Dear Duncan,

 

The Goethe-Institut in London recommended I contact the German Studies list with a query. The background is a little long, but the query itself is brief!

 

I am interested in J W Goethe's poem Sprichwörtlich (from "Gedichte: Ausgabe letzter Hand (1827)", in particular verse seven:

“Was in der Zeiten Bildersaal

Jemals trefflich gewesen,

Das wird immer eine einmal

Wieder auffrischen und lessen.”

 

I have found translations of this single verse in isolation into both English and Spanish:

 

In English: 

"Be sure the works of mighty men,

The good, the faithful, the sublime,

Stored in the gallery of Time,

Repose awhile—to wake again."

(“Letters Of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and Switzerland”, translated by Lady Wallace, 1861)

 

In Spanish:

"Deja en el yermo, ¡oh artista!, tu tesoro,

Y no temas si el tiempo le echa tierra;

Que si es de ley cual verdadero oro,

Alguien lo irá a buscar donde se encierra."

(Karl Woermann‘s "Historia del Arte en todos los tiempos y pueblos Vol. 6" („Geschichte der Kunst aller Zeiten und Vōlker, Bd. 6“), 1924)

 

My query, as an non-German Studies expert, is this: In the field of German Studies, which translators‘ work is considered to constitute the standard/canonical versions of Goethe‘s poem(s) in English and Spanish?

 

Thank you for any help

 

Nick Regan