Mats Norrman wrote:

>I quote Goethes original first so you can see:
>
>"Everything transient,
>is only a Parable.
>The Uncompletable,
>is completed here.
>The Indescribable,
>is done here.
>The Eternal-Feminine,
>draws us hence."
>
>I have never seen a translation that comes closer to the original.  It
>cannot get clearer than this.

Steve Schwartz seems partial to the Bayard Taylor translation:

   All things transitory
   But as symbols are sent:
   Earth's insufficiency
   Here grows to Event:
   The Indescribable,
   Here it is done:
   The Woman-soul leadeth us
   Upward and on!

which, seems to me to preserve the words but, loses Goethe's rhymes, which
are so natural and uncontrived, and his general artlessness.  ("Woman-soul"
indeed!  God save us!) The Barnett translation does not even pretend to
preserve rhyme and meter.

Here's my attempt:

   All that is fleeting
   Is but an example.
   What wants completing
   Now becomes ample.
   What speech cannot course
   Has turned into acts.
   Th' all womanly force
   Our striving attracts.

No, I can't give up my day-job.  I'm already retired.  But, except for the
admittedly strained use of the word "course", I think I've been essentially
faithful to the meaning and the poetic momentum of the original (w/out
presuming to approach the original's poetic quality).

I suspect it could even be sung to the Mahler work.

Walter Meyer