Caroline’s and Schelling’s Translations from Petrarch [*]
Introduction
On 23 November 1801 (letter 331), Caroline wrote to Wilhelm Schlegel that that she had “translated almost half a modest Petrarch.” Schelling later wrote to Wilhelm on 31 January 1803: [1]
After reading your sonnets [by Petrarch], we have alternately occupied ourselves with translating our favorites. I am sending along to you, for you, one written out (in my hand) that Caroline actually translated; the other I did. I also translated the one about the old man who undertakes a pilgrimage to the veil of St. Veronica; [2] but I am still not satisfied enough with it to send it along.
The first two were included in Wilhelm’s anthology Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie (Berlin 1804). The other by Schelling (“I also translated the one about he old man who undertakes a pilgrimage”) is no. 2 in this present edition (Petrarch 13) but was not included in the anthology, or rather was included, but in Wilhelm’s own translation rather than Schelling’s.
The manuscript Schelling enclosed for Wilhelm has been lost. Wilhelm requested permission [3] to include both pieces with coded author names in Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, which Schelling was happy to grant even though he was still dissatisfied with the one especially because of the excessive monosyllables in the first quartet. He requested that Wilhelm perhaps put a “† or ** under both.” He indicated that in the summer he intended to translate several others as well. [4]
The sonnet Caroline translated (Petrarch 24) was published in the Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 20, and signed by ††. Schelling’s contribution to the same anthology, his translation of sonnet 289 of Petrarch, was published in the Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 74, [5] and signed by **.
Sonnets in Erich Schmidt, (1913), 2:593–94
1. Caroline: Petrarch 24 (Campbell: sonnet XXV: “Quanto più m’avvicino al giorno estremo”; Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 20). [6]
Caroline’s translation:
Je minder ich vom letzten Tag geschieden, Der kurz zu machen pflegt menschliche Wehen, Je mehr seh' ich die Zeit behende gehen, Und von der falschen Hoffnung mich gemieden. Ich sage meinem Sinn: Nicht lang' hienieden Wird unser Liebes-Reden mehr bestehen: Die schwere ird'sche Last will ja zergehen Wie frischer Schnee; dann aber kommt uns Frieden; Weil fallen wird mit ihr, diess was ich hoffte, Wovon so langes Wähnen mich begleitet, Und Lachen, Weinen, Bangen, Zürnen, Lechzen. Klar werden wir dann einsehn, wie man ofte Um zweifelhafte Dinge vorwärts schreitet, Und wie wir oftermals vergeblich ächzen.
First rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Francis Wrangham):
Near and more near as life's last period draws, Which oft is hurried on by human woe, I see the passing hours more swiftly flow, And all my hopes in disappointment close. And to my heart I say, amidst its throes, "Not long shall we discourse of love below; For this my earthly load, like new-fall'n snow Fast melting, soon shall leave us to repose. With it will sink in dust each towering hope, Cherish'd so long within my faithful breast; No more shall we resent, fear, smile, complain: Then shall we clearly trace why some are blest, Through deepest misery raised to Fortune's top, And why so many sighs so oft are heaved in vain."
Second rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Macgregor):
The nearer I approach my life's last day, The certain day that limits human woe, I better mark, in Time's swift silent flow, How the fond hopes he brought all pass'd away. Of love no longer — to myself I say — We now may commune, for, as virgin snow, The hard and heavy load we drag below Dissolves and dies, ere rest in heaven repay. And prostrate with it must each fair hope lie Which here beguiled us and betray'd so long, And joy, grief, fear and pride alike shall cease: And then too shall we see with clearer eye How oft we trod in weary ways and wrong, And why so long in vain we sigh'd for peace.
2. Schelling: Petrarch 13 (Campbell: sonnet XIV: “Movesi ‘l vecchierel canuto e bianco”). [7]
Schelling’s translation of Petrarch 13, preserved in Caroline’s handwriting and with her — not Schelling’s [8] — corrections, and quite different from Wilhelm’s superior rendering of the same sonnet in Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 17, [9] is preserved on the same manuscript page as Petrarch 203 (no. 3). The punctuation (in the German) has been emended.
Schelling’s translation:
Der Alte, längst ergraut, und weiss von Haaren, Bricht auf vom Sitz der langgewohnten Hütte Und aus der Sorgerfüllten Kinder Mitte, Die das Vergehn des theuren Haupts gewahren. Die Lenden schleppend, welche viel erfahren, Stärkt er, vom Grab entfernt nur wenig Schritte, So viel er kann durch guten Muth die Tritte, Müde vom Weg, gebrochen von den Jahren, Und kommt nach Roma, folgend dem Verlangen, Die Ähnlichkeit desjenigen zu sehen, Den er zu schaun auch hofft im Himmelslichte. So wandl' ich oft in Anderm zu erspähen, Holdseelige, so weit ichs mag erlangen, Eur' vielersehntes wahres Angesichte. [10]
First rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Lady Dacre):
The palmer bent, with locks of silver gray, Quits the sweet spot where he has pass'd his years, Quits his poor family, whose anxious fears Paint the loved father fainting on his way; And trembling, on his aged limbs slow borne, In these last days that close his earthly course, He, in his soul's strong purpose, finds new force, Though weak with age, though by long travel worn: Thus reaching Rome, led on by pious love, He seeks the image of that Saviour Lord Whom soon he hopes to meet in bliss above: So, oft in other forms I seek to trace Some charm, that to my heart may yet afford A faint resemblance of thy matchless grace.
Second rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Macgregor):
As parts the aged pilgrim, worn and gray, From the dear spot his life where he had spent, From his poor family by sorrow rent, Whose love still fears him fainting in decay: Thence dragging heavily, in life's last day, His suffering frame, on pious journey bent, Pricking with earnest prayers his good intent, Though bow'd with years, and weary with the way, He reaches Rome, still following his desire The likeness of his Lord on earth to see, Whom yet he hopes in heaven above to meet; So I, too, seek, nor in the fond quest tire, Lady, in other fair if aught there be That faintly may recall thy beauties sweet.
3. Schelling: Petrarch 203 (Campbell: sonnet CCIII: “L’ alto signor, dinanzi a cui non vale”). [11]
Schelling’s translation:
Der hohe Herr, vor dem nicht hilft zu fliehen, Zu bergen sich, noch leisten Widerstand, Hat meinen Sinn zu holder Lust entbrannt, Mit dem Geschoss gestählt in Liebes Glühen. Und da dem ersten Schlag sich zu entziehen Unmöglich schon, hat er zu härterm Sinn Des Mitleids Pfeile noch auf mich gewandt, Die stechend ganz das Herze mir durchziehen. Die eine Wunde strömet Feuerwellen, Die andre Thränen, die der Gram gespület Aus Augen, so erblickt die kranken Wangen. Dennoch wird nimmer mir aus beyden Quellen Ein Funken nur des Brandes je gekühlet, Vielmehr durch Mitleid wächset das Verlangen. [12]
Translation by directly from Plutarch (trans. Macgregor):
The sovereign Lord, 'gainst whom of no avail Concealment, or resistance is, or flight, My mind had kindled to a new delight By his own amorous and ardent ail: Though his first blow, transfixing my best mail Were mortal sure, to push his triumph quite He took a shaft of sorrow in his right, So my soft heart on both sides to assail. A burning wound the one shed fire and flame, The other tears, which ever grief distils, Through eyes for your weak health that are as rills. But no relief from either fountain came My bosom's conflagration to abate, Nay, passion grew by very pity great.
This sonnet was the third and final one in Schmidt (1913) (ending on 2:594). Schmidt and others adduce the following sonnets.
Sonnets not in Erich Schmidt, (1913)
4. Schelling: Petrarch 289 (Campbell: sonnet LXIII: “Tornami a mente, anzi v’ è dentro quella”; Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 74). [13]
Erich Schmidt did not reprint Schelling’s translation of what he and Georg Waitz [14] refer to as Petrarch no. 289, that is, the other sonnet appearing in Wilhelm’s Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 74 (there no. 36). [15]
Schelling’s translation:
Es kommt mir ins Gemüth — vielmehr vergehen Kann nie, was Lethe selbst nicht tilgt: — ihr Bilde, Wie ich sie sah auf blüh'ndem Lenzgefilde In ihres Sternes Strahlen leuchtend stehen. So ganz erschien sie mir beym ersten Sehen, Schön, still, in sich gekehrt, so gleicher Milde; Dass ich: "Sie ist es selbst," ganz ein mir bilde, "Sie lebt noch," und um Rede sie muss flehen. Bald giebt und bald verweigert sie mir Kunde, Ich, wie ein Mensch, der irrt, sich dann verwundert, Spreche zum Herzen: Herz, du bist im Fehle: Du weisst, vierzig und acht nach dreyzehnhundert Am sechsten Tag Aprils, zur ersten Stunde, Schied aus dem Leibe diese sel'ge Seele.
First rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Dr. Morehead):
Oh! to my soul for ever she returns; Or rather Lethe could not blot her thence, Such as she was when first she struck my sense, In that bright blushing age when beauty burns: So still I see her, bashful as she turns Retired into herself, as from offence: I cry — "'Tis she! she still has life and sense: Oh, speak to me, my love!" — Sometimes she spurns My call; sometimes she seems to answer straight: Then, starting from my waking dream, I say, — "Alas! poor wretch, thou art of mind bereft! Forget'st thou the first hour of the sixth day Of April, the three hundred, forty eight, And thousandth year, — when she her earthly mansion left?"
Second rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Miss Wollaston):
My mind recalls her; nay, her home is there, Nor can Lethean draught drive thence her form, I see that star's pure ray her spirit warm, Whose grace and spring-time beauty she doth wear. As thus my vision paints her charms so rare, That none to such perfection may conform, I cry, "'Tis she! death doth to life transform!" And then to hear that voice, I wake my prayer. She now replies, and now doth mute appear, Like one whose tottering mind regains its power; I speak my heart: "Thou must this cheat resign; The thirteen hundred, eight and fortieth year, The sixth of April's suns, his first bright hour, Thou know'st that soul celestial fled its shrine!"
5. Schelling: Petrarch 9 (Campbell: sonnet IX: “Quando ‘l pianeta che disting”; no. 4 in Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 14). [16]
Erich Frank also attributes to Schelling the sonnet in Blumensträusse italiänischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie, 14, signed by *. Frank includes the sonnet at the conclusion of his discussion of Caroline’s review of the Chamisso-Varnhagen Musenalmanach auf das Jahr 1805, prefacing it with the following remarks: [17]
On this occasion let us also adduce another sonnet that might be attributable to Schelling. It is found in Wilhelm Schlegel’s Blumensträusse etc. (Berlin 1804), 14, and is signed with the cipher *.
That it, like the other two (ibid., pp. 20 and 74, signed ** and †† and reprinted in Waitz, [1871], 2:378–80), was in all likelihood sent in by Schelling becomes clear from Plitt 1:463, in connection with 1:459 [see discussion above], and then also from the fact that Wilhelm Schlegel would likely not have accepted such an awkward translation for his collection from anyone other than Schelling.
Schelling’s translation:
Wenn der Planete, der die Stunden scheidet, Zum Zeichen wieder sich des Stiers, erhoben, Fällt aus den Flammenhörnern Kraft von oben, So ganz die Welt in neue Farbe kleidet. Und nicht nur was den Blick von aussen weidet Bach, Hügel, wird mit Blümlein rings umwoben, Nein, auch der Erd' inwend'ges Feucht gehoben, Geschwängert, was den Tag, verborgen, meidet. Vielfält'ge Frucht entquillet diesem Triebe; So sie, die unter Frauen eine Sonne, Zuwendend mir der schönen Augen Schimmer, Wirkt in mir Wort, Gedanken, That der Liebe: Jedoch, wie sie auch lenkt der Strahlen Wonne, Frühling nur ist für mich von nun an nimmer.
First rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Macgregor):
When the great planet which directs the hours
To dwell with Taurus from the North is borne,
Such virtue rays from each enkindled horn,
Rare beauty instantly all nature dowers;
Nor this alone, which meets our sight, that flowers
Richly the upland and the vale adorn,
But Earth's cold womb, else lustreless and lorn,
Is quick and warm with vivifying powers,
Till herbs and fruits, like these I send, are rife.
— So she, a sun amid her fellow fair,
Shedding the rays of her bright eyes on me,
Thoughts, acts, and words of love wakes into life —
But, ah! for me is no new Spring, nor e'er,
Smile they on whom she will, again can be.
Second rendering directly from Plutarch (trans. Miss Wollaston):
When Taurus in his house doth Phoebus keep,
There pours so bright a virtue from his crest
That Nature wakes, and stands in beauty drest,
The flow'ring meadows start with joy from sleep:
Nor they alone rejoice — earth's bosom deep
(Though not one beam illumes her night of rest)
Responsive smiles, and from her fruitful breast
Gives forth her treasures for her sons to reap.
Thus she, who dwells amid her sex a sun,
Shedding upon my soul her eyes' full light,
Each thought creates, each deed, each word of love:
But though my heart's proud mastery she hath won
Alas! within me dwells eternal night:
My spirit ne'er Spring's genial breath doth prove.
Notes
[*] Materials concerning Caroline’s and Schelling’s translations from Petrarch can be found in Erich Schmidt’s appendix no. 8: Sonnets, (1913), 2:593–95 (translations) and 2:665 (notes).
Rather than conflate three languages by trying to render into English Caroline’s and Schelling’s German translations of Petrarch’s Italian, this appendix provides their translations into German, nineteenth-century English translations directly from the Italian, and the initial lines of each piece in their original Italian. That is, readers can examine which sonnets Caroline and Schelling chose, seek out Petrarch’s original sonnets, and compare to the original German.
English translations are from The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch, trans. “by various hands,” ed. Thomas Campbell (London 1875), who provides two translations for some of the sonnets. Translators are noted for each sonnet.
Erich Schmidt’s numbering differs from Campbell’s in some instances; such differences are noted.
The sonnets translated by Schelling and mentioned by both Erich Schmidt (1913) and Georg Waitz (1871) but not included in either edition of Caroline’s letters will be noted.
Schmidt did not include Caroline’s final copy of two sonnets not deriving from Petrarch’s collection Il Canzoniere (“Im Anfang war das Wort. Die ew’gen Tiefen” (“In the beginning was the word. The eternal depths) and “Nacht, Furcht, Tod, Stummheit, Qual war eingebrochen” (Night, fear, death, muteness, torment had come”). Back.
[1] Plitt 1:448; Fuhrmans 2:485–86. Back.
[2] Allusion in the second line of the first triplet of the sonnet to the veil of St. Veronic (“Movesi ‘l vecchierel canuto e bianco”), who allegedly wiped Jesus’s face as he carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem; she later discovered Jesus’s visage on the veil. Back.
[3] Wilhelm to Schelling from Berlin on 7 May 1803 (letter 377d). Back.
[4] See Wilhelm to Schelling from Berlin on 7 May 1803 (letter 377d); also Schelling’s response from Jena on 20 May 1803 (letter 378). Back.
[5] Not p. 72 as in Erich Schmidt, (1913), 2:665. Back.
[6] German text in Erich Schmidt, (1913), 2:593; translation in Campbell, The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch, 35–36. Back.
[7] German text in Erich Schmidt, (1913), 2:593–94; translation in Campbell, The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch, 13–14. Back.
[8] According to Waitz, (1871), 2:378. Back.
[9] Reprinted in Wilhelm’s Sämmtliche Werke 4:10. Back.
[10] Corrections to Petrarch no. 13 in Schelling’s original German rendering:
“und weiss” replaced the earlier “schneeweiss”;
“Die Lenden schleppend” replaced the earlier “Schleppend die Lenden”;
“Die Ähnlichkeit” replaced the earlier “Das Ebenbild”;
“oft in Anderm zu erspähen” replaced earlier “oftmals, ferne zu erspähen”;
“wahres” replaced earlier “treues.” Back.
[11] German text in Erich Schmidt, (1913), 2:594; translation in Campbell, The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch, 212–13. Back.
[12] Corrections to Petrarch 203 in Schelling’s original German rendering (in the triplets):
“da mir Gram gespület. / Die Augen” replaced by “die der Gram gespület / Aus Augen”;
“Doch löscht sich nimmer … Brands den ich gefühlet” replaced by “Dennoch wird nimmer aus beyden Quellen … des Brandes je gekühlet.” Back.
[13] Translation in The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch, 293). Back.
[15] Reprinted in Sämmtliche Werke 10:446–47. Back.
[16] Translation in Campbell, The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch, 8. Back.
[17] Rezensionen über schöne Literatur von Schelling und Caroline in der Neuen Jenaischen Literatur-Zeitung, Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften 1912:1 (Heidelberg 1912), 51; sonnet text on p. 52. Back.
Translation © 2015 Doug Stott