GOETHE'S FAUST, PART I

The late Randall Jarrell, translator of Grimm and Rilke, turned to Faust when ""he was having a hard time writing poetry,"" Mary Jarrell explains in the afterword, on the chance that his own art would come back. But he also ""believed in the worth of Faust for our age,"" and sought to render it--as he has-- ""in plain English for readers and playgoers."" By comparison with even modern translations, his version is colloquial, open, direct; but not coarse. A Faust for the formerly intimidated, set comfortably on the page like a modern play.