Help translating lines from Goethe's Faust Part 2?

February 25, 2005 3:10 PM

Help translating two lines from Goethe's Faust, Part 2?

I'm working on an exhibition of early German and Austrian poster art. One poster, made shortly after the end of WWI, shows a farmer plowing his field towards the sunlight, under the headline Bauer hilf, die Städte hungern! (Farmers, help -- the cities are starving!) Next to the farmer is a couplet from Faust 2, spoken by the emperor to Mephistopheles towards the end of the scene 2:

"Die Töpfe drunten, voll von Goldgewicht-- / Zieh deinen Pflug und ackre sie ans Licht." I've found two translations online, but in both cases the second line seems a little clunky: "The pots down there, heavy with golden freight -- / Drive your plough on, unearth them straight" or "The pots down there, full of golden weight -- / Drive your plough, and, ploughing, excavate."

I know that "Licht" = "light", so obviously the translations I found omitted that for the sake of the rhyme. But in this poster, the artist obviously chose the original couplet not just as a reference to plowing, but also as a reference to moving towards the light. I know there was a new(-ish?) translation published by Penguin, but I don't currently have access to it. If anyone could check the new translation for me (or, if you're confident in your translating skills, take a crack at it yourself), that would be swell. Viel dank!

posted by scody to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

ackern is to till, or metaphorically to slog away. So literally, "draw your plough, and till them into the light". I know this isn't an idiomatic way to use "till" but I can't think of a better English verb we could use this way.

Down below, the gold-filled tuns --
Draw your plough, and tilling, show them to the sun.

Equally loose, but in a different way.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:47 PM on February 25, 2005

The Walter Arndt Norton Critical Edition that I have access to say:

Those hoards of gold below ground, coin and cup,
Go pull your plough and pry them up.

No mention of light, sorry.
posted by Who_Am_I at 3:48 PM on February 25, 2005

"ans Licht bringen" can mean to reveal or unveil, which makes sense too, and turns into unearth or excavate probably in those translations.
posted by cmm at 3:52 PM on February 25, 2005

PS: the poet is saying to expose the pots to the light by removing the soil above.

In the context of the poster, by cultivation, the farmer provides a treasure. Think about the fable of the man who leaves his sons a vineyard. The pots of gold are a metaphor for food brought forth from the soil.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:52 PM on February 25, 2005

Hmmm...

Beneath the earth are pots of treasure bright
So till the soil, and bring them to the light

I'm not fond of "pots of treasure bright", but this seems like a promising way to get the word "light" in there...
posted by wanderingmind at 4:52 PM on February 25, 2005

Best answer: My preferred translation has it:

"Those pots down there, so heavy with their gold--
go draw your plow, bring them to light."

(Stuart Atkins translation, published by Princeton Univ. Press. He doesn't make it all rhyme, which I think makes it easier to read.)
posted by dnash at 10:52 PM on February 25, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! I'll probably go with the Atkins translation (non-rhyming) -- I think it may be better to sacrifice the rhyme in favor of the more literal meaning so that it's easier for visitors to relate the couplet to the poster image.
posted by scody at 11:46 PM on February 25, 2005