Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2005-06-15 06:03 pm
edenfalling) wrote2005-06-15 06:03 pm
Nietzsche
Note to self re: "Knives"
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
Translation: He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Translation by Hollingdale
The translation could stand some fiddling for better flow; it's a pity that English doesn't allow/force you to swap verb positions around in sentences in quite the same way German does.
Also, I think "take care" would work better than "look to it," even if the second is a more literal translation. Hmmm. Then again, I expect people translating philosophy are more concerned with accurately conveying the ideas rather than making everything flow in the new language. (Even if flow does help keep people reading, and even if it's easier to understand ideas when you're not simultaneously trying to decode tortured sentence structures. Bah.)
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
Translation: He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Translation by Hollingdale
The translation could stand some fiddling for better flow; it's a pity that English doesn't allow/force you to swap verb positions around in sentences in quite the same way German does.
Also, I think "take care" would work better than "look to it," even if the second is a more literal translation. Hmmm. Then again, I expect people translating philosophy are more concerned with accurately conveying the ideas rather than making everything flow in the new language. (Even if flow does help keep people reading, and even if it's easier to understand ideas when you're not simultaneously trying to decode tortured sentence structures. Bah.)