外国人最想和你聊的名人话题：约翰·沃尔夫冈·冯·歌德

　About Goethe　关于歌德

     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.
     歌德是德国民族文学的最杰出的代表，他的创作把德国文学提高到全欧的先进水平，并对欧洲文学的发展作出了巨大的贡献。
     歌德一生跨两个世纪，正当欧洲社会大动荡、大变革的年代。封建制度的日趋崩溃，革命力量的不断高涨，促使歌德不断接受先进思潮的影响，从而加深自己对于社会的认识，创作出当代最优秀的文艺作品。歌德晚年的创作极其丰富，重要的如自传性作品《诗与真》、《意大利游记》，长篇小说《亲和力》和《威廉·麦斯特的漫游时代》，抒情诗集《西方和东方的合集》，逝世前不久，又完成了《浮士德》第二部。这些作品表现了歌德重视实践、肯定为人类幸福而劳动的思想，说明他思想中的积极因素比前一时期有所增长。《浮士德》第二部的完成尤其突出地表现了歌德晚年思想上和艺术上的新发展。1832年3月22日，歌德病逝。他的临终遗言是："给我更多的灯吧。"这体现了他作为大文豪的乐观精神。歌德是德国民族文学的最杰出的代表，他的创作把德国文学提高到全欧的先进水平，并对欧洲文学的发展作出了巨大的贡献。