What is the best translation of goethe faust?

Answer 1

Oi vey! That's a tough one. No English language translations of Faust really do for Goethe what, say, Pevear/Volokhonsky are doing for Dostovesky and Tolstoy, or Grossman did for Marquez and eventually almost did for Cervantes. Or lots of people have done for Dante. For Goethe, Kauffmann will not hurt you, Gordon Taylor's is old, but of high literary merit. I have not read Walter Arndt's translation, but I usually trust Norton, so you might try that. Or, if all else fails, ask a friend or prof who really loved it which translation they used. I've been trying to find Harold Bloom's email so I can ask him all sorts of questions, but it apparently is not out there just for weirdos on the internet wondering what he thinks of John Cheever.

I hope someone else helps you much more than this.

Harold Bloom Recommends Atkins.

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For modern English, my recommendation is David Luke. His translation of Part 1 of Faust won the European Poetry Translation Prize in 1989.

I have both Part 1 and Part 2 of his translation (Folio edition) -- the phrasing is smooth, accourate, and highly readable. I read and re-read his translation with great pleasure, something that I hardly get from translated works.

Here's another comment: "For decades, reviewer after reviewer (including poets such as Stephen Spender and D.J. Enright), praised David Luke's acutely sensitive ear and his tremendous linguistic dexterity. In 2000 the German-British Forum presented him with a medal in honour of his contribution to cultural understanding between the two nations."