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Goethe Yearbook 409 Tigerbild vermutlich ganz anders gemeint ist: Goethes Freundschaftsbezeugungen sind trügerisch und gefahrlich wie die Liebkosungen eines Tigers, der einen früher oder später verschlingen wird; in den Umarmungen dieses Dichters muß man sich der Gefahr gewärtig sein, von ihm erdolcht zu werden, nämlich durch die literarische Verwendung in einem seiner Werke. Der ominöse Dolch in der Tasche wäre demnach viel eher ein Federkiel als das, was unserem erotischen Biographen vorgeschwebt haben mag. Hier wurde eine Chance vertan—die Chance, an die bereits existierende Literatur (Theilhaber, Eissler u.a.) anzuknüpfen und eine Brücke zu schlagen zu den an Goethe sehr stark interessierten Queer Studies. Denn daß sich in Goethes Werk eine ungewöhnlich aufgeschlossene und unbefangene Faszination mit allen Spielarten von Sexualität und sexuellen Zwischenstufen manifestiert, ist ein offenbares Geheimnis. Freilich hätte es da eines Modicums an philologischer Sorgfalt und historischer Einfühlung bedurft, um aus dem Meer des Irrtums aufzutauchen, in das sich der Verfasser dieser Schrift voreilig hineinphantasiert hat. Smith College Hans Rudolf Vaget Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Erotic Poems. Verse translation David Luke. Introduction Hans Rudolf Vaget. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1997. 143 pp. Oxford University Press has done a commendable job in publishing a bilingual edition of the Roman Elegies, parts of the Venetian Epigrams, and The Diary, all ably translated by David Luke, with an excellent introduction by Hans Rudolf Vaget. This World's Classics paperback consists in large part of a revised edition of a 1988 publication of Luke's translations of the Roman Elegies and The DiOrJ1WhICh was also introduced by Vaget. The format of the bilingual edition is useful for students of poetry and German. Non-native speakers of German who want to read the poems in the original will benefit from the availability of a translation of the poem. Those who rely on the translations will enjoy occasionally looking up particular passages in the original. The selection of the poems is sensible. While one could imagine many more poems by Goethe that could be called "erotic poetry ," adding a few more selections to this volume would occasion an endless debate on which of Goethe's poems are particularly erotic. No matter what the outcome of the debate, someone would 410 Book Reviews be dissatisfied. By restricting itself to the Roman Elegies, the Venetian Epigrams, and The Diary, the book provides an internally coherent overview.A clear narrative develops from the Elegies, inspired by Goethe's first trip to Rome from 1786 to 1788, through the Epigrams , inspired by his trip to Venice in 1790, to The Diary, completed in 1810. Seeing Goethe's depiction of eroticism develop over the decades is a fascinating experience. The Roman Elegies are presented as a set of 24, including the two poems that Schiller did not publish in his journal Die Horen and the two "priapic" poems that Goethe did not even bother to submit to Schiller. Although for years Goethe editions published the Elegies as the set of 20 poems that appeared in Die Horen, it now seems to be generally accepted that these 24 poems belong together. Vaget's convincing explanation of his ordering of the poems , with the two priapic poems at the beginning and the end of the cycle, makes perfect sense. Only 41 of the suppressed Venetian Epigrams are reprinted, which is too bad. Reading the four censored elegies in the context of the other twenty profoundly changes the entire work, whereas one is not able to develop a similar sense of the overall effect of the previously suppressed epigrams on the Venetian Epigrams as a whole. This is a shame, because the Epigrams do seem to present a transition between the Elegies and The Diary, and it would be valuable to study that transition more thoroughly . Whereas the Elegies seem to glory, perhaps nostalgically, in the memory of a sexual experience, the Epigrams have a more bittersweet note to them, reflecting both Goethe's homesickness for his new lover and child and his inability to complete his official duty of meeting the Dowager Duchess Anna Amalia, whose arrival in Venice was repeatedly delayed. In...

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