7.45 Goethe — «Italienische Reise» (passages) — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read four passages from Goethe's Italienische Reise : his secret departure from Karlsbad, his arrival in Venice, his first days in Rome, and a letter from Naples. Follow the form of a travel journal: dated entries, letters to friends at home, quick impressions and longer reflections. Follow Goethe's way of seeing a new city: an impression of the whole first, then the details, then what the sight means to him. Recognise the genitive object in older prose: erinnerte ich mich eines frühen Kinderspielzeuges . Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Früh drei Uhr stahl ich mich aus Karlsbad, At three in the morning I slipped away from Karlsbad, denn nirgends fühlt man sich einsamer als im Gewimmel, wo man sich allen ganz unbekannt durchdrängt. for nowhere does one feel lonelier than in a throng, pushing one's way through as a stranger to everyone. So unterhalten, waren wir die schöne Brenta herunter gekommen, manchen herrlichen Garten, manchen herrlichen Palast hinter uns lassend Entertained in this way, we had come down the lovely Brenta, leaving many a splendid garden and many a splendid palace behind us Ich fand leicht den großen Kanal und die Hauptbrücke Rialto; I easily found the Grand Canal and the main bridge, the Rialto; Gewöhnlich kann man die Breite der Gasse mit ausgereckten Armen entweder ganz oder beinahe messen Usually you can measure the width of the alley with your arms outstretched, fully or nearly sie besteht aus einem einzigen Bogen von weißem Marmor. it consists of a single arch of white marble. Prerequisites : 7.44 — you need Goethe's prose from 7.44 Reading and the genitive objects of 2.39 Grammar . About this text In September 1786 Goethe was thirty-seven, a minister at the small court of Weimar, the author of Werther and of many unfinished works. In the early morning of 3 September he left the spa town of Karlsbad in Bohemia without telling anyone where he was going, and travelled south under a false name. He stayed in Italy for almost two years: in Venice, in Rome, in Naples, in Sicily, and again in Rome, until June 1788. The journey changed him; he returned to Weimar with a classical idea of art and finished works he had carried for years. Thirty years later Goethe turned his diaries and letters into a book, the Italienische Reise , published in 1816–1817, with a final part in 1829. The book keeps the form of the original records, entries headed with a place and a date, but it is a work of art, shaped by the older Goethe. The passages here, about 3,400 words, come from the first part (Karlsbad to Venice and Rome) and the second (Naples). They are separated by […] . The text is that of the standard edition by Erich Trunz in the TextGrid digital library, in a lightly modernised spelling from before the 1996 reform that keeps some older forms, such as daß and kömmt . Grammar in the text The journal entry. Most entries begin with a place and a date, written as a heading: Venedig, den 28. September 1786. Some have only a date: Den 29sten, Michaelistag, abends. The accusative den before the date is the form used in letters to this day. Some entries are written as letters to friends in Weimar and address them as ihr : Und laßt mich nun auch sagen, daß ich tausendmal … eurer gedenke . The genitive object. Older German uses the genitive after some verbs where modern German uses a preposition: ich erinnerte mich eines frühen Kinderspielzeuges (today: an ein frühes Kinderspielzeug ), eurer gedenken (today: an euch denken ). You met these forms in 2.39 Grammar . An impression of the whole. On his first full day in Venice Goethe hurries out after dinner mir erst einen Eindruck des Ganzen zu versichern , to secure an impression of the whole first. He throws himself without a guide into the labyrinth of the city, finds the Rialto bridge and looks down on the Grand Canal, and then crosses the city by gondola. The entry for that day opens, before the walk, with his explanation of how the narrow city grew out of the need of the people who fled to its islands. The long first sentence. So stand es denn im Buche des Schicksals auf meinem Blatte geschrieben, daß ich … Venedig zum erstenmal … erblicken … sollte. The sentence delays the name of the city until after the date and the hour, and the verb until after the route, as the traveller himself had to wait. Reading it a second time, section by section Karlsbad (paragraphs 1–3). At three in the morning Goethe slips away from Karlsbad, because his friends would not have let him go. He travels fast; the first sight in Bavaria is the rich monastery of Waldsassen. Venice (paragraphs 5–21). He arrives on 28 September 1786 by boat down the Brenta and through the lagoon. The first gondola reminds him of a model gondola his father had brought home from Italy, a toy he was rarely allowed to play with. On the Brenta he acted as interpreter between the helmsman and two German pilgrims. The next day he reflects that the city was not built for fun: people fled to these islands out of need. Then he finds the Rialto bridge and looks at the busy Grand Canal from above, and at the end of the day he finds the republic admirable even as its trade and power decline. Rome (paragraphs 23–35). Ja, ich bin endlich in dieser Hauptstadt der Welt angelangt! He has flown over the Tyrolean mountains, seen Verona, Vicenza, Padua and Venice well, Bologna in passing and Florence hardly at all. Everything is as he imagined it from pictures, and yet everything is new. He compares himself with Pygmalion: when the statue the sculptor had shaped to his wishes came to life, how different the living woman was from the stone. He hoped to see great celebrations on All Saints' Day and was disappointed, but on All Souls' Day he sees the Pope celebrate Mass in his chapel. Naples (paragraphs 37–41). From Caserta, in March 1787, he writes that Naples is a paradise where everyone lives i