[C] [Wittrs] Re: Wittgenstein, Translations & "Queer"
- From: "J" <ubersicht@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:50:20 -0000
SW,
I'll just comment in a couple of points, since I don't have a particularly
strong position on this either way so much as an interest in considering the
issue from different sides. A lot of your points are also well taken.
But
> what I might deny is that his German is free from the
> similar peculiarities that you see in his English.
You "might deny" it? I would insist on denying it!
But one thing I'd hoped to convey before and I'll now emphasize, is this:
Where the German text would strike a German-speaking reader as eccentric, the
translation into English should strike the English-speaking reader as
eccentric. But where the German text would not strike a German-speaking reader
as eccentric, the English translation shouldn't strike the English-speaking
reader as eccentric either.
Whether his way of expressing a similar insight in English would have been
eccentric, if the phrasing doesn't sound eccentric in German, then the
translation that doesn't follow his own English usage is warranted.
On a related point, where the German text would not strike the German-speaking
reader as archaic, the English translation should not strike the
English-speaking reader as archaic either.
If the usage of the English word has undergone a dramatic change but the German
word it translates has seen no such controversy, then the updated translation
might wish not to give such an impression. And this need not be for reasons of
"political correctness".
These are goals of translation that cannot always be realized. Some things
just sound odd in translation. Some idioms don't readily come across. But
these are still reasonable aims.
Or, the question boils
> down to this: Wittgenstein's English didn't know
> the Queen's word for weird, and he couldn't mind p's and
> q's when it came to some basic English expressions.
My suspicion, more in line with CJ's, is that this is less about the Queen's
English and more about the contemporary political controversy surrounding
"queer".
Why do I say this? You'll find "queer", among other places, in Russell, e.g.
_The_Analysis_of_Matter_, in Moore, e.g. "Is Existence a Predicate?", in Ryle,
e.g. _The_Concept_of_Mind_ , and most famously, Mackie (though he's from Oz, he
still counts as a native speaker of English) in his _Inventing_Right_and_Wrong_.
Russell's example alone should suffice to make the point that this is not some
point about aristocratic style.
> I must tell you I have trouble with the latter idea. I
> think Wittgenstein knowingly deployed "queer" because of
> its mystical aesthetic.
In light of the previous examples, I think that's a reach.
JPDeMouy
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