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Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Afterwords
Did you miss the meeting? Or did we fail to discuss all the questions? Perhaps something slipped your mind, or only occurred to you later. If so, here's your chance to continue the conversation. For the time being, this blog is open for comment only to registered members of the book group. Other readers may contact me at hcrane@cambridgema.gov. Please, no flaming or cussing.
2 comments:
The translation "secret" is suspect.
The original passage is "Damit ein bedeutendes Geistesprodukt auf der Stelle eine breite und
tiefe Wirkung zu üben vermöge, muß eine tiefe Verwandtschaft, ja
Übereinstimmung zwischen dem persönlichen Schicksal seines Urhebers
und dem allgemeinen des mitlebenden Geschlechtes bestehen."
The word "tiefe", translated as "secret" in the Dover text, has a straightforward English cognate: "deep". "Profound" might be appropriate. A better translation would seem to be "a deep (or profound)relationship." Langenscheidts Grosses Deutsch-Englisch Schulwoerterbuch (the leading German-English dictionary for undergraduate use) does not include "secret" among its multiple possible translations of "tief(e)." Native German-speakers, your comments would be appreciated.
Dear Dwight, I just erased myown rsponse by accident, so here goes again. My literal translation is as follwos: In order for a signficant product of the mind to be able immedately to have a deep and extesive effect, a profound relationship, even agreement must exist between the author's personal fate and the general fate of his fellow human beings (contemporaries).
The problem the translator had was that deep sounds out of place here, so she changed it to secret. Secret implies that all of this takes place without the author or the audience being aware of it. Geistesprodukt suggrests not just an artwork like a novel, but any work, Darwin's originof the speces or a painting by Rembrandt. Mann is accounting for Aschenbach's popularity as a writer, but he also may be comenting on his own popularity. Steven
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