Reading Faust: He Rewrote “In the Beginning Was the Word” Four Times, and Landed on the Deed

1. Why I Read It

I first read Faust for the “deal with the devil”, expecting a story of a soul sold. A few pages in, I surrendered: it is a verse drama, in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German, with several translations in between, and it read haltingly.

What made me pick it up again was a concrete fact: Goethe worked on this book for nearly sixty years. He began in his twenties and kept at it until shortly before his death in his eighties; Part Two was published only after he died. One man spending almost a whole life on another man’s life carries weight by itself.

This time the first detail I noted was neither the devil nor the love story but the translation at the start: Faust, in his study, translating the Gospel of John, rewrites “In the beginning was the Word” four times over and lands on “In the beginning was the Deed”. Only then did I realise that the first scene of this great drama is really about how a single sentence should be translated.

2. The Skeleton First

Telling the two parts apart is the easiest way into the book:

One warning: do not read Faust as a moral figure. He is neither good nor bad; what the wager bets on is not whether he will fall but whether he will stop. He is allowed to err, so long as he keeps pushing forward.

3. Passages and Marginalia

On “the beginning”: rewriting “In the beginning was the Word” four times

Geschrieben steht: »Im Anfang war das Wort!« Hier stock ich schon! Wer hilft mir weiter fort? Ich kann das Wort so hoch unmöglich schätzen, Ich muß es anders übersetzen, Wenn ich vom Geiste recht erleuchtet bin. Geschrieben steht: Im Anfang war der Sinn. Bedenke wohl die erste Zeile, Daß deine Feder sich nicht übereile! Ist es der Sinn, der alles wirkt und schafft? Es sollte stehn: Im Anfang war die Kraft! Doch, auch indem ich dieses niederschreibe, Schon warnt mich was, daß ich dabei nicht bleibe. Mir hilft der Geist! Auf einmal seh ich Rat Und schreibe getrost: Im Anfang war die Tat!

— Part One, “Study”

My own working translation: It is written: “In the beginning was the Word!” Here I already falter — who will help me on? I cannot prize the Word so highly; I must translate it otherwise, if I am rightly enlightened by the spirit. It is written: In the beginning was the Sense. Consider well the first line, that your pen do not rush. Is it the Sense that works and creates all things? It should read: In the beginning was the Power! Yet even as I write this down, something warns me I will not stay with it. The spirit helps me! Suddenly I see the way, and write boldly: In the beginning was the Deed!

These dozen lines are the first scene of the book and its crux. Wort, Sinn, Kraft, Tat — each sinks a step lower, all the way from “saying” down to “doing”. Faust is not fussing over wording; he is finding a position he can stand on.

着重点Goethe turns a sentence translated for a thousand years into a stage, and lets the translator change his mind in public. The whole play’s direction presses into these four revisions: “Word” is too still; only “Deed” matches the restlessness he feels right now.

On “the wager”: one sentence decides it

Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen: Verweile doch! du bist so schön! Dann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen, Dann will ich gern zugrunde gehn!

— Part One, “Study”

My own working translation: If ever I say to the moment: Stay a while, you are so fair! Then you may clap me in chains, then I will gladly go to my ruin!

危险This is the most famous line in the book, and the clause of a contract. His confidence comes precisely from his restlessness: Mephistopheles bets he can be settled, Faust bets he never will be. Note the phrasing — “if ever I should say” — the moment has not arrived; he is asking for a future one.

My note: in Part Two he does say it, but as “I might say” — a moment he does not yet own, only glimpsed in imagination. Whether the wager is won keeps the whole book busy until the last page.

On “two souls”: one man split in two

Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust, Die eine will sich von der andern trennen; Die eine hält, in derber Liebeslust, Sich an die Welt mit klammernden Organen; Die andere hebt gewaltsam sich vom Dust Zu den Gefilden hoher Ahnen.

— Part One, “Before the Gate”

My own working translation: Two souls, alas, dwell within my breast, and one would part from the other; the one clings to the world with clutching organs, in crude delight of love; the other lifts itself by force from the dust toward the fields of high ancestors.

“Two souls” is not a figure of speech but the mechanics of the book. Every episode — study, wager, love, power — can be read as these two forces pulling against each other. He is most human when he sinks; he is most like what he wants to become when he climbs.

My note: reading this, I thought of the translation at the start. Wort is the upward half, Tat the downward half; in the very first scene he has already chosen where the tension will come from.

On “theory”: an oft-quoted piece of mockery

Grau ist alle Theorie, Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum.

— Part One, “Study” (Mephistopheles to the student who comes to enrol)

My own working translation: Grey is all theory, and green the golden tree of life.

On “salvation”: two lines at the close

Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, Den können wir erlösen.

— Part Two, chorus of angels

My own working translation: Whoever strives with all his might, him we can save.

Das Ewig-Weibliche Zieht uns hinan.

— Part Two, closing lines

My own working translation: The eternal feminine draws us upward.

The first is the verdict, the second the elegy. The wager runs across two books, and in the end it is not settled by anything magnificent Faust does but by a sentence of judgement: as long as he still strives, he has not lost. That is not forgiveness so much as an acknowledgement of the process.

My note: only at the end did I feel the weight of that opening “In the beginning was the Deed”. The whole book is a gloss on the one word — moving a man from “what does he believe” to “what does he do”.

4. Lessons and Practice

1. Convert “what to believe” into “what to do”. The point Faust’s revision lands on is to bring abstract belief back down to concrete action. My own rough rule: when something is unclear, take the smallest step first; the answer usually shows up after you start moving.
2. Recognise the two souls in your chest. The half that wants ease and the half that wants distance are often both present. Do not rush to kill one off; acknowledge both, then ask which half gets to take one more step this week. That costs less than forcing yourself to be positive.
3. Be wary of “grey theory” — and of whoever says it. The famous line comes from the devil’s mouth. Whenever a voice tells you not to overthink, first see what the speaker wants you to go and do.

5. Closing

Closing the book, I dropped my first prejudice — that it was a legend of a soul sold. It is nearer a long experiment, and what it tests is whether one man can keep erring and still move toward the light. Goethe gives him no clean ending, only a fair sentence: while you still strive, there is still room.

Next: the Iliad. Faust follows the inner order of a single life; that one is the wrath and honour of a single war, a wholly different noise.