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Tallulah Tam Posted 19 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Nietzsche

0 Friedrich Nietzsche said in 01i00Beyond Good and Evil02i00 (von Gut und Bose) 02br
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00“……….there is art in every good sentence-01del00art that must be figured out if the sentence is to be understood! A misunderstanding about its tempo, for example02del00- and the sentence itself is misunderstood. That one must not be in doubt about the rhythmically decisive syllables, that one experiences the break with any excessively severe symmetry as deliberate and attractive, that one lends a subtle and patient ear to every 01i00staccato02i00 and every 01i00rubato02i00 that one figures out the meaning in the sequence of vowels and diphthongs and how delicately and richly they can be coloured and change colours as they follow each other. Who has enough good will to acknowledge such duties and demands and to listen to that much art and purpose in language? In the end one simply does not have “the ear for that”; and thus the strongest contrasts of style go unheard, and the subtlest artistry is wasted as on the deaf.”0-
  

Top answer

0Hello TT02br 02br 00It's an interesting passage; and I think it reflects his own method of composition (though perhaps not that of the translator). 02br 02br 00MrP0-

— MrPedantic

  • 0Hello TT02br 02br 00It's an interesting passage; and I think it reflects his own method of composition (though perhaps not that of the translator).
  • 02br 02br 00MrP0-
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16 Answers
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0Hello TT02br
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00It's an interesting passage; and I think it reflects his own method of composition (though perhaps not that of the translator). 02br
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00But I'm not sure he's wholly right, where he says "one simply does not have the ear for that": we must attend to the sequence of vowels and consonants at some level, since we often become aware of
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0 Hello Mr. P.02br
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00Happy New Year.02br
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00Soon after posting that message I left America to spend the Christmas Holiday in England and as I did not leave until the twelfth night I have only just picked up your message.02br
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00I am intrigued why you would say, "though perhaps not that of the translator" although the transl
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0Hello TT, happy New Year!02br
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00I meant to imply, rather unkindly and unseasonably, that the translator wasn't up to the job. In the original, for instance, we find:01blockquote
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10"...Dass man über die rhythmisch entscheidenden Silben nicht im Zweifel sein darf, dass man die Brechung der allzustrengen Symmetrie 11u10
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0 Wow! That is quite a mouthful Mr P. 02br
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00"Walter Kaufmann was born in Germany in 1921 then went to the United States in 1939 where he studied at Williams College and Harvard University. (that means German was his native language for 18 years) In 1947 he joined the faculty of Princeton University, where he became a professor of philosophy. As well as verse translatio
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0Yes, it was a little unfair of me; it's unreasonable to expect a translator to convey N's style. 02br
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00(I must admit, I didn't recognize it as Kaufmann's version. The "figured out" seems uncharacteristic.)02br
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00MrP0-
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0 With regard to “figured out” which Kaufmann uses twice in that passage, - well, “figured out” and “figures out.” Another translator uses the word “divined” (gottlich ) instead of “ figured out” and yet another uses the word “grasped” (griff). I don’t know the original German word Nietzsche used, or why there should be so many variations in the translation.02br
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00Make
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Tallulah Tam12cite10Actually, I think it is said with more contempt than sadness or regret...12br
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10I must admit, I find that one of the less attractive aspects of Nietzsche's writings. He quite often says words to the effect of "they/you are too stupid to appreciate me"; which always remi
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0 Nietzsche as adolescent, now there’s a picture I have never imagined!02br
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00-----”Will people believe me? But I demand that they should believe me: I have always thought little and badly of myself only on very rare occasions, only when I had to, always without any desire for this subject,-----”02br
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00“Nowadays it happens occasionally that a mi
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0 I must say as an aside, the Oh v Zero debate which you sparked turned very lively, and a certain Australian English teacher actually metamorphosed into you!0-
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0 Mr P. I seem to have frightened you away!02br
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00What do you think of this:-02br
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00"*** is dead. *** remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off u
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