German Literature
http://www.theatrehistory.com/german/goethe008.html
http://www.emersoncentral.com/goethe.htm
I looked at my blog, and realized I had veered away from Literature. Saints preserve me!
Goethe, according to Matthew Arnold, along with Dante, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Moliere, was one of the greatest poets of the West, by which he meant, someone who not only thought a worthy thought, but expressed it magically and well. Part of the German language's charm is the fact that it operates, syntatically, like a gigantic poem. Verbs, adverbs, nouns, and adjectives build off each other much more closely than in English. The logic and clarity of German, as well as perhaps the capitalization of the nouns (implying Platonic essences or Augustianian ideas in the mind of God, or universals), lead to German science and art and thought, in which it lead even the French until Hitler and the World Wars. German's one drawback is its harsh sounds, but, oddly enough, the b becomes an English p and the g becomes an English k (both softer sounds) when at the end of a word. German also borrows many French pronunciations. And so English may sound as harsh to some ears as German.
Unfortunately, in two hundred years, it will be a scholarly language and literary form only. President Mitterand of France predicted the same for French.
It's a shame to lose such a good language. Our minds could use it.
http://www.emersoncentral.com/goethe.htm
I looked at my blog, and realized I had veered away from Literature. Saints preserve me!
Goethe, according to Matthew Arnold, along with Dante, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Moliere, was one of the greatest poets of the West, by which he meant, someone who not only thought a worthy thought, but expressed it magically and well. Part of the German language's charm is the fact that it operates, syntatically, like a gigantic poem. Verbs, adverbs, nouns, and adjectives build off each other much more closely than in English. The logic and clarity of German, as well as perhaps the capitalization of the nouns (implying Platonic essences or Augustianian ideas in the mind of God, or universals), lead to German science and art and thought, in which it lead even the French until Hitler and the World Wars. German's one drawback is its harsh sounds, but, oddly enough, the b becomes an English p and the g becomes an English k (both softer sounds) when at the end of a word. German also borrows many French pronunciations. And so English may sound as harsh to some ears as German.
Unfortunately, in two hundred years, it will be a scholarly language and literary form only. President Mitterand of France predicted the same for French.
It's a shame to lose such a good language. Our minds could use it.
posted by Matthew C Smallwood | 3:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home