Erotic Poems

This bilingual edition of Goethe's erotic poems contains the "Roman Elegies" (1789), "The Diary" (1810), and a selection from the "Venetian Epigrams" of 1790. Editorial censorship has long obscured the true form and content of the "Elegies", which were inspired by Goethe's sexual liberation in Italy and his love for the woman he took as his unofficial wife on his return to Germany. They are here presented as Goethe boldly conceived them together with the long-suppressed narrative poem known as "The Diary". Superficially the story of a failed sexual adventure by a man of 6o, at another level this is a profound study of the psychology of desire and the nature of fidelity. Completing the edition is a selection from Goethe's more light-hearted and much censored cycle of erotica, the "Venetian Epigrams". David Luke's translations do full justice to Goethe's aim of liberating German poetry and restoring sexual love to its central position in human life. Hans Vaget's fine...