Category: Translations
-
Courage
Mut verloren — alles verloren! Da wär es besser, nicht geboren! To lose courage is to lose everything, in which case it would have been better never to have been born. A few stabs at rhyme-preserving translation: Of courage shorn, of everything shorn! In that case better, never to have been born! Courage lost…
-
Negativity: The Spirit of the Left
The spirit of the Left is the spirit of negativity. Any intellectually honest person following current events can see that the tendency of leftists is mindlessly to destroy for the sake of destruction what it has taken centuries to build. Transgressive of tradition and its wisdom, these 'progressives' are both hobbled and enabled by their…
-
Schopenhauer in Italian on Schadenfreude, La Gioia per il Danno Altrui
If to feel envy is to feel bad when another does well, what should we call the emotion of feeling good when another suffers misfortune? There is no word in English for this as far as I know, but in German it is called Schadenfreude. This word is used in English from time to time, and…
-
Friday Cat Blogging! Is This Kitty Syllogizing?
Weiche dem Größeren, aber verachte nicht den Kleineren! Yield to the greater, but scorn not the lesser! When I first glanced at this graphic I read it as: While I concede the major (premise), I do not scorn the minor! But that would be Maiori cedo, sed non contemno minorem. Or at least I…
-
Heute Rot, Morgen Tot
Archaic variant: Heute roth, morgen todt. Poetically translated by your humble correspondent: Today ruddy, tomorrow rotting. Or is it better like this? Ruddy today, rotting tomorrow. Literally: Red today, dead tomorrow. Better red than dead? Or better dead than red?
-
Courage
One can always get through one day to the next — except for one day. And one will get through that one too. Thus an aphorism of mine. In the vicinity of the same sentiment, here are a couple of lines from a verse found in Goethe's literary remains: Mut verloren — alles verloren!Da wär…
-
Inheritance and Appropriation
The high school I attended required each student to take two years of Latin. Years later the requirement was dropped. When a fundraiser contacted me for a donation, I said, "You eliminated Latin, why should I give you a donation?" He replied that the removal of Latin made room for Chinese. What I should…
-
An Aphorism of Mine Translated into Slovak
Dear Mr. Vallicella, My name is Cyril Šebo, I am an English teacher in Slovakia and also a blogger on our national Slovak blogspot http://cyrilsebo.blog.sme.sk/clanok.asp?cl=309289 Today is The International Day of Translators and in my blog I dared to use one of your thougts from your blog, to show how difficult it can get to…
-
Reininger Contra Buddhism
Robert Reininger, Philosophie des Erlebens, p. 227: Gegen Buddhismus: Trishna nicht ertoeten (ausloeschen), sondern durch Ueberhoehung in den Dienst des Vernunftwillens stellen — sonst fehlt diesem die lebendige Kraft, die nur der Daseinsbejahung eignet (A 751, 1932). Against Buddhism: Trishna is not to be killed or extinguished, but elevated and placed in the…
-
Herder on the Dream of Life
Ein Traum, ein Traum ist unser LebenAuf Erden hier. Wie Schatten auf den Wolken schweben Und schwinden wir. Und messen unsre trägen TritteNach Raum und Zeit; Und sind (und wissen's nicht) in Mitte Der Ewigkeit . . . Johann Gottfried Herder My loose translation: A dream, a dream is our lifeHere upon the earth. In…
-
Nietzsche’s Definition of ‘Nihilist’
Der Wille zur Macht #585 (Kroener Ausgabe): Ein Nihilist ist der Mensch, welcher von der Welt, wie sie ist, urteilt, sie sollte nicht sein, und von der Welt, wie sie sein sollte, urteilt, sie existiert nicht. A nihilist is one who judges of the world as it is, that it ought not be, and of…
-
Advice for Those in Despair
Theodor Haecker, Tag- und Nachtbuecher 1939-1945 (Haymon Verlag, 1989), p. 115, entry of 4 October 1940: Ich habe einmal einem Verzweifelnden den Rat gegeben, zu tun, was ich selber in aehnlichen Zustaenden getan habe, in kurzen Fristen zu leben. Komm, sagte ich mir damals, eine Viertelstunde wirst du es ja noch aushalten koennen! I once…