To anyone who is reading these
entries, it must be clear that I am deliberately avoiding the English title of
Nietzsche’s book Beyond Good And Evil. The secret is simple. I first
read the book in Russian, where the translation of Jenseits Von Gut Und Böse
is On The Other Side Of Good And Evil, rather different from the one
using the word Beyond. After all, there must be a difference between transcending
and crossing, even though the ambiguity of the original German word Jenseits
is delightful, which only proves that Nietzsche the artist of language is
terribly difficult, if not impossible, to translate faithfully, and that for
anyone who is deeply interested in his writings the best solution is to learn
German.
My preference for the Russian
version must be explained by the title’s first association in my mind, as soon
as I learned the book’s title. Jenseits brought the picture of a river,
and of me, the reader, being transported across it, to “the other side,”
with further strong associations with the river Lethe, and Charon,
the spooky ferryman, and then, with Hamlet’s undiscovered country, all
this suggestiveness being totally irresistible.
Beyond, on the other hand,
associates with the other side of the horizon, a less imaginative vista for a
boy yet unfamiliar with the creepy connotations of the phrase Welcome To The
World Beyond, which he would later discover on American television…
This is an important
clarification, or rather, addition to my Jenseits comments. Here is an
elucidating line from Nietzsche’s 1886 Preface to Menschliches, as
regards the meaning of his most famous title:
“I am
speaking immorally, extra-morally, Jenseits von Gut und Böse.” Now,
does the word extra-morally suggest transcending? Then here is a
phrase which appears to exonerate the English translation of Jenseits as
Beyond, in the sense of transcending, rather than crossing from
one side to the other. But, on the other hand, his use of the word immorally,
suggesting a dichotomy with the word morally, justifies the Russian
“exact” translation on the other side (otherwise, the non- dichotomous
word amorally ought to have been used). Considering that the
Russian translation still reflects my personal preference, and Nietzsche’s line
above does not explicitly contradict my insistence on it, my Jenseits-related
comments are all to remain in force, perhaps, with the proviso to be
prominently added, stipulating the ambiguity of Jenseits with regard to
the unresolved dispute between transcending and crossing.
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