[INDOLOGY] My Sanskrit rendering of Goethe's poem on Shakuntala

[Walter Slaje]

Dear Professor Deshpande,

I seek your kind permission to add an insignificant remark on this amiable
and spotless couplet:
Goethe did not address the play (śākuntala), but its heroine (śakuntalā).
A capital letter such as "D" of the German spelling "Dich" - if it does
correspond with the original spelling - in the above quote normally marks a
form of personal address. I think the English translator, too, understood
Goethe's wording as a personal address: "[...] thee, O Sakuntala!"
It is of course possible that Goethe actually might have had the drama as
such in his mind, when he praised "Sakontala" - the person - in place of
the play.
He knew the play by the title Georg Foster had assigned to it, in which the
name of Śakuntalā occupies the first place: "Sakontala, oder der
entscheidende Ring, ein indisches Schauspiel von Kalidas."

„Sakontala“, in Goethe’s understanding and usage, is also elsewhere a
personal name - one of the persons below to be "kissed" -, but not the name
of the play:

„Was will man denn Vergnüglicheres wissen!

Sakontala, Nala, die muß man küssen“

(Goethe, *Zahme Xenien*)

Could it, therefore, enhance the faithfulness of your  memorable
translation by using "he śakuntale" instead of "he śākuntala" (exigencies
of meter set aside for the moment)?

Kind regards,
Walter Slaje

-----------------------------
Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
D-99425 Weimar
Deutschland

Ego ex animi mei sententia spondeo ac polliceor
studia humanitatis impigro labore culturum et provecturum
non sordidi lucri causa nec ad vanam captandam gloriam,
sed quo magis veritas propagetur et lux eius, qua salus
humani generis continetur, clarius effulgeat.
Vindobonae, die XXI. mensis Novembris MCMLXXXIII.

2017-06-14 15:02 GMT+02:00 Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info>:

> Going through old papers, I found my Sanskrit rendering of Goethe's German
> poem on Shakuntala.  This was done sometime during my Fergusson College
> days in Pune.
>
> *GOETHE’S POEM ON SHAKUNTALA*
>
>
>
> Willst du die Blüthe des frühen, die Früchte des späteren Jahres,
>
> Willst du, was reizt und entzückt, willst du was sättigt und nährt,
>
> Willst du den Himmel, die Erde, mit Einem Namen begreifen;
>
> Nenn’ ich, Sakuntala, Dich, und so ist Alles gesagt.
>
>
>
> *English Translation*
>
> Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms and the fruits of its decline
>
> And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed,
>
> Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine?
>
> I name thee, O Sakuntala! and all at once is said.
>
> —*translation by Edward Backhouse Eastwick*
>
>
>
> *संस्कृतानुवाद**:*
>
> स्पृहयसि वसन्तकुसुमेभ्यो यदि
>
> ग्रीष्मे यदि फलराशीनिच्छसि ।
>
> कान्तं पुष्टिकरं तुष्टिकरम्
>
> सन्तर्पणमात्मनो यदीच्छसि ।
>
> शब्दैक्ये यदि कर्तुम् ग्रहणम्
>
> वसुन्धरास्वर्गयोरीप्सितम् ।
>
> त्वामभिदधामि हे शाकुन्तल
>
> सपदि सकलमेकपदे प्रोक्तम् ॥
>
> Madhav Deshpande
> Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>
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