"Distance, my dear friend, is like futurity; a darkness is placed before us, and the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as distant objects are to our sight."

— Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832)


Place of Publication
Leipzig
Publisher
Weygand'sche Buchhandlung
Date
1774, rev. 1787, 1779 in English
Metaphor
"Distance, my dear friend, is like futurity; a darkness is placed before us, and the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as distant objects are to our sight."
Metaphor in Context
When I first came hither, and from the top of the hill contemplated the beauties of this vale, you cannot imagine how I was attracted by every thing I saw round me. The little wood opposite, how delightful to sit under its shade! how fine the view from that point of rock! How agreeably might one wander in those close valleys, and amongst those broken hills! I went and came without having found what I wished. Distance, my dear friend, is like futurity; a darkness is placed before us, and the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as distant objects are to our sight. We ardently wish for a warm and noble energy which might take possession of our souls; we would sacrifice our whole being to be filled with such a sentiment.
(Vol. I, Letter XIII, pp. 68-9)

Es ist wunderbar: wie ich hierher kam und vom Hügel in das schöne Tal schaute, wie es mich rings umher anzog. – dort das Wäldchen! – ach könntest du dich in seine Schatten mischen! – dort die Spitze des Berges! – ach könntest du von da die weite Gegend überschauen! – die in einander geketteten Hügel und vertraulichen Täler! – o könnte ich mich in ihnen verlieren! – ich eilte hin, und kehrte zurück, und hatte nicht gefunden, was ich hoffte. O es ist mit der Ferne wie mit der Zukunft! Ein großes dämmerndes Ganze ruht vor unserer Seele, unsere Empfindung verschwimmt darin wie unser Auge, und wir sehnen uns, ach! Unser ganzes Wesen hinzugeben, uns mit aller Wonne eines einzigen, großen, herrlichen Gefühls ausfüllen zu lassen. – und ach! Wenn wir hinzueilen, wenn das Dort nun Hier wird, ist alles vor wie nach, und wir stehen in unserer Armut, in unserer Eingeschränktheit, und unsere Seele lechzt nach entschlüpftem Labsale.
(Am 21. Junius, p. 32 in Reclam)
Categories
Provenance
Google Books
Citation
An international bestseller with 27 entries for the uniform title "Leiden des jungen Werthers. English" in the ESTC (1779, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1799).

I consulted, concurrently, the German and eighteenth-century English translations. See Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Werter: a German Story. 2 vols (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1779), <Link to ECCO>. But, note, the translation is not always literal; the translator repeatedly tones down Werther's figurative language (especially, it seems, in the second volume): "A few expressions which had this appearance [of extravagance] have been omitted by the French, and a few more by the English translator, as they might possibly give offence in a work of this nature" (Preface).

Searching English text from a 1784 printing (Dodsley, "A New Edition") in Google Books <Link to volume I><Link to voume II>

Reading Die Leiden des jungen Werther (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2002). German text from http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/3636/1. Printed in 1774 in Leipzig, Weygand'sche Buchhandlung.
Date of Entry
07/14/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.