The Urfaust: A Translation

"The Urfaust: Goethe’s 'Faust' in the Original Form" is an English translation by Douglas M. Scott, who also added an extensive Introduction. Readers of Goethe’s poems, and students of his life, in seeking to connect events in the author’s life to his works, have opened diverse lines of inquiry in attempts to better understand his writings. To one fundamental question in regard to "The Urfaust," however, there is no answer if the poem itself is not a sufficient answer. That is the question of what is so Faustian about Faust’s endeavors. In the “Urfaust” we see a scholar who has exhausted the resources of study and bursts out to experience what holds the world together, to learn the inmost secrets of creation - and what does he experience? A student brawl in a tavern and a love affair in which he plays an inglorious role. There can be no answer that would satisfy a twentieth-century standard of extraordinary achievement; Faust was not a twentieth-century man. To those who can put such questions aside, however, the poem offers a universe of beauty, wisdom, wit and grace.