"'My good friend,' said I, 'whatever is the education of a man, whatever is his understanding, still he is a man, and the little reason that he possesses, either does not act at all, or acts very feebly, when the passions are let loose, or rather when the boundaries of human nature close in upon him--But we will talk of this another time,' I said, and took up my hat--Alas! my heart was full--and we parted without conviction on either side.--How rarely do men understand one another!"
— Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832)
Place of Publication
Leipzig
Publisher
Weygand'sche Buchhandlung
Date
1774, rev. 1787, 1779 in English
Metaphor
"'My good friend,' said I, 'whatever is the education of a man, whatever is his understanding, still he is a man, and the little reason that he possesses, either does not act at all, or acts very feebly, when the passions are let loose, or rather when the boundaries of human nature close in upon him--But we will talk of this another time,' I said, and took up my hat--Alas! my heart was full--and we parted without conviction on either side.--How rarely do men understand one another!"
Metaphor in Context
Albert, who did not allow the comparison to be just, made many objections: amongst the rest, that I had only brought the example of a simple and ignorant girl;--but he could not comprehend how a man of sense, whose views are more enlarged, and who sees such various consolations, should ever suffer himself to fall into such a state of despair. "My good friend," said I, "whatever is the education of a man, whatever is his understanding, still he is a man, and the little reason that he possesses, either does not act at all, or acts very feebly, when the passions are let loose, or rather when the boundaries of human nature close in upon him--But we will talk of this another time," I said, and took up my hat--Alas! my heart was full--and we parted without conviction on either side.--How rarely do men understand one another!
(Vol. I, Letter XXIX [August 12], pp. 135-6)
Albert, dem die Vergleichung noch nicht anschaulich war, wandte noch einiges ein, und unter andern: ich hätte nur von einem einfältigen Mädchen gesprochen; wie aber ein Mensch von Verstande, der nicht so eingeschränkt sei, der mehr Verhältnisse übersehe, zu entschuldigen sein möchte, könne er nicht begreifen.--»Mein Freund«, rief ich aus, »der Mensch ist Mensch, und das bißchen Verstand, das einer haben mag, kommt wenig oder nicht in Anschlag, wenn Leidenschaft wütet und die Grenzen der Menschheit einen drängen. Vielmehr--ein andermal davon«, sagte ich und griff nach meinem Hute. O mir war das Herz so voll--und wir gingen auseinander, ohne einander verstanden zu haben. Wie denn auf dieser Welt keiner leicht den andern versteht.
(Am 12. August, pp. 59 in Reclam)
(Vol. I, Letter XXIX [August 12], pp. 135-6)
Albert, dem die Vergleichung noch nicht anschaulich war, wandte noch einiges ein, und unter andern: ich hätte nur von einem einfältigen Mädchen gesprochen; wie aber ein Mensch von Verstande, der nicht so eingeschränkt sei, der mehr Verhältnisse übersehe, zu entschuldigen sein möchte, könne er nicht begreifen.--»Mein Freund«, rief ich aus, »der Mensch ist Mensch, und das bißchen Verstand, das einer haben mag, kommt wenig oder nicht in Anschlag, wenn Leidenschaft wütet und die Grenzen der Menschheit einen drängen. Vielmehr--ein andermal davon«, sagte ich und griff nach meinem Hute. O mir war das Herz so voll--und wir gingen auseinander, ohne einander verstanden zu haben. Wie denn auf dieser Welt keiner leicht den andern versteht.
(Am 12. August, pp. 59 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.
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
