a declined form of the verb "to wander", thereby typifying a trait in the
poetry of their age. A conspicuous number of celebrated poems written by Goethe
and his Romantic contemporaries contain the word "Wanderer" in their titles. The
frequency of this occurrence is so conspicuous that one might be misled into
concluding that the word "Wanderer" is limited in function to serving as some conceit
or convention. One finds occurrences of the verb "to wander" at the beginning of
English Romantic poems which echo traditional evocations of the "wandering"
Muse.9 If we discover essentially the same phenomenon reflected in occurrences of
the word "Wanderer" in German poetry and those of the less conspicuous but no
less significant appearances of the verb "to wander" in Romantic English poetry, we
have cause to ponder whether the Muse has truly departed from modern poetry. In
my view no prevalent influence or convention, and least of all coincidence, provides a
full explanation for the affinities and shared associations noted in this discussion.

ANNOTATIONS


1. The background of the poem is discussed by Erich Trunz in his commentary on
"Ein Gleiches" Goethe Die Gedichte, ed. Erich Trunz (Munich, 1929).


2. We pointed to the immediacy with which language here conveys the hush of
evening Über allen Gipfel ist Ruh. In the long of Ruh and in the evening pause we
detect the perfect stillness that descends upon nature with the coming of twilight.
Professor E.M. Wilkinson, "Goethe's Poetry", German Life and Letters, pp. 316-329.


3. Hand-written copies were in the possession of Herder and Luise von Göchhausen.


4. In: Romanticism and Consciousness Essays in criticism, ed. Harold Bloom (New
York, 1970


5 . "The nature of wandering in psychological terms is discussed in the fifth chapter
of Psychology of the Unconscious. I cite a passage from this chapter as translated
by Beatrice M. Hinkle:

The wandering is a representation of longing, of the ever-restless desire, which
nowhere finds its object, for unknown to itself, it seeks the lost mother, the wandering
association renders the Sun comparison easily intelligible, also. under this aspect,
the heroes resemble the wandering Sun, which seems to justify the fact that the
myth of the hero is a sun myth. But the myth of the hero, however, is, as it appears
to me, the myth of our own suffering unconscious, which has an unquenchable
longing for all the deepest sources of our own being."


6. in: Etudes Germanique July-Dec 1951.


7. Jonathan Wordsworth, The Music of Humanity (New York / Evanston, 1969).


8. ln the article cited in the second footnote above:

Here, in this lyrical poem, his [Goethe's] experience of natural process has been so
completely assimilated into the forms of language, that it is communicated to us
directly by the order of the words.


9. Most noticeably in Byron's Childe Harold' s Pilgrimage and Blake's Milton.