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Explaining my name
Posted on 2007.02.05 at 18:07Feeling:
dorky
I've decided to explain my name, des-pudels-kern, to all of you who are interested, because non-Germans seem to associate it with the word 'puddle'. *huffs* You are so wrong!
'Des Pudels Kern' is a quote from Goethe's Faust.
Wikipedia says:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play and the best known version of the Faust story. It was published in two parts: Faust: der Tragödie erster Teil (translated as: Faust Part One) and Faust: der Tragödie zweiter Teil (Faust Part Two). 4612 lines long, the play is a closet drama, meaning that it is meant to be read rather than performed. It is Goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be the greatest work of German literature.
Faust Part One is a complex story. It takes place in multiple settings, the first of which is heaven. Mephistopheles makes a bet with God: he says that he can deflect God's favorite human being (Faust), who is striving to learn everything that can be known, away from righteous pursuits. The next scene takes place in Faust's study where Faust, despairing at the vanity of scientific, humanitarian and religious learning, turns to magic for the showering of infinite knowledge. He suspects, however, that his attempts are failing. Frustrated, he ponders suicide, but rejects it as he hears the echo of nearby Easter celebrations begin. He goes for a walk with his assistant Wagner and is followed home by a stray poodle.
In Faust’s study, the poodle transforms into the devil. Faust makes an arrangement with the devil, after declining the devil's offer: the devil will do everything that Faust wants while he is here on earth, and in exchange Faust will serve the devil in hell. Faust's arrangement is: that if during the time while Mephisto is serving Faust, Faust is so pleased with anything the devil gives him that he wants to stay in that moment forever, he will die in that instant.
After the Devil wants Faust to sign the pact with blood, Faust complains that the devil does not trust Faust's word of honor, so that in the end no written contract is made. Faust has a few excursions and then meets Margarete (also known as Gretchen). He is attracted to her and with jewelry and help from a neighbor, Martha, the devil draws Gretchen into Faust's arms. Faust seduces Gretchen and they sleep together. Gretchen’s mother dies from a sleeping potion, administered by Gretchen to obtain privacy so that Faust may visit her. Gretchen discovers she is pregnant. Gretchen’s brother condemns Faust, challenges him and falls dead at the hands of Faust and the devil. Gretchen drowns her illegitimate child. Faust tries to save Gretchen from death by attempting to free her from prison, after she has been convicted of murdering her child. Finding that they cannot free her, Faust and the devil flee the dungeon but at that time, voices from heaven announce that Gretchen shall be saved.
As Mephisto transforms from the poodle into his devil-self, Faust announces 'So this, then, was the kernel of the brute!'. And in German 'Das also war des Pudels Kern!'.
So that is it. I named myself after the devil. But in my defense I might add that Mephisto is far from stereotype-evil:
Mephistopheles is known throughout Goethe's plays as a "fallen angel" himself, as he clearly states to Faust. He rebels against the authority of God and is thrown out of Heaven into Hell.
In a passage from Marlowe's Faustus, Mephostophiles says:
Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?
In Goethe's Faust God himself says to Mephisto:
Your kind I never did detest.
Of all the spirits of negation
The wag weighs least of all on me.
And as Faust asks who he is, Goethe's Mephisto says of himself:
(Mephistopheles) Part of that Power which would
The Evil ever do, and ever does the Good.
(Faust) A riddle! Say what it implies!
(Mephistopheles) I am the Spirit that denies!
And rightly too; for all that doth begin
Should rightly to destruction run;
'Twere better then that nothing were begun.
Thus everything that you call Sin,
Destruction - in a word, as Evil represent-
That is my own, real element.
All in all, I've always liked Mephisto. To me he seems a torn, suffering, self-ironic being, maybe the most pitiable character in the whole play.
And if I made you curious, you can find a complete translation of Goethe's Faust here.
'Des Pudels Kern' is a quote from Goethe's Faust.
Wikipedia says:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play and the best known version of the Faust story. It was published in two parts: Faust: der Tragödie erster Teil (translated as: Faust Part One) and Faust: der Tragödie zweiter Teil (Faust Part Two). 4612 lines long, the play is a closet drama, meaning that it is meant to be read rather than performed. It is Goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be the greatest work of German literature.
Faust Part One is a complex story. It takes place in multiple settings, the first of which is heaven. Mephistopheles makes a bet with God: he says that he can deflect God's favorite human being (Faust), who is striving to learn everything that can be known, away from righteous pursuits. The next scene takes place in Faust's study where Faust, despairing at the vanity of scientific, humanitarian and religious learning, turns to magic for the showering of infinite knowledge. He suspects, however, that his attempts are failing. Frustrated, he ponders suicide, but rejects it as he hears the echo of nearby Easter celebrations begin. He goes for a walk with his assistant Wagner and is followed home by a stray poodle.
In Faust’s study, the poodle transforms into the devil. Faust makes an arrangement with the devil, after declining the devil's offer: the devil will do everything that Faust wants while he is here on earth, and in exchange Faust will serve the devil in hell. Faust's arrangement is: that if during the time while Mephisto is serving Faust, Faust is so pleased with anything the devil gives him that he wants to stay in that moment forever, he will die in that instant.
After the Devil wants Faust to sign the pact with blood, Faust complains that the devil does not trust Faust's word of honor, so that in the end no written contract is made. Faust has a few excursions and then meets Margarete (also known as Gretchen). He is attracted to her and with jewelry and help from a neighbor, Martha, the devil draws Gretchen into Faust's arms. Faust seduces Gretchen and they sleep together. Gretchen’s mother dies from a sleeping potion, administered by Gretchen to obtain privacy so that Faust may visit her. Gretchen discovers she is pregnant. Gretchen’s brother condemns Faust, challenges him and falls dead at the hands of Faust and the devil. Gretchen drowns her illegitimate child. Faust tries to save Gretchen from death by attempting to free her from prison, after she has been convicted of murdering her child. Finding that they cannot free her, Faust and the devil flee the dungeon but at that time, voices from heaven announce that Gretchen shall be saved.
As Mephisto transforms from the poodle into his devil-self, Faust announces 'So this, then, was the kernel of the brute!'. And in German 'Das also war des Pudels Kern!'.
So that is it. I named myself after the devil. But in my defense I might add that Mephisto is far from stereotype-evil:
Mephistopheles is known throughout Goethe's plays as a "fallen angel" himself, as he clearly states to Faust. He rebels against the authority of God and is thrown out of Heaven into Hell.
In a passage from Marlowe's Faustus, Mephostophiles says:
Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?
In Goethe's Faust God himself says to Mephisto:
Your kind I never did detest.
Of all the spirits of negation
The wag weighs least of all on me.
And as Faust asks who he is, Goethe's Mephisto says of himself:
(Mephistopheles) Part of that Power which would
The Evil ever do, and ever does the Good.
(Faust) A riddle! Say what it implies!
(Mephistopheles) I am the Spirit that denies!
And rightly too; for all that doth begin
Should rightly to destruction run;
'Twere better then that nothing were begun.
Thus everything that you call Sin,
Destruction - in a word, as Evil represent-
That is my own, real element.
All in all, I've always liked Mephisto. To me he seems a torn, suffering, self-ironic being, maybe the most pitiable character in the whole play.
And if I made you curious, you can find a complete translation of Goethe's Faust here.