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''Italian Journey'' (in the German original: ''Italienische Reise'' (:ˌitalˈi̯eːnɪʃə ˈʁaɪzə)) is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786–88, published in 1816–17. The book is based on Goethe's diaries. It is smoothed in style, lacking the spontaneity of his diary report, and augmented with the addition of afterthoughts and reminiscences. At the beginning of September 1786, when Goethe had just turned thirty-seven, he "slipped away", in his words, from his duties as Privy Councillor in the Duchy of Weimar, from a long platonic affair with a court lady, and from his immense fame as the author of the novel ''Werther'' and the stormy play ''Götz von Berlichingen'', and took what became a licensed leave of absence. By May 1788 he had travelled to Italy via Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass and visited Lake Garda, Verona, Vicenza, Venice, Bologna, Rome and Alban Hills, Naples and Sicily. He wrote many letters to a number of friends in Germany, which he later used as the basis for ''Italian Journey''. ==Appraisal== :''Et in Arcadia ego'' 〔Goethe's epigraph for the book (Engl. ed.), although originally in German: ''Auch ich in Arkadien''.〕 ''Italian Journey'' initially takes the form of a diary, with events and descriptions written up apparently quite soon after they were experienced. The impression is in one sense true, since Goethe was clearly working from journals and letters he composed at the time — and by the end of the book he is openly distinguishing between his old correspondence and what he calls ''reporting''.〔For text references and relevant commentary, cf. the specialist Folio Society edition of Goethe's ''Italian Journey'' (hereafter ''I.J.''), London: Folio Society (2010) — translated and introduced by W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, published by arrangement with the estates of W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, and HarperCollins Publishers (1962 ed.). Excerpts from ''I.J.'' are translated from the original German text, available at Project Gutenberg, (''Italienische Reise'' ).〕 But there is also a strong and indeed elegant sense of fiction about the whole, a sort of composed immediacy. Goethe said in a letter that the work was "both entirely truthful and a graceful fairy-tale". It had to be something of a fairy-tale, since it was written between thirty and more than forty years after the journey, in 1816 and 1828-29.〔Cf. "Introduction" by Auden & Mayer (hereinafter A&M), ''op. cit.'', pp. xx-xxi.〕 The work begins〔In the specific English edition, ''cit.''〕 with a famous Latin tag, ''Et in Arcadia ego'', although originally Goethe used the German translation, ''Auch ich in Arkadien'', which alters the meaning. The Latin phrase is usually imagined as spoken by Death — this is its sense, for example, in W. H. Auden's poem called "Et in Arcadia ego" — suggesting that every paradise is afflicted by mortality. Conversely, what Goethe's ''Auch ich in Arkadien'' says is "Even I managed to get to paradise", with the implication that we could all get there if we chose. If death is universal, the possibility of paradise might be universal too. This possibility wouldn't preclude its loss, and might even require it, or at least require that some of us should lose it. The book ends with a quotation from Ovid's ''Tristia'', regretting his expulsion from Rome. ''Cum repeto noctem'', Goethe writes in the middle of his own German, as well as citing a whole passage: "When I remember the night..."〔''I.J.'', p. 499: Ovid's ''Tristia'', Book III — ''Cum subit illius tristissima noctis imago,/Quae mihi supremum tempus in Urbe fuit,/Cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui;/Labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis./Iamque quiescebant voces hominumque canumque:/Lunaque nocturnos alta regebat equos./Hanc ego suspiciens, et ab hac Capitolia cernens,/Quae nostro frustra iuncta fuere Lari.''〕 He is already storing up not only plentiful nostalgia and regret, but also a more complicated treasure: the certainty that he didn't merely imagine the land where others live happily ever after.〔Cf. A&M, ''op. cit.'', pp. xii-xiii.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Italian Journey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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