'The world's unwithered countenance
Is bright as at the birth of day.'
Mr. Taylor's liability to mistake Goethe's meaning--a liability shared
by most translators, because the poet is really simple, when they
fancy him only an utterer of enigmas--is curiously shown by his
rendering of a famous line:--
'Es irrt der Mensch, so lang er strebt.'
Goethe meant simply this, 'Man errs when he strives'--calm is both
power and joy--leave the great movement of the world do to its work,
and be passive in the hands of the Creator. His faith was in repose.
Well, Mr. Taylor gives us the renderings of nine translators, none of
whom have approached the simplicity, and only one or two the meaning
of the original.
_Ex. gr._:--
'HAYWARD.--Man is liable to error, while his struggle lasts.
ANSTER.--Man's hour on earth is weakness, error, strife.
BROOKS.--Man errs and staggers from his birth.
SWANWICK.--Man, while he striveth, is prone to err.
BLACKIE.--Man must still err, so long as he strives.
MARTIN.--Man, while his struggle lasts, is prone to stray.
BERESFORD.--Man errs as long as lasts his life.
BIRCH.--Man's prone to err in acquisition.