Chapter 158 Goethe and The Sorrows of Young Werther

Goethe and The Sorrows of Young Werther Among the Western classical writers, the one I have a particularly strong affection for is Goethe. I think there are two reasons for this feeling: one is the influence of the times.One is personal influence.forward The former is because I was deeply moved by reading his "The Sorrows of Young Werther", the latter is because the song It was Mr. Guo Moruo who introduced De's works to us. The novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is just a novella, the plot and story are very simple. Because it is epistolary, many plots have to be run through by the readers' imagination, but its

The narrative is full of emotions, and the words have a kind of charm, which makes people feel sympathetic to the characters in the book, and even Even fantasizes that he is Werther, and hopes to have a Lotte.And secretly decided in private, if Even if I have encountered such a thing, there is no doubt that I will adopt the method adopted by Werther. This is roughly the kind of "Witter fever" that was called at the time, and it is also the reason why this novel is so fascinating. I don't know how other readers react, I only know that I read Guo Lao's Chinese translation for the first time

Afterwards, he longed for the kind of love that Werther encountered, and he also called himself a "boy in green clothes and yellow pants".Such as If there happened to be a Lotte girl at this time, and I had the means to get a pistol, I think I might try it. Try the taste of Chinese Werther. Because of this novel, I have developed a strong affection for Goethe ever since.i start paying attention to others The mentioned anecdotes about him, read his biography, read his autobiography, read his conversations. But I must confess that although I have read Faust, I have read it very sloppily, and

And after reading it once, I have no intention of reading it again.For "The Sorrows of Young Werther" Otherwise, I always have to take it out and read it again every few years, never feeling stale, and every time there is always a Some new feelings. Guo Lao's "The Sorrows of Young Werther", the first edition was printed by Shanghai Taidong Bookstore.created later When the publishing department of the society was established, it took back its own publishing."The Sorrows of Young Werther" by Creation Society was reproduced by me Line reorganization and binding.At that time, I spent a lot of time and effort on the typesetting work of this novel.

From the format of the content, to the paper and cover, as well as the illustrations, I have carefully selected them, deliberately trying to express characteristic of this novel.The ink color of the cover is specially selected in blue and yellow, and a small decorative painting is drawn, Tsing Yi and yellow trousers symbolizing Werther. The few illustrations used in the book were specially borrowed from a German bookstore in Shanghai at that time. of.This bookstore is located near Sichuan Luqiao on the banks of the Suzhou River. The owner is an old German lady. The German woodcuts obtained by Lu Xun were bought from her shop.

Guo Lao's "The Sorrows of Young Werther", a few years after the business of the publishing department of Creation Society stopped, When it was reprinted for the third time, it was still printed by me.The publisher this time is Modern Bookstore, because The layout and cover were designed by me again.For the cover of this new edition, I adopted the German publication In the style of the book, the original German text of the author and title is printed on the cover.and adopted the German idiomatic Squiggly letters, in order to produce a decorative effect, the ink color is red and blue, and the cover paper is beige.Therefore if

But remove those two lines of Chinese, it looks like a German book. Maybe it's because I'm a little older, and the heat of "Witt Fever" has been slightly reduced. I feel that the cover design of this edition is far inferior to the creative edition.Thanks to Mr. Guo's kindness, it is still in his preface Complimented me a few words. In March 1932, which was the centenary of Goethe's death, I happened to have some Regarding the pictures of Goethe, I compiled a series of pictures commemorating the centenary of Goethe's death in the March issue of "Modern Times"

feature film.At this time, Mr. Guo took refuge in Japan, received this issue of "Modern Times", and said in a letter that he was particularly impressed. don't be happy. After I came to Hong Kong, I once bought a German-published song from an old bookstall on Hela Street. The photo collection of Goethe contains hundreds of pictures in total, which are spectacular, about the characters, whereabouts and stories of Goethe in his life. Life pictures can be said to have everything that one expects to find.Although I showed it to Qiao Guanhua, he appreciated it very much and advised me to

Even attack and hide.Later, Mr. Guo also came to Hong Kong. Once I showed it to him and talked about the 1949 It's almost here, it's the bicentenary of Goethe's birth, and he said it's time to make good use of it. A book of pictures, it is best to compile a commemorative picture book and publish it, and he is willing to write a preface.It's a pity that he left Hong Kong in a hurry Going north, this plan never materialized.In August 1949, only ten pictures were selected from this album. A few pictures, I edited and printed a commemorative special issue in a newspaper, which can be said to be really overkill.

There is an illustrated German edition of The Sorrows of Young Werther, which I have been seeking for many years, but unfortunately have never been Haven't gotten it yet.I only know that one of the most famous illustrations is the scene of Werther meeting Lotte for the first time. shape.He came to Lotte's house and invited her to a dance together, but found Lotte was at home, Give bread and cheese to your brothers and sisters.This scene made Werther fall in love at first sight even more, and he once told him in detail in a letter. that friend. In the creative version of "The Sorrows of Young Werther", this illustration was attached, which is enough for the translation.

color.It's a pity that such an old version is not easy to find now.The new generation of literary youth, It's not as crazy as we were about this book back then.Therefore, the local reprint of "Youth" seen here The Sorrows of Werther was printed so sloppily that I can hardly recall it.