What's the best translation for Goethe's Faust? I

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>>9644034
The image says:
>Luke
>Arndt - Critical
>Kaufmann - Accessible

>>9644041

What does "critical" means? As in he interprets the work, or as in he is essential?

curious german reader here; do they keep the translation in rhymes or do they just translate it to prose?

>>9644245
Here is the Bayard Taylor translation that's in the public domain of Faust's first monologue. There is definitely rhyme and meter in it, though I have no knowledge of whether they match the German original or not:

I've studied now Philosophy
And Jurisprudence, Medicine,—
And even, alas! Theology,—
From end to end, with labor keen;
And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand, no wiser than before:
I'm Magister—yea, Doctor—hight,
And straight or cross-wise, wrong or right,
These ten years long, with many woes,
I've led my scholars by the nose,—
And see, that nothing can be known!
That knowledge cuts me to the bone.
I'm cleverer, true, than those fops of teachers,
Doctors and Magisters, Scribes and Preachers;
Neither scruples nor doubts come now to smite me,
Nor Hell nor Devil can longer affright me.

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>>9644284
>I've studied now Philosophy
>And Jurisprudence, Medicine,—
>And even, alas! Theology,—
>From end to end, with labor keen;
>And here, poor fool! with all my lore
>I stand, no wiser than before:
>I'm Magister—yea, Doctor—hight,
>And straight or cross-wise, wrong or right,
>These ten years long, with many woes,
>I've led my scholars by the nose,—
>And see, that nothing can be known!
>That knowledge cuts me to the bone.
>I'm cleverer, true, than those fops of teachers,
>Doctors and Magisters, Scribes and Preachers;
>Neither scruples nor doubts come now to smite me,
>Nor Hell nor Devil can longer affright me.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

>>9644041
this chart is awful. look up the original threaed, OP was the biggest fucking pseud
>>9644034

anyway, pastaing my previous posts on the topic

>arndt if you want to read a lot of notes and critical essays. some of his phrasing is a bit stilted.

>luke is fine. just general all purpose good.

>harold bloom likes atkins. strongest focus on rhythm of the major translations. i think it's fine as well.

>greenberg is an interesting darkhorse contender. some modernized colloquialisms.

>bayard taylor if you want to read the most widely read one historically (i think?). poetic, but definitely reads like shakespeare.

>arndt is good because it's the norton critical the notes/commentary are really valuable. the translation itself is kinda stilted.

>bloom likes atkins. huge emphasis on rhythm and meter (an underappreciated aspect of the original from what i gather).

>norton comes with the best supplemental materials. arndt's is super stilted though, and even the editor who wrote the commentary/accompanying notes often provides alternate translations of passages to make a point.

>luke is sophisticated and very well-received, though i think some of his modernization are a bit awkward. could be personal preference. it's showing signs of being the new "standard" translation for sure.

>greenberg (not pictured) is super colloquial and casual. kinda fun to read but i think it misses some nuance at times.

>reading translations
>not buying the works in their original language, putting them on a podest and looking at them daily to fuel your language studying

>>9644921

Reading Faust in german is my objective already. My mom is a native speaker and has the original version, but it will take a couple of years before I can even make an attempt to read it.

>>9644034
that is the cutest fucking devil I have ever seen

>>9644952

Cute and creepy at the same time, pretty cool

>>9644932
But it is really old German. I had my problems reading Shakespeare as a German

>>9644996

If it's anything like Shakespeare, don't you get used to it after a while? I'm not a native english speaker either but after reading some plays I can enjoy Shakespeare fine, if you give me a couple of pages to "get the hang of it".