外國人最想和你聊的名人話題：約翰·沃爾夫?qū)ゑT·歌德

　About Goethe　關于歌德

     Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, drawer, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature side by side with Schiller. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long poem of modern European literature. His other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.
     Goethe was one of the key figures of German literature and the movement of Weimar Classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; this movement coincides with Enlightenment, Sentimentality(Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours, his influential ideas on plant and animal morphology and homology were extended and developed by 19th century naturalists including Charles Darwin. He also served at length as the Privy Councilor of the duchy of Saxe-Weimar.
     In politics Goethe was conservative. At the time of the French Revolution, he thought the enthusiasm of the students and professors to be a perversion of their energy and remained skeptical of the ability of the masses to govern. Likewise, he "did not oppose the War of Liberation waged by the German states against Napoleon, but remained aloof from the patriotic efforts to unite the various parts of Germany into one nation; he advocated instead the maintenance of small principalities ruled by benevolent despots".
     Goethe's influence spread across Europe, and for the next century his works were a major source of inspiration in music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Early in his career, however, he wondered whether painting might be his true vocation;[citation needed] late in his life, he expressed the expectation that he would ultimately be remembered above all for his work on colour.
     歌德是德國民族文學的最杰出的代表，他的創(chuàng)作把德國文學提高到全歐的先進水平，并對歐洲文學的發(fā)展作出了巨大的貢獻。
     歌德一生跨兩個世紀，正當歐洲社會大動蕩、大變革的年代。封建制度的日趨崩潰，革命力量的不斷高漲，促使歌德不斷接受先進思潮的影響，從而加深自己對于社會的認識，創(chuàng)作出當代最優(yōu)秀的文藝作品。歌德晚年的創(chuàng)作極其豐富，重要的如自傳性作品《詩與真》、《意大利游記》，長篇小說《親和力》和《威廉·麥斯特的漫游時代》，抒情詩集《西方和東方的合集》，逝世前不久，又完成了《浮士德》第二部。這些作品表現(xiàn)了歌德重視實踐、肯定為人類幸福而勞動的思想，說明他思想中的積極因素比前一時期有所增長?！陡∈康隆返诙康耐瓿捎绕渫怀龅乇憩F(xiàn)了歌德晚年思想上和藝術(shù)上的新發(fā)展。1832年3月22日，歌德病逝。他的臨終遺言是："給我更多的燈吧。"這體現(xiàn)了他作為大文豪的樂觀精神。歌德是德國民族文學的最杰出的代表，他的創(chuàng)作把德國文學提高到全歐的先進水平，并對歐洲文學的發(fā)展作出了巨大的貢獻。