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Poems

May 1998

From father I get my physique

by Martin Greenberg

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem with matching translation from Martin Greenberg

Vom Vater hab ich die Statur,
Des Lebens ernstes Führen,
Vom Mütterchen die Frohnatur
Und Lust zu fabulieren.
Urahnherr war der Schönsten hold,
Das spukt so hin und wieder;
Urahnfrau liebte Schmuck und Gold,
Das zuckt wohl durch die Glieder.
Sind nun die Elemente nicht
Aus dem Komplex zu trennen,
Was ist denn an dem ganzen Wicht
Original zu nennen?

 

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

 

From father I get my physique,
Also my earnest nature;
My story-telling bent, glad heart
I have from my dear mother.
Great-grandpapa liked pretty girls,
It shows up in me also;
Great-grandmama loved gold and jewels,
A smack of that’s in me, too.
So if one’s a complex of traits
Inborn and indivisible,
What’s there to call your own, poor wre ...

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Martin Greenberg's translation of Goethe's Faust is available from Yale University Press.


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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 16 May 1998, on page 27

Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

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