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The Alps: An English Translation by Stanley Mason
Albrecht von Die Alpen. Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte Nach der Ausgabe letzter Hand Zwar der Weise wahlt nicht sein Geschicke; Doch er wendet Elend selbst zum Glucke. Fallt der Himmel, er kann Weise decken, Aber nicht schrecken. Aus Die Tugend von Albrecht von Haller Albrecht von Hallers Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte erschien erstmals 1732 in Bern und umfate zunachst nur neun Gedichte. Die schnell Beruhmtheit erlangende Sammlung wurde von Haller in den folgenden Jahren immer wieder erweitert. - Der Text folgt der Eilften vermehrten und verbesserten Auflage, Bern (Typographische Gesellschaft) 1777, die als Ausgabe letzter Hand anzusehen ist. Inhaltsverzeichnis Versuch Schweizerischer Gedichte 1. Morgen-Gedanken 2. Sehnsucht nach dem Vaterland 3. Ueber die Ehre 4. Die Alpen 5. Gedanken 6. Die Falschheit menschlicher Tugenden 7. Die Tugend 8. Doris 9. Die verdorbenen Sitten 10. Ueber eine Hochzeit 11. Der Mann nach der Welt 12. An Herrn D. Gessner 13. Gedanken bei einer Begebenheit 14. Ueber den Ursprung des Uebels 15. Zueignungs-Schrift 16. Beim Beilager 17. Unvollkommenes Gedicht uber die Ewigkeit 18. Ueber Marianens anscheinende Besserung 19. Trauer-Ode 20. Ueber eben Dieselbe 21. Ueber das Einweihungs-Fest 22. An Se. Excellenz 23. Antwort an Johann Jakob Bodmer 24. Ueber den Tod 25. Einige Fabeln 26. Cantate 27. Serenate 28. Ueberschriften 29. Ueber den Tod der Frau Trillerin 30. Beim Tode der Johanna Maria Ayrerin 31. Beim Absterben Neuausgabe mit einer Biographie des Autors. Herausgegeben von Karl-Maria Guth. Berlin 2017. Textgrundlage ist die Albrecht von Gedichte, Herausgegeben und eingel. von Ludwig Hirzel, Verlag von J. Huber, 1882. Die Paginierung obiger Ausgabe wird in dieser Neuausgabe als Marginalie zeilengenau mitgefuhrt. Umschlaggestaltung von Thomas Schultz-Overhage unter Verwendung des Gemalde von Johann Rudolf Huber,1736. Gesetzt aus der Minion Pro, 11 pt.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1732
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June 10, 2020
Albrecht von Haller was a Swiss natural philosopher, mostly famous these days for his contributions to neurology. But he also published some important poetry, especially this collection of alexandrines released as Die Alpen in 1732, which became an unlikely hit among Europe's intellectual elite. Inspiring a widespread philhelvetism, it led Goethe and many others to visit the Alps for themselves, and eventually installed Switzerland firmly as a stop on the Grand Tour.
To modern ears, it all seems rather insipid stuff, with lots of high-flown bluster about hills ‘heavy with a hundred herds’ (von hundert Herden schwer), where a ‘cheerful race’ (vergnügtes Volk) while away their time in a prelapsarian wonderland, unsullied by the toils or temptations of smoke-filled towns. But at the time, it was a new departure entirely. Back then, people generally found the Alps rather ‘repulsive’ (in the words of Johann Füssli) – ‘those horrid structures the Alps’, as Hirschfeld called them. Haller for the first time imbued them with a sense of awe and romance that would come to be important in later generations' conception of the ‘sublime’.
Alpen, in German, can mean either the mountains themselves, or the grazing pastures found on the slopes. Haller conflates the two uses, so that he can turn the mountains into a kind of bucolic paradise in line with classical ideas of the ‘pastoral’ (which had never previously extended to mountains). His exhortations of hearty peasant life are filled with a scientific attention to the flora and fauna of the area – Haller was a prolific naturalist, and would later compose Switzerland's first botanical handbook. Interestingly, the clichés of modern Alpine biology are not yet quite formed here – we have chamois and ibex, but no marmots; clover and gentian, but no sign of an edelweiss.
Haller tries hard to turn the poverty (Armut) of mountain-folk into a richness (Reichthum) of non-material blessings, but this is mainly done by completely ignoring the harsh realities of endless, backbreaking labour that were involved in village life in the mountains in the eighteenth century, not to mention the crushing isolation. Readers outside Switzerland, perhaps, didn't know any better.
This particular volume comes with an uninspiring rhymed English translation from Stanley Mason, and a few unidentified contemporary engravings. If you are heading for the Alps, or interested in their changing image, this may be of interest.
To modern ears, it all seems rather insipid stuff, with lots of high-flown bluster about hills ‘heavy with a hundred herds’ (von hundert Herden schwer), where a ‘cheerful race’ (vergnügtes Volk) while away their time in a prelapsarian wonderland, unsullied by the toils or temptations of smoke-filled towns. But at the time, it was a new departure entirely. Back then, people generally found the Alps rather ‘repulsive’ (in the words of Johann Füssli) – ‘those horrid structures the Alps’, as Hirschfeld called them. Haller for the first time imbued them with a sense of awe and romance that would come to be important in later generations' conception of the ‘sublime’.
Alpen, in German, can mean either the mountains themselves, or the grazing pastures found on the slopes. Haller conflates the two uses, so that he can turn the mountains into a kind of bucolic paradise in line with classical ideas of the ‘pastoral’ (which had never previously extended to mountains). His exhortations of hearty peasant life are filled with a scientific attention to the flora and fauna of the area – Haller was a prolific naturalist, and would later compose Switzerland's first botanical handbook. Interestingly, the clichés of modern Alpine biology are not yet quite formed here – we have chamois and ibex, but no marmots; clover and gentian, but no sign of an edelweiss.
Haller tries hard to turn the poverty (Armut) of mountain-folk into a richness (Reichthum) of non-material blessings, but this is mainly done by completely ignoring the harsh realities of endless, backbreaking labour that were involved in village life in the mountains in the eighteenth century, not to mention the crushing isolation. Readers outside Switzerland, perhaps, didn't know any better.
This particular volume comes with an uninspiring rhymed English translation from Stanley Mason, and a few unidentified contemporary engravings. If you are heading for the Alps, or interested in their changing image, this may be of interest.
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