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E. T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), writer, composer, stage designer, theatre director, musical critic, and during his last years, lawyer at the Prussian Supreme Court. Hoffmann was part of the German Romantic period with his fantastic fairy tales and historical stories, and at the same time transcended Romanticism with his realistic, psychological depictions of highly gifted and artistic, yet tormented souls. They came to life in characters such as Nathanael in Der Sandmann, the mad musician Johannes Kreisler in Kater Murr and Kreisleriana, and the obsessed goldsmith Cardillac in Das Fräulein von Scuderi. Hoffmann himself represents the double aspect of the bourgeois citizen and the anti-establishment bohemian artist which led to him being praised and at the same time misunderstood and condemned by contemporaries and future generations alike. He wrote five novels, three collections of short stories, fairy-tales, novellas, assorted articles on various contemporary composers (Beethoven amongst them), several plays and various essays.
Whilst Hoffmann's complete works have been translated many times in France and proved strongly influential on French writers, particularly in the 1830s and 1840s, Hoffmann is only known in extracts in the English speaking world. There has not been a universal, homogenous translation of his works into English, mainly translations of individual short stories or collections of stories. In the 19th century the majority of translations appeared in literary periodicals and had been translated anonymously by amateurs with an enthusiasm for literature.
In 1824 the Scotsman R.P. GILLIES introduced Hoffmann's work to the English readership with the translation of one of Hoffmann's novels, The Devil's Elixirs. This portrayed the German Romantic as a writer in the tradition of the English Gothic Novel. There followed in 1826 Gillies's translations Mademoiselle Scuderi and Rolandsitten (Das Majorat) published in his collection German Romance in 1826 which was received with enthusiasm, particularly for their brilliant English translation. Gillies's translation of The Devil's Elixir, Mademoiselle de Scuderi and Rolandsitten were translated in the Victorian notion of the translator as interpreter and editor of the text. Despite the changes and editorial additions they provide a quite accurate transcript of the original text, written in idiomatic English:
"One may read Mr. Gillies's three volumes... without ever suspecting from the style that the whole was not originally conceived and executed in English" (Blackwood's Magazine December 1826, p. 857) or, as a contributor wrote in Blackwoods Magazine in 1827:
"... he has contrived to prune off all the undelicacy of his German original, without doing the smallest injury to the author's genius." (Blackwoods Magazine 1827; p. 59)
Gillies's colourful translations show deep understanding, especially for the comical situation in the "Irish Anecdote"in The Devil's Elixir". For example Gillies translates Irishman with "disciple of St. Patrick", calls the Scotsman "Scotch Highlander" and the Englishman "English wag". (Ashton, p. 47) On the other hand, the translator omits reference to religious topics and adds descriptions which insinuate a more gothic style than is to be found in the original German texts, especially as regards The Devil's Elixier and Rolandsitten. He aims to increase the chilling effect of the story, for example whenever the mad monk is mentioned Gillies embellishes the text with gothic horror. Gillies also adds descriptions of typical German habits, of housing, localities etc. which might be unfamiliar and unknown to the average English reader. The most important additions are to be found in explanations and descriptions of the protagonist Medardus's frame of mind and motivation. Here, Gillies provides a clearer insight into the protagonist's behaviour than Hoffmann's original but changes some of the original meaning.
Gillies's contemporary THOMAS CARLYLE translated Hoffmann's tale The Golden Pot and included a biographical introduction of its author. It was published in 1827 as part of his collection of German contemporary writers German Romance. In contrast to his fellow countryman Gillies, Carlyle tried to translate as closely to the original as possible. He aimed at truthfulness, even if it meant inferior quality in the English translation or if it went against Carlyle's own sense of literary quality or morality. His foremost aim is literary fidelity:
" ....to convey the Author's sentiments, as he himself expressed them, to follow the original, in all the variations of his style, ... In many points, both literary and moral, I could have wished devoutly that he had not written as he had done; but to alter anything was not in my commission." (Carr, C.T.: Carlyle's Translations from German. In: Modern language Review Vol XLII, p. 223)
The Golden Pot is almost a literal translation, often preserving even the structure of the German sentences with the verb at the end of a clause. In some cases Carlyle tries to catch and preserve the sound and mood of Hoffmann's text, for instance by translating "das Gelispel und Geflüster und Geklingel" (Hoffmann: Der Goldene Topf. in: Fantasie- und Nachtstücke. Winkler 1993, p. 182) as "the whispering and lisping and tinkling" (Thomas Carlyle: German Romance, Vol. II, Chapman & Hall, p. 27).
Rather than resolving German compounds into English phrases whenever no accepted English compound was available, he imitates the German style, thus creating these strange and often artificial sounding words. In other instances the literal translation leaves the English sounding slightly strange and clumsy.
Only very rarely does Carlyle change the original either by omitting short sentences without vital meaning to the text, by adding an explanation or by slightly changing the phrasing to make them more acceptable for the Victorian readership: "wurde heisser die Sehnsucht, glühender das Verlangen" (Hoffmann p. 183) is toned down to the luke-warm "his longings grew keener, his desires more warm" (Carlyle, p. 28) and "es helfen Beutigel, die man ... dem Hintern appliziert" (Hoffmann p. 188) becomes less offensive to his more prudish English readership as "leeches are good for it, if applied to the right part" (Carlyle p. 34)
In all, Carlyle provides a very precise and accurate translation of Hoffmann's Der Goldene Topf , that catches the atmosphere, the mixture between the mystical and the comical of the original. At the same time, however, the style and language of the translation never leaves any doubt that this is a story taken from a different country and culture, translated into English and still containing a faint impression of foreigness and otherness.
Throughout the 19th century Carlyle's translation of Der Goldene Topf was to be re-published in England and America in various collections of tales of German writers. It has recently been re-printed in: Novellas by Ludwig Tieck and E.T.A.Hoffmann.
Carlyle's strongly moralizing introduction to his translation The Golden Pot, together with Sir Walter Scott's portrayel of Hoffmann as the drunken libertinist and writer of 'Gothic Horrors' in his article in the Foreign Quarterly: On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition and in particularly on the works of E.T.W.Hoffmann (1827), meant that the British developed a liking for Hoffmann's Gothic stories. At the same time the American readership were drawn to the writer's historical and musical tales, the earliest translations being The Lost Reflection (Die Geschichte vom verlornen Spiegelbilde), a comical tale, translated anonymously and published in 1826 in the [Boston] Athenaeum, Holcraft's translation of Das Fräulein von Scuderi, published in Tales of Humour and Romance in New York and Baltimore in 1829, and Gluck (Ritter Gluck) in the [Boston] American Monthly Magazine in 1830.
There were but a handful of attempts with Hoffmann's Serapionbrüder ( The Serapions Brethren, translated by Major Alexander Ewing. Vol. I, 1886 London, Bell; vol., 1892.) and the Fantasie- und Nachtstücke.
Only a few of Hoffmann's later works and major novels which belong to the category of fantastic satirical novels, such as Kater Murr, Prinzessin Brambilla, Klein Zaches and Meister Floh, were translated into English. There is also an absence of his wide range of musical writings, which include musical criticism, short stories about composers and musicians, and about art and music in general. Whilst Die Elixiere des Teufels had been translated four times in England, and only published once in America, Meister Martin, Rat Krespel, Die Fermate, Der Goldene Topf, Datura Fastuosa, Signor Formica and Das Öde Haus became much more popular in America.
Most popular in the English speaking world proved to be Hoffmann's novellas Der Goldene Topf, Die Bergwerke von Falun, Das Majorat, and in particular the triad Das Fräulein von Scuderi, Der Sandmann and the famous children story Nußknacker und Mausekönig. Over the last 15 years the English readership seems to have rediscovered a liking for Hoffmann: there has been an upsurge in translations of the works of the German writer, and of one work in particular: the fairy tale Nutcracker. In the last ten years alone this popular story has seen more than ten publications by various translators.
© 1996-2002 Copyright Petra Bauer
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