tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205153472024-03-07T16:19:00.952-08:00Kurt TucholskyContains a selection of the works of satirist Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935), translated into English from the German by <a href="http://indeterminacy.blogspot.com">Indeterminacy</a>. All translations copyright 2006-2013Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-20158026441411734492014-01-19T23:32:00.000-08:002014-01-19T23:32:14.487-08:00Berlin! Berlin!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This translation by Cindy Opitz appears in the English language Tucholsky reader "Berlin! Berlin!: Dispatches from the Weimar Republic". It is posted by kind permission of Dr. Eva C. Schweizer of <a href="http://www.berlinica.com/" target="_blank">Berlinica Publishing LCC</a><br />
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Berlin! Berlin!<br />
Kurt Tucholsky alias Ignaz Wrobel, Berliner Tageblatt, July 21, 1919<br />
<br />
Quanquam ridentem dicere verum<br />
Quid vetat?<br />
<br />
There's no sky above this city. Whether the sun shines at all is questionable; it seems like you only ever see the sun when you're crossing the main boulevard and it's shining right in your eyes. People complain about the weather, but there really isn't any weather in Berlin.<br />
<br />
A Berliner doesn't have time. A Berliner is usually from Posen or Breslau, and he doesn't have time. He always has plans, and he makes phone calls and appointments, and he rushes to his appointments—usually running late—and he has such an awful lot to do.<br />
<br />
People don't work in this city—they slave away. (Even entertainment is work here; they spit in their hands at the start and expect to get something in return.) A Berliner isn't really diligent, just constantly agitated. He has completely forgotten, unfortunately, why we're here on this earth. Even in heaven—assuming a Berliner could make it to heaven—he would "have things to do" at four.<br />
<br />
Sometimes you see Berlin women sitting on the balconies that are stuck to the stone boxes they call their homes. The Berlin women sit there, taking breaks. They might be between two phone conversations, or waiting for appointments, or they may have arrived early—which rarely happens—so they sit there and wait. Then suddenly they spring, like arrows launched from bowstrings, to the telephone or to their next appointments.<br />
<br />
This city is forever hauling its cart around the same track, brow furrowed—sit venia verbo ! It doesn't notice it's going in circles and getting nowhere.<br />
<br />
A Berliner can't have a normal conversation. Sometimes you see two people talking, but they're not having a conversation, they're just reciting their own monologues to each other. Berliners can't listen either. They just wait anxiously until the other person stops talking and then jump right in. That's how Berliners converse.<br />
<br />
A Berlin woman is practical and clear. Even in love. She doesn't have any secrets. She's a good, sweet girl, a type much celebrated by gallant town poets.<br />
<br />
A Berliner doesn't get much out of life unless he's earning money. He doesn't cultivate social skills, because he can't be bothered; he gets together with friends, gossips a little, and gets sleepy at ten o'clock.<br />
<br />
A Berliner is a slave to the machine—passenger, theatergoer, restaurant patron, and employee. Not quite human. The machine picks and pulls at his nerve endings, and a Berliner submits without reservation. He does everything the city requires—except maybe live.<br />
A Berliner plows through each day, and when it's done, it was all labor and sorrow, nothing more. A Berliner can live in this city for seventy years without the slightest benefit to his immortal soul.<br />
<br />
Berlin was once a well-functioning machine. A finely crafted doll that could move its arms and legs when someone stuck a dime in it. Today, the doll barely moves; no matter how many dimes people throw in, the machine has rusted and grown sluggish.<br />
<br />
Because there really are a lot of strikes in Berlin. Why? No one really knows. Some people are against it, and some people are for it. Why? No one really knows.<br />
<br />
Berliners treat each other like hostile strangers. If they haven't been introduced somewhere, they snarl at each other in the streets and on the trolleys, because they don't have much in common. They don't want to know anything about anyone else, and they live entirely for themselves.<br />
<br />
Berlin combines the disadvantages of an American metropolis with those of small-town Germany. Its advantages are listed in Baedeker's guidebooks.<br />
<br />
During summer vacation each year, a Berliner sees that people actually live in the real world. He tries it for four weeks—unsuccessfully, because he hasn't learned how to live and doesn't truly know what it means—and when he arrives back at the Anhalter train station, he winks at the trolley line and is glad to be back in Berlin. Life is forgotten again.<br />
<br />
The days rattle by, and the daily grind winds on; if we toil like this for a hundred years, we in Berlin, what then for us? Will we have accomplished anything? Achieved anything? Something for our lives, for our real-life actual, inner lives? Will we have grown, opened ourselves up, blossomed? Will we have lived?<br />
<br />
Berlin! Berlin!<br />
<br />
When the editor had read up to this point, he wrinkled his brow, smiled a friendly smile, and said benevolently to the young man standing before him, "Well, now, it's really not as bad as all that! You're forgetting that Berlin also has its merits and accomplishments! Take it easy, young man! You're still young!"<br />
<br />
And because the young man was a rather polite young man, generally loved and respected for his modest behavior, possessing somewhat peculiar dance-class manners, which he passed off as etiquette among close friends, he took off his hat (which he'd kept on in the room), gazed, deeply moved, at the ceiling, and cried with pious conviction, "God bless this city!"Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-39389737982885706502009-09-14T09:43:00.000-07:002009-09-15T05:00:36.452-07:00Family (Die Familie)Family <br />By Kurt Tucholsky<br />(1923)<br /> <br />On the Sixth Day of Creation as God saw what He had done, it was indeed good, but this was because the family had not yet arrived. The early optimism avenged itself and humanity's yearning for paradise may be seen primarily as the burning desire to once, just once, be permitted to live one's life in peace without family. What is family?<br /> <br />The family (familia domestica communis, the common house family) is found in Central Europe in its primitive form, in which condition it usually persists. It consists of a congregation of many persons of different genders who see their main task as sticking their nose into your affairs. When the number of family members exceeds a certain magnitude they are referred to as "relations." The family generally appears balled up in horrible clusters and during times of rebellion would run serious danger of being gunned down, because they always stick together. The family as a rule is a powerful force of revulsion. The family relation is a breeding ground for a disease that is extremely widespread: all members of the guild are constantly taking umbrage at something. That aunt that sat on the famous sofa is a fiction because first of all, an aunt never sits alone, and secondly, she takes umbrage at anything - not only on the sofa: but sitting, standing, lying down and on the subway.<br /> <br />The family knows everything about each other: when little Karl had the measles, how Inge is satisfied with her dressmaker, when Erna will marry the electro technician, and that Jenny, after the final confrontation with her husband, has decided at last to stay married to him. News of this kind propagates from midmorning between eleven and one via the defenseless telephone. The family knows everything, and disapproves of it on principle. Other tribes, of wild Indians, live either on the warpath or smoking the pipe of peace: the family does both at the same time. <br /> <br />The family is extremely exclusive. It knows what the youngest nephew does in his spare time, but if that young man should suddenly have the idea to marry a stranger, watch out! Twenty Lorgnons descend on the poor victim, forty eyes dissect her, twenty noses sniff distrustingly: "Who is that? Is she worthy of this high honor?" The other family does the same. In these cases both parties are usually infused with the idea that they have sunk deeply below their station.<br /> <br />If, however, the family has accepted the stranger into its midst, it then lays the large hand of the clan on his or her shoulder. The new member must now commit sacrifices on the altar of family; no holiday, that does not belong to the family! Everyone curses this, no one actually enjoys doing it - but may God have mercy on the one who refuses! With a deep sigh, they all bend under their bitter yoke. . .<br /> <br />Nevertheless this "sociable get-together" of the family invariably leads to a fight. In the usual manner of interaction one finds those sweet-sour tones best compared to a summer night's mood shortly after a thunderstorm. Which in no way, however, impairs the feeling of coziness. The blessed Herrnfelds had a scene in one of their plays in which a family split terribly into factions staged a wedding party, and after they had all smashed each other's heads in, a prominent member of the family rose and stated in the sweetest tone of voice the world had ever known: "Let's sing a song!" They always sing a song.<br /> <br />One reads in the grand sociology of Georg Simmel that no one can cause as much pain as close members of the caste, because they all know exactly the victim's most sensitive areas. They know each other too well to share a love from the bottom of their hearts, and not well enough to feel affinity.<br /> <br />There is a certain intimacy. A stranger would never dare to press as close into your personal space as your sister-in-law's cousin, by mere virtue of kinship. Were not the relatives of the ancient Greeks their "most dearest"? The youth of today's world use a different name. And suffer under the family. And found one of their own later, then carry on just the same.<br /> <br />No member of a family ever takes another family member seriously. If Goethe had had an old aunt, she would surely have travelled to Weimar to see what the boy was up to, taken a lozenge from her pompadour, and departed thoroughly insulted. Goethe, however, did not have such aunts, but peace and quiet - and that is how "Faust" came into existence. That aunt would have considered it over-the-top.<br /> <br />It is advisable to give the family something on birthdays. There's no great sense to it, by the way; they all trade it in for something else.<br /> <br />There is no possibility whatsoever of escaping the family. My old friend Theobald Tiger may have sung:<br /> <br />Don't get involved with family -<br />It won't work,<br />It won't work!<br /> <br />But these verses sprang into being out of a stupendous ignorance of life. One never involves oneself with family - the family does that on its own.<br /> <br />And when the world finally perishes, one may rightly fear to be met in the Great Beyond by a Holy Angel, silently waving a palm leaf, speaking the words : "Tell me - aren't we related - ?" Hurriedly, appalled and broken to the core of the heart, you rush away. To hell.<br /> <br />But that doesn't help you at all. Because that's where the others are, all the others.<br /><br />Peter Panter<br />Die Weltbühne, 12.01.1923, Nr. 2, p. 53<br />---<br />The German original may be read <a href="http://www.textlog.de/tucholsky-familie.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Note: This translation is a joint effort. It is the result of a request by S.K. who who planned to use the German text at a birthday party, presenting an English translation for the non-German speakers. I thought it would be a fun text to translate and was right. She sent me her own first draft in English. I did my own draft before looking at what she sent, then drew on her choice of words in the many passages where my translation seemed weak and hers seemed great. It was great teamwork. P.S. S.K. and I are not related.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1144755995813236082006-04-11T04:43:00.000-07:002006-04-21T07:23:15.040-07:00The Embryo Speaks (Die Leibesfrucht spricht)By Kurt Tucholsky<br />(1927)<br /><br />They all take care of me: Church, State, Doctors and Judges.<br /><br />I should grow and thrive; I should slumber nine months long; I should not worry about a thing – they all wish me well. They protect me. They watch over me. God have mercy if my parents do something to me; then they will all be there. Whoever touches me will be punished; my mother lands in prison, my father right behind; the doctor who did it must cease to be a doctor, the midwife who helped is locked up - I'm a precious item.<br /><br />They all take care of me: Church, State, Doctors and Judges.<br /><br />Nine months long.<br /><br />But when the nine months are over, I have to see for myself what becomes of me. Tuberculosis? No doctor will help me. Nothing to eat? No Milk? – no State will help me. Torment and misery? The Church will comfort me, but that doesn't fill my stomach. And if I have no bread to break or to bite and I steal: the Judge is right there to lock me up.<br /><br />Fifty years of my life no one will care about me, no one. I have to help myself. Nine months long they kill themselves, if someone wants to kill me. You tell me: isn't that a strange way to look out for the welfare of another?<br /><br />--------------<br /><br /><a href="http://wonderlandornot.com">Alice</a> has <a href="http://www.teambio.org/2006/04/the-embryo-speaks-die-leibesfrucht-spricht">reposted</a> this translation along with some commentary putting the text in a modern perspective. There's also an interesting discussion about it going on at <a href="http://wonderlandornot.net/2006/04/18/the-embryo-speaks-die-leibesfrucht-spricht/">Wonderlandornot</a>.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1141927912170716022006-03-10T09:32:00.000-08:002006-03-29T03:13:46.970-08:00Was waere, wenn...<small>Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935), the German satirist, publicist, and prescient critic of National Socialism was quoted in "The Case for Impeachment", a recent article in Harper's: "A country is not only what it does - it is also what it puts up with, what it tolerates." Now is the time to read Tucholsky in American, because not only was he uncannily accurate in predicting Germany's future, many of his works produce eerie undertones when held against the backdrop of contemporary America. For example, "What If..." </small><br /><br /><strong>What if... (1927)</strong><br />By Kurt Tucholsky<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1713/514/1600/constitution.jpg"><img style="width: 235px; height: 183px; float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1713/514/320/constitution.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><em>Tabloid headline</em>: Beating Amendment on the Way? - We've received information that the Federal Ministry of Justice has at this moment completed a draft of legislation dealing with the introduction of the Beating Amendment.<br /><br /><em>All morning papers</em>: The bulletin propagated by one of our mid-day newspapers about the introduction of the Beating Amendment is false. The Federal Ministry of Justice has indeed weighed tentative considerations regarding certain disciplinary actions of a physical nature, limited, of course, and intended only for a narrow set of repeat offenses. But that these considerations have hardened in a draft of legislation, as the daily in question claimed, is not the case.<br /><br /><br />14 Day Pause<br /><br /><br /><em>The night editions</em>: The Beating Amendment is Here! -- The Slapping Minister! -- Do You Hit Your Children, Herr Minister? -- Powerful Measures at Last! -- A Good One Upside the Head! -- Awful! -- Government by Rod and Switch! -- Return to Law and Order!<br /><br /><em>Social Democratic lead article</em> ...turned out to be true. We find no parliamentary expression to give words to our flaming indignation at this new reactionary outrage. Not enough that this ministry overburdens the people with taxes - no, as was typical under the regime of the Czar, the German worker should now be punished with the cane. The parliamentary faction has already made clear that the sharpest protest against this new plan...<br /><br /><em>Catholic lead story</em>: ...Ecclesiasticus 12:18. These previously quoted Bible verses do however appear favorable towards the idea, and so it will not be entirely possible to withhold Christian sentiment from the plans of the Ministry ... especially since the measure is not completely contrary in all its aspects to the interests of the Church.<br /><br /><em>"Bismarck Review"</em> ...nevertheless not forget that in rural areas, the good old Prussian way of dealing with disobedience and open resistance, the switch, has for ages done its share of good. We are unable to understand why this, of all punishments, should be considered so humiliating. It goes without saying that its application must remain limited to such circles as are, so to speak, used to it. For a purification of our politically charged atmosphere...<br /><br /><em>"Munich Newest News"</em> ...we must say: the first reasonable idea to come out of Berlin.<br /><br /><br />5 Month Pause<br /><br /><br /><em>Town meeting</em>: "A scandal and a disgrace! I could not blame any of the beating victims if they would afterwards go to their tormentors and punch them in the face..." (Enormous turbulence in the meeting hall. People stand up, shout, throw their hats in the air and wave their handkerchiefs. Thirty-four wallets are stolen. The speaker stands in a pool of sweat).<br /><br /><em>Democratic lead story</em>: ...of course absolute opponents of the Beating Amendment and will remain so. However, under the current constellation it is to be considered whether this relatively unimportant issue could be an occasion for the German Democratic Party to withhold the unconditional support it has promised the current ruling coalition - especially when one considers that with the assurance of non-punishment for the wearing of republican symbols a powerful advancement of republican thought has prevailed. On the other hand...<br /><br /><em>Protest assembly of the Communists</em>. (Banned).<br /><br /><em>Conference of the National Association of Middle Teaching Officials for the Upper Idling Course of Higher Schools</em>: "...Ου παιδεύετει. Gentlemen, even the ancient Grecians..." [Note: ou paideuetei - Old-Greek, reference to spare the rod and spoil the child]<br /><br /><em>Telephone booth in Parliament</em>: "...Hellooo! Hello, Saarbrücken? Allô, allô - Je cause, mais oui, mademoiselle - yes, please! Ne coupez-pas! Yes, English! Is that you? OK... debate on Mrs. Gertrud Bäumer's motion for a supplementary clause - did you get that? - which states the rear ends of those who are beaten must first receive a protective leather covering - - hello! Saarbrücken...!"<br /><br /><em>Telegrams to the President</em>: ...flaming protest! Northwest German Committee of Upper Middle School Teachers.......we beg you, in the twelfth hour. Federal Union of Free-Thinking Salad Eaters.......perception of Germany in the world. Union of Left-Leaning Fairly Decisive Republicans.......but not to forget the interests of the German economy! Association of Rod and Switch Manufacturers.<br /><br /><em>Headline of a Democratic lead article</em>: "Yes <u>and</u> No -!"<br /><br /><em>Parliamentary report</em>: Yesterday, under breathless tension, the tribunal debated the first reading of the "Amendment for the Introduction of Mandatory Disciplinary Measures of a Physical Nature," as its official title runs. The house was well-filled during the preceding debate of the Lock Fee Reform Bill for the district of Havelland-East because this issue is seen as pivotal towards the growing tension within the current coalition; its acceptance was greeted from the right with applause, from the left with hisses. During the reading of the Beating Amendment the house emptied slowly but visibly. The first to speak was the senior of German criminalistic, Professor Dr. D. Dr. Dr. honorable Kahl. He explained that the introduction of the Beating Amendment filled him with deep concern, but that he, on the other hand, could not suppress a certain satisfaction. As his old colleague Kramer said to him way back in 1684...<br /><br />The social democratic delegate Breitscheid announced, following a detailed honoring of the delegate Kahl in an extraordinarily eloquent and ironic speech, the clear no of his party. (See however below under "Latest News"). To the applause of the left, the delegate Breitscheid proved...<br /><br />Speaking next, for the Democrats, after corresponding remarks by the communist Rothahn, was the delegate Fischbeck. His party, so he said, stands positively disposed to the new law. Even as children we all had to bend over at least once. (Stormy, several minute long amusement).<br /><br /><em>Advertisement</em>: ...refrain from further applications, as the planned quota of positions for disciplinary officers is over-subscribed by ninety-eight. I.A. Heindl, Upper Governmental Council.<br /><br /><em>Social Democratic party correspondence</em>: ...water on the mill of the communists. The class-conscious worker is disciplined enough to know when he must bring sacrifices. This is such an opportunity! With heavy heart the party leadership has bowed to the call of the hour. It is easier to issue well-meaning suggestions while sitting at one's desk than to take responsibility oneself in the tough realpolitical struggle...<br /><br /><em>Interview with the Chancellor</em>: ... ceremoniously assured the representative of "<em>Le Monde</em>" that the regulations for implementation would of course do full justice to humanity. We will, as can surely be confirmed from the governmental side, see to it that...<br /><br /><br />8 Month Pause<br /><br /><br /><em>Minor news</em>: Yesterday in Parliament the Amendment for Disciplinary Measures of a Physical Nature was accepted with votes of the three right wing parties over the votes of the Communists. Social Democrats and Democrats abstained.<br /><br /><em>Democratic News Service</em>: ...expectations attached to the regulations for implementation, sadly, not fulfilled. It is to be hoped that the individual States will use their power towards humanitarian improvements ... unbending demand for the position of Federal Disciplinary Commissioner to at least appoint a Democrat.<br /><br /><em>News Wire</em>: Yesterday in Celle the first punishment under the Beating Amendment was carried out. The recipient was a worker Ernst A., punished for attempted cruelty towards young ladybugs. Thirty-five lashes were imparted upon the sentenced. The disciplinary personnel functioned without a glitch; Senior President Noske personally attended the procedure. A. is a member of the Communist party.<br /><br /><em>Press conference</em>: ...number of blows was originally set at 80. The sentenced received instead, due to an amnesty on the occasion of the President's 90th birthday, two less. Following implementation the sentenced was moved to tears.<br /><br /><em>Letter from a woman in Pomerania</em>: ...can't imagine how we laughed! It was too charming! The weather was lovely and we drove four hours by car to Messenthien, where we all had a hearty lunch. Otto was there, too - he's a senior disciplinary officer and looks wonderful in his new uniform. I'm so proud of him, and the work does him such good. We just had to take a picture of him, which I'm enclosing for you..."<br /><br /><em>"Physician's Report"</em>: ...rather conspicuous increase of mainly political delicts falling under the Beating Amendment, as Sinzheimer reports, has found an unusual explanation. A portion of those sentenced began, upon reception of their beatings, to roll about ecstatically on the floor, yelling "Again! More! Another!" and only with considerable difficulty could they be prevented from embracing switch, whip and disciplinary personnel. We are dealing with notorious masochists who have, in this manner, cheaply indulged their libidos, and who will now be brought to trial for the illegal acquisition of advantages.<br /><br /><br /><em>March 8, 1956</em>. "...look back over a productive 25 years. If the Federal Bureau of Disciplinary Measures has, to date, known only success, it is due primarily to its loyal corps of hard-hitting officers, the unanimous support of all federal agencies, as well as the Federal Association of Federal Disciplinary Officers. The tried and tested amendment has become indispensable today. It is a political reality; its introduction rested on the free will of the entire German people, whose arm we are. That which is given, gentlemen, is always reasonable, and it is easier to tear down than it is to build. In hoc signo vinces! [In this sign you shall conquer] So that today we may proudly announce:<br /><br />The German people and their Beating Amendment - they are indivisible and not to be thought of, one without the other!<br /><br />So help me God!"<br /><br />---------------------<br /><br />The original text may be read at the <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de/?p=250">Tucholsky Weblog</a>. My translation is based on a later version of the text which Tucholsky reworked himself. The newer version is more streamlined and has the "Yes <u>and</u> No" passage. I may post some of the missing passages later.<br /><br /><strong>Notes about this translation:</strong><br /><br /><em>Names of Newspapers</em>: A few times I selected a newspaper name that I thought would say more to the English speaking reader. E.g. "Bismarck Review" instead of The Cross (newspaper), a Prussian newspaper of the time. Bismarck was co-founder of the Prussian Cross (Kreuz) newspaper, and his name is probably better associated with Prussia than Cross would be.<br /><br /><em>The political parties</em>: There are several references to the political parties of the Weimar Republic. These have not been translated to equivalent parties on the American political scene - they just happen to have similar names. The German Democrats were more a party of the middle, and the Social Democrats where somewhere between the Democrats and the Communists. The "republican thought" referred to is actually the philosophy of the German Democrats, and not the conservatives.<br /><br /><em>Politicians</em>: The politicians (Rudolf) Breitscheid and (Wilhelm) Kahl were two actual personalities in German politics. Breitscheid was a prominent Social Democrat. He emigrated to France in 1933 but was arrested in 1941 and sent to Buchenwald, where he died (1944). Wilhem Kahl was indeed a professor of criminalistic, and a strong proponent of the death penalty. According to the German Wikipedia Otto Fischbeck was a liberal politician active until 1925, so it is unclear whether Tucholsky meant this particular Fischbeck. The name Rothahn for a Communist politician sounds fanciful. It means "red rooster" in German, and to me suggests the image of a rooster squawking around a farmyard, making a lot of inneffectual noise.<br /><br /><em>March 8, 1956</em>: In the speech at the end a particular passage proved difficult to translate in a way that would preserve all its nuances. It's the passage in German "im Dienst erhauten Beamten." This is probably a play on words of the phrase "im Dienst ergrauten" meaning "grown gray (old) in service." The word "erhauten" doesn't really exist in German, but the syllable "hau" is the root for the verb hauen (to hit). The prefix "er-" usually suggests a process in which something is acquired. According to an online 19th German dictionary the verb "erhauen" could mean to beat someone or to carve out of stone. But this is not in use in modern German. So I'm not certain exactly what the verb "erhauten" might mean in this context. <br /><br />In my own writing I've often taken cliches and reworded them slightly to make them say something new. In these instances I wanted to add power to the statement by the allusion to the known phrase, but I did not intend the meaning of the source cliche to dominate. Unfortunately I could not think of any phrases like "growing old in service" that might be doctored with aggressive connotations - words like "breaking-in" or "two-fisted" came to mind originally. "Grown bloody in service" might do it, but it doesn't seem aggressive enough. The term must be aggressive, as it underlines the final point. My decision to translate the passage as "hard-hitting officers" seemed to me the best solution, though it abandons the allusion of the German original. In an English language speech about employees, the words "loyal and hard working" usually go hand in hand. Also, the term "hard-hitting" is itself a play on words, as it is primarily used in a metaphorical sense, and not literally. I don't think anyone can do better with this passage, and still have it read well.<br /><br />Translation note to "Beating Amendment": The German text used the term "Prügelstrafe", literally "beating punishment." That just did not flow, and I could find no other synonyms or expressions that had the coined quality of the original, while hanging on to the literal expression. The more judicial term "Beating Amendment" (an amendment to the current laws) drifts slightly form the original, but I think it works most of the time, though maybe not as well in the final reference.<br /><br />---------------------<br /><br />Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Friedhelm Greis of the German language <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de">Tucholsky Weblog</a> for his invaluable advice and feedback in translating this text, pointing out nuances I'd missed and supplying background information. Also thanks to <a href="http://pansifiles.blogspot.com">Mrs. Weirsdo</a> and all my other friends who took time to check the draft for readability. That was a great a help to me!<br /><br />---------------------<br /><br />This post has been submitted to the Carnival of German-American Relations at <a href="http://america-germany.atlanticreview.org">america-germany.atlanticreview.org</a>. The carnival summary may be read at <a href="http://americanfuture.net/?p=1541">American Future</a> and at the <a href="http://atlanticreview.org/archives/287-Carnival-of-German-American-Relations,-Second-Edition.html">Atlantic Review</a>. A German carnival summary is located at<br /><a href="http://www.statler-and-waldorf.de/?p=1239">www.statler-and-waldorf.de</a>.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1141905822449634232006-03-09T03:54:00.000-08:002006-03-09T04:05:05.176-08:00Kurt Tucholsky in Harper's MagazineA recent editorial "<a href="http://harpers.org/TheCaseForImpeachment.html">The Case for Impeachment</a>" in Harper's Magazine, written by Lewis H. Lapham quotes in the beginning Kurt Tucholsky: <br /><br /><blockquote>A country is not only what it does - it is also what it puts up with, what it tolerates.</blockquote><br />I've located the original of this: <br /><blockquote>Aber ein Land ist nicht nur das, was es tut – es ist auch das, was es verträgt, was es duldet.</blockquote><br />The passage originates from a letter by Kurt Tucholsky to the German-Jewish author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Zweig">Arnold Zweig</a>. I don't think the translation can be improved upon.<br /><br />For those who can read German, the entire letter is posted at the <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de/index.php?p=186">Sudelblog</a>.<br /><br />I apoligize for the long silence here. I've been busy with a longer translation, which will soon be ready to post.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1140737829219761072006-02-23T15:37:00.000-08:002006-03-12T23:21:03.990-08:00Dieses Bild<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/211/1476/1024/this_picture.jpg'><img border='0' style= "float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" class='phostImg' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/211/1476/320/this_picture.jpg'></a><strong>This Picture </strong><br /><br />viewed in the year 1982 will be a strange sight to see. It depicts a fashion queen - a creature that most of us don't consider especially beautiful or pretty . . . it's an advertising thing of the fashion houses . . . so far, so good.<br /><br />But the way we today view with a kind of angered sentiment faded photos from the years 1911 and 1913, the small time before the great war - : that is how our grandchildren will one day see this picture here and say, after they've calmed themselves over the "impossible fashions": <br />"Yes, that was before the gas wars . . . Look at those empty faces that knew nothing . . . Had you no other worries? . . . Couldn't you have maybe prevented our poisoning? . . . Had you no idea of the horrible danger hanging over Europe? . . . Was there something better to do than run together and take care that the gas grenades were not assembled? That the state insanity did not reach high waves, that it was made clear to the thugs of all nations that there were other powers present, stronger than they and the profit-hungry large-scale industrialists, who, in their houses full of fine culture, collected van Goghs? Didn't you know all that - ? Did you do nothing for us, nothing - ? Didn't you see it?"<br /><br />Of course we saw it. We also worked against the gas, in our own way. But that can't be photographed. And don't forget, man from 1982: the world is not a purposeful organism, and not subject to reason. The world wants to play. Always the fate of the fashion queen is closer to it than the fate of the next generation that had to see by itself what became of it - and then did just the same. Do you think those fine gentlemen in dinner jackets knew of their true destiny? They are completely trapped in their every day lives, and even more so in the Sundays - they knew nothing. And the ones that know are gray and indistinct and not quite presentable for a photograph. Never forget, descendant, even during the French revolution the women fought over milk, and what to wear, and over their lovers - never does a single idea rule the entire world.<br /><br />Be thankful to those who did look out for you. It wasn't many. You look out for yourselves. We had so much to do: we had to live.<br /><br />---<br /><br />"Dieses Bild" by Kurt Tucholsky, from "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles" (1929)<br /><br />The original may be read at the German language Tucholsky Weblog run by Friedhelm Greis: <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de/index.php?p=239">www.sudelblog.de</a>Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1140296247197285672006-02-18T12:53:00.000-08:002006-03-21T03:40:42.870-08:00Zehn Gebote fuer den Geschaeftsmann, der einen Kuenstler engagiertTen Commandments for the Businessman Who Hires an Artist (1928)<br />By Kurt Tucholsky<br /><br /><center>1.</center><br />Leave him alone.<br /><br /><center>2.</center><br />Consider first whether the man is right for your company; you can best do this by looking at his works and asking for each one: Can I use that? If you cannot use the majority, don't hire the man. Because:<br /><br /><center>3.</center><br />If an artist is reputable and worth anything, he'll not change himself for your sake, just because you made a contract with him - but if he does change, you only paid for a name, in other words: overpaid the man.<br /><br /><center>4.</center><br />Leave him alone.<br /><br /><center>5.</center><br />Plan carefully, so that your man does not have to rush - art needs time, just like a clean balance. One can, if one is unlucky, shake fleas out of one's sleeve; but not works of art.<br /><br /><center>6.</center><br />Thou shallt honor thy people's Sabbath: you are mistaken if you believe it is a pleasure for strangers to spend their Sundays with your family. By no means is it that.<br /><br /><center>7.</center><br />While the artist you hired is working, hold the works of others under his nose and call upon him, with words of recognition for the other, to do one of these once. That is especially encouraging.<br /><br /><center>8.</center><br />In discussions with your artist, don't consider that you, too, are actually an artist: you were on the verge of studying, but your father put you in his grain business . . . Granted. But don't bring your misplaced ambition with you to the office: the artist does not intrude in your books either - o limit thyself the graceful call of May of your dried-up views of art, to this rose of Jericho!<br /><br /><center>9.</center><br />Listen to the voice of the public, but don't overestimate - in you alone the compass needle must show direction. Twenty letters from the public is nowhere near a popular vote - don't forget that, and don't let the people's stupidity damage your artist.<br /><br /><center>10.</center><br />Leave him alone.<br /><br />---<br /><br />The text in German is online at the German language Tucholsky Weblog <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de/?p=234">this</a> address.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1139578081960133992006-02-10T05:24:00.000-08:002006-03-16T02:45:25.163-08:00Was darf die Satire?What May Satire Do? (1919)<br />By Kurt Tucholsky<br /><br />Mrs. Vockerat: "But one must have one's enjoyment from art."<br />Johannes: "One can have much more from art than enjoyment." (Gerhart Hauptmann)<br /><br />When someone around here makes a good joke, half Germany sits on the sofa and takes it badly.<br /><br />Satire seems to be a thoroughly negative thing. It says: "No!" A satire that calls for an increase in the war debt, is none. Satire bites, laughs, whistles and beats the gigantic trooper's drum against everything that is stagnant and unresponsive. <br /><br />Satire is a thoroughly positive thing. Nowhere do those lacking character betray themselves quicker than here, nowhere does he show himself swifter, that tomfool without a conscience, one who attacks this today and that tomorrow. <br /><br />The satirist is an offended idealist: he wants the world to be good, it is bad, and now he runs up against the bad.<br /><br />The satire of an artist rich in character, one who fights for the sake of good, does not deserve society's contempt and the outraged boos and hisses with which this art is dismissed.<br /><br />The typical German makes one primary mistake: he confuses that which is represented with he who does the representing. If I want to show the consequences of alcohol addiction, in other words, fight against it, I cannot do so with pious bible quotes. The most effective way is with the gripping representation of a man who is hopelessly drunk. I lift the curtain protectively spread over the decay, and say: "Look!" - In Germany they call this "crassness." But alcohol addiction is a terrible thing. It damages society, and only the merciless truth can help. That's how it was back then with the weaver's misery, and with prostitution it is still that way today. <br /><br />The influence of small town thinking has kept German satire inside its paltry borders. Major themes are nearly eliminated. "Simplicissimus" alone, back then, when it still held the huge, red bull dog on the right side of its coat of arms, dared to touch all the sacred German symbols: the physically abusing sergeant, the mold-speckled bureaucrat, the teacher with his switch, the streetwalker, the fat-hearted businessman and the nasally speaking officer. Of course one may think of these topics however one wishes, and anyone is free to consider an attack unjustified, and another to consider it exaggerated, but the right of an honest man to take the whip to his time must never be negated with thick words. <br /><br />Does satire exaggerate? Satire has to exaggerate and is, in its deepest nature, unjust. It inflates the truth to make it clearer, and it can do nothing more than work according to the bible verse: the just will suffer with the unjust. <br /><br />But nowadays, deep in the typical German, sits the bothersome habit to appear not as an individual, but to think and present oneself as classes, as corporations, and heaven help you if you step on the toes of one of these. Why are our joke pages, our farces, our comedies and our films so lean? Because no one dares lay a finger on that obese octopus crouching among us, smothering the entire land: fat, lazy and life-extinguishing. <br /><br />The German satire did not even venture to attack the country's enemy. We certainly should not imitate the worst of the French war caricatures, but what power lay in them, what elemental rage, what design and what affect! Admittedly: they stopped at nothing. Next to them hung our modest computational tables with u-boat tallies, harming no one and read by none. <br /><br />We should not be so narrow-minded. We, all of us, school teachers and shop owners and professors and editors and musicians and doctors and public officials and women and representatives of the people - we all have our shortcomings and comical sides and foibles great and small. We must not be so quick to protest ("Butcher's Guild, protect your holiest of goods!") when once in a while someone tells a really good joke about us. It might be mean, but it should be honest. There isn't a proper man or a proper class that cannot stand a fair shove. He might defend himself by the same means, he might strike back - but he should not turn away injured, outraged, offended. A cleaner wind would blow through our public life, would they all not take it badly. <br /><br />But this way the constant darkness swells into delusions of grandeur. The German satirist dances between classes, confessions, local institutions and occupational groups a perpetual egg dance. It is quite graceful, to be sure, but, after a time, somewhat tiresome. True satire cleanses the blood: and whosoever has healthy blood, has also a pure complexion. <br /><br />What may satire do?<br /><br />Everything.<br /><br />----<br />"Was darf die Satire?" Kurt Tucholsky writing under the pseudonym Ignaz Wrobel in the Berliner Tageblatt #36: January 27th, 1919.<br />The German original may be read <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de/index.php?p=206">here</a>.<br /><br />Notes:<br /><br /><em>Weaver's Misery</em>: This is a reference to the Weaver's Rebellion, but I could find no English language description of this. The German language Wikipedia has a detailed <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weberaufstand">history</a>. The weavers were a professional group in Germany hit especially hard by a combination of cheap foreign competition and excessive taxation/fees which they could not pay. This culminated in the Weaver's Rebellion of 1844, which is interpreted as a classic example of hunger revolt and pre-industrial era worker unrest. There had been rebellions in the previous century but this was the first time the issues were discussed extensively in contemporary literature and publications. The rebellion was put down harshly and is cited further as the precursor of the failed German revolution of 1848, because of the political awareness that arose from it.<br /><br /><em>Simplicissimus</em>: For more information about this German satirical magazine, please refer to the English language Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicissimus">article</a>. The German language article shows a picture of the <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicissimus">bulldog</a>.<br /><br /><em>Gerhart Hauptmann</em>: The author Tucholsky quoted is covered in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhart_Hauptmann">this</a> Wikipedia biography. The play quoted here is "Einsame Menschen" (1891). It has been translated into English as "Lonely Lives." I could not find a text online, but the Gutenberg project has <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h#a3226">other translations</a> of his, including a play about the Weaver's Rebellion. Hauptmann won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1139401037580286522006-02-08T04:02:00.000-08:002006-03-09T03:33:59.150-08:00Ich bin ein MoerderI am a Murderer (1929)<br />Kurt Tucholsky<br /><br />"I, Ignaz Wrobel, love cheating the conductor on the bus, then I can ride for nothing. I have a violent temper: twice I ripped my bath robe to shreds, just to punish it; slashed ties; slammed a glass to the floor. I can't stand the sight of blood. Actually: I can stand the sight of blood, of animals. A strange feeling - not pleasant; well, yes, pleasant, I hesitate to say it, pleasant. I've often loved two women, they knew nothing of one another, but I knew. Once at one in the morning I had a strange impulse: I lay near Conrad on the sofa, we were talking about women, when I began to tremble, I wanted to touch him. I didn't do it - I was afraid of being ridiculous, nothing more. Now and again I have bloody dreams. I eat irregularly - sometimes nothing for days, then excessively. I'm unsound - I'm afraid of diseases, otherwise I'd go out every few days and talk to a girl on the street corner. I'm a coward and malicious: I spilled ink into my cousin's new hat, ripped my mother's lace handkerchief - later, with the most harmless expression: "No idea. My goodness. . . completely torn! Oh, it's ruined." - I like to listen when a couple makes love. Also when they hit each other. I lie for the sake of lying, with heart beating fast, whether it will come out. Most of the time it doesn't come out. I'm very good at lying. I hate my father. As a boy I had to do with my brother and afterwards wanted to beat him terribly, but he was stronger. I live irregular . . . I said that already. What is it all?"<br /><br />"Nothing special. Look around you - : that man, that woman, they, all of them, carry some package small or large around with them . . . everyone has one. They have a spiritual hump of which they're ashamed. No matter how naked someone undresses before you - : they won't show you that. Sometimes not even themselves. It's nothing special."<br /><br />"It's nothing special - ? I have nothing to fear - ?"<br /><br />"It's nothing special. You have nothing to fear. Unless -"<br /><br />"- ?"<br /><br />"Unless you stand before a court of law. Unless some heavy suspicion falls upon you because of some deed that you deny. Then . . ."<br /><br />"- ?"<br /><br />"Then . . . all these facts you told me become something different. Then they are no longer the anomalies that every judge, every prosecuting attorney, every juror, every foreman could feel as a seed in themselves, if they would only be honest. Then, my friend, it's an entirely different matter."<br /><br />"What . . . what is it then -? If they all have it?"<br /><br />"Things like that don't exist in a courtroom. They all play a life that they don't have; a morality they don't possess; a purity of which no man is capable. Children in their Sunday best suddenly can't comprehend that specks of dirt exist in the world. Then all of a sudden these little characteristics become something new -"<br /><br />"And what - ?"<br /><br />"Evidence, Mr. Wrobel."<br /><br /><a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisrobot/61038630'><img border='0' class='phostImg' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/211/1476/320/austin_texas_by_tony_murphy.jpg'></a><br /><br />"- and that is why their verdict can only be: The accused is sentenced to death."<br /><br />-----------------<br /><br />Many thanks to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisrobot/61038630"><strong>Tony Murphy</strong></a> for kind permission to use his photo of the Texas state capital building in Austin. You may view his entire gallery <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisrobot"><strong>here</strong></a>. Thankful acknowledgement goes also to Alice of <a href="http://livingwellornot.blogspot.com"><strong>Wonderland or Not</strong></a>, for helping to locate the accompanying photo.<br /><br />The original text may be read at the German language Kurt Tucholsky blog: <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de/index.php?p=200"><strong>www.sudelblog.de</strong></a>. <br /><br />Note: The final line, about the verdict, was added by Kurt Tucholsky for publication in "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles," where it was matched with photographs of Oberstaatsanwalt Mueller and Minister Hustaedt who were responsible for the death sentence in the Jakubowski trial. A questionable trial built on extremely shaky evidence, in which an apparently innocent man was put to death. The German original runs: "- und darum kann ihr Wahrspruch nur sein: Der Angeklagte wird zum Tode verurteilt." Thanks to Friedhelm Greis of the Tucholsky Webblog for this background. A good article in German about the Jakubowski trial by Erich Shairer may be read <a href="http://www.erich-schairer.de/maa/kap040g.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Notes about the translation: I gave a lot of thought to the next to last line of this text which I translated as "Evidence, Mr. Wrobel." The original runs "Indizien, Herr Wrobel" and may not be all that translatable into English. It's short for Indizienbeweise, roughly the same as "circumstantial evidence." But there are several types of evidence, including direct, circumstantial and character evidence. The latter best describes the evidence in the preamble, I think. The official English translation chose "suspicious circumstances," which I think isn't as startling as "Indizien" in German. These things are suspicious from the start, they don't suddenly become suspicious. Another, more literal translation, might run "Indications, Mr. Wrobel, of guilt." Doug of <a href="http://bitterbierce.blogspot.com">Waking Ambrose</a> suggested in an e-mail, that perhaps "circumstantial" by itself might work. In any case, I think the word has to be concise and it has to startle. If the phrase is too long, it misfires. (As Mark Twain said: The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.) I think "evidence" does it best, at least the best in recreating what I felt when I read the German original. What does everyone else think?Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1139230178412205042006-02-06T04:35:00.000-08:002006-03-15T02:02:53.356-08:00Die freie WirtschaftThe Free Economy (1930)<br />By Kurt Tucholsky<br /><br />Abolish those cursed tariffs<br />Trust your company director.<br />Walk out of the arbitration committees.<br />Leave everything else to your boss.<br />No more union talking their way in,<br />we want to be free economists! <br />"Away with groups" - on our banner!<br />Now, not you. <br />But us.<br /><br />You don't need rest homes for your lungs,<br />no retirement and no insurances.<br />You should all be ashamed of yourselves,<br />taking money from the penniless State! <br />You should no longer stand together.<br />Would you please disperse yourselves! <br />No cartels in our territory!<br />Not you. <br />But us.<br /><br />We're building into the farthest future<br />trusts, cartels, associations, concerns.<br />We stand next to the furnace flames<br />in syndicated groups. <br />We dictate the prices and the contracts -<br />no law will get in our way.<br />We stand here well organized...<br />Not you. <br />But us.<br /><br />What you're doing is Marxism. Down with it!<br />We're assuming the power, step by step.<br />No one's disturbing us. Complacently<br />the ruling socialists stand by and watch.<br />We want you individually. To arms!<br />That's the newest economic theory!<br />The demand has not been made<br />that a German professor couldn't justify.<br />Working for our ideas in the factories <br />are officers of the old army,<br />the Steel Helmets, the Hitler garde ...<br />You, in cellars and attics,<br />Don't you see what they're doing with you?<br />With whose sweat the profit is gained?<br />No matter what might come.<br />The day will arrive,<br />when the crusading worker calls:<br />"Not you. <br />But us. Us. Us."<br /><br />-------<br /><br />This originally appeared in "Die Weltbuehne" March 4th, 1930, page 351. The German original may be read at the <a href="http://www.sudelblog.de/?p=179">Kurt Tucholsky Webblog</a>. Interestingly, this poem - as reported by the linked source - has surfaced quite often on German Websites, Weblogs, and in the press, but with omission of the fourth stanza.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1138104842149486212006-01-24T04:09:00.000-08:002006-02-14T08:54:28.920-08:00An das PublikumTo the Public (1931)<br />by Kurt Tucholsky<br /><br />Dear, dear public, <br />tell me: Are you really as dumb,<br />as we hear every day<br />from all the businessmen?<br />Directors on their fat behinds<br />say: "It's what the public wants!"<br />The men in film: "What can I do? <br />The public wants these saccharine things!"<br />Publishers shrug their shoulders and say:<br />"Good books don't sell!"<br />Tell me, dear public:<br />Are you really that dumb?<br /><br />So dumb, the newspapers, morning and late,<br />hold less and less to read?<br />Anxious someone might be offended;<br />In fear, no one must be incited;<br />Apprehensive that Müller and Cohn<br />might threaten with cancellation? <br />Nervous that finally<br />some organization will come<br />and protest and denounce<br />and demonstrate and litigate... <br />Tell me, dear public:<br />Are you really that dumb?<br /><br />Well then...<br />On our time weighs<br />the curse of mediocrity.<br />Have you such a weak stomache?<br />Truth disagrees with you?<br />You'll only eat mush?<br />Well, then...<br />Well, you deserve what you get.<br /><br /><a href="http://kirwani.blogspot.com">David's</a> rendering will follow in a few days. The German original may be read <a href="http://www.yolanthe.de/lyrik/tucho02.htm">here</a>.<br /><br />Postscript: I located a quote by Tucholsky online which apparently originates from the first lines of the third stanza, translated somewhat differently: "The burden of our times is the curse of mediocrity." My translation is more literal, in that the original uses a verb (lastet), which was converted here to a noun. Possibly though, burden is a stronger word than weigh. Interesting to see how other people tackle the same text.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1136922507620370642006-01-10T11:48:00.000-08:002006-01-24T04:16:12.233-08:00Wie dumm die warenHow dumb they were -! (1929)<br />by Kurt Tucholsky<br><br /><a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/211/1476/1024/coach.jpg'><img border='0' class='phostImg' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/211/1476/320/coach.jpg'></a><br />In golden coaches like these they rode around; just like in fairy tales. Everyone could see right away who was king of the land - everyone was supposed to see. Today it's completely different.<br /><br />The most powerful man sits in the rear seat of his large automobile, and no one sees him. The automobile is especially elegant, a good make; on its dark door are a few small letters, that is all. The man who sits inside might control the petroleum demand of half the world, but he doesn't have a golden coach. The man who sits inside can start a war and, if business necessitates, peace - but he hasn't decorated his car with peacock feathers. He owns half your country, and you don't see it; you don't even know it. True power is anonymous. When they're out there throwing stones and ready to string up some small evildoer on the lantern post, the man in the car smiles. He knows better. Only a few know him. If he's very clever, the newspapers won't even know his name.<br /><br />That's why it was easier back then with revolutions: the symbols were so wonderfully convenient. An emperor's palace; the Bastille; golden coaches - please, help yourself. Today...?<br />----<br /><br /><a href="http://kirwani.blogspot.com">David's</a> verse rendering will follow in a few days.<br /><br /><br /><small>German original:<br />In solch goldenen Kutschen sind sie nun gefahren: wie im Märchen. Jeder hat gleich sehen können, wer da König im Lande gewesen ist - jeder hat es sehen sollen.<br />Heute ist das ganz anders.<br />Der Mächtigste sitzt im Fond seines großen Wagens, und niemand sieht ihn. Der Wagen ist besonders elegant, eine gute Marke; auf der dunklen Tür stehn ein paar kleine Buchstaben, das ist alles. Der drin sitzt, kontrolliert vielleicht den Petroleumbedarf der halben Welt, aber eine goldene Kutsche hat er nicht. Der drin sitzt, kann Krieg machen und, wenn es das Geschäft so mit sich bringt, Frieden - aber Straußenfedern hat er sich nicht auf den Wagen gesteckt. Er besitzt dein halbes Land, und du siehst es nicht; du weißt es gar nicht. Wahre Macht ist anonym. Wenn sie draußen Steine werfen und irgendwelchen kleinen Übeltäter an die Laterne haben wollen, dann lächelt der drin im Wagen. Er weiß es besser. Ihn kennen nur wenige. Wenn er sehr klug ist, kennen die Zeitungen nicht einmal seinen Namen.<br />Daher man es denn früher mit den Revolutionen einfacher hatte: die Symbole waren so schön bequem. Ein Kaiserschloß; die Bastille; goldene Kutschen — bitte nur zugreifen. Heute...?<br /><br />"Wie dumm die waren -!" in "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" (1929)</small>Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1136468301453470692006-01-06T01:00:00.000-08:002006-01-06T07:49:58.876-08:00Augen in der GrossstadtEyes in the Big City (1930)<br />by Kurt Tucholsky<br /><br />When you go to work <br />early in the morning <br />when you stand in the station <br />with all your troubles: <br />the city shows you <br />asphalt-smooth<br />in a funnel of people <br />a million faces: <br />Two strange eyes, a quick glance, <br />the brows, the pupils, the lids - <br />What was that? Your happiness, perhaps... <br />gone, passed, no more. <br /><br />All your life you walk<br />on a thousand streets; <br />you see on your way, <br />those who forgot you. <br />An eye winks, <br />the soul rings; <br />you found it, <br />only seconds long... <br />Two strange eyes, a quick glance, <br />the brows, the pupils, the lids - <br />What was that? No one turns back the time... <br />gone, passed, no more. <br /><br />You're obliged on your way <br />to wander through cities; <br />you see for a pulsebeat <br />the unknown other. <br />It could be a fiend, <br />it could be a friend, <br />or could in the struggle <br />offer a hand. <br />A looking over <br />then passing by... <br />Two strange eyes, a quick glance, <br />the brows, the pupils, the lids - <br />What was that? A piece of grand humanity! <br />Gone, passed, no more.<br /><br />David Raphael Israel's rendering of the poem is <a href="http://kirwani.blogspot.com/2006/01/eyes-in-big-city-translation.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />The German original is <a href="http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/tucholsk/gedichte/augen.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1136453017121035782006-01-05T01:20:00.000-08:002006-01-06T01:51:21.566-08:00Das Laecheln der Mona LisaTwo significant events occurred in December 2005:<br />1) Scientists discovered <a href="http://kirwani.blogspot.com/2005/12/mona-lisas-ghazal.html" target="_blank">why</a> the Mona Lisa is smiling.<br />2) The copyright on the German author Kurt Tucholsky expired.<br /><br />What's the connection? Tucholsky had a poem about Mona Lisa, which I've attempted to translate, with little regard or feeling for poetic form, I'm afraid. But I thought I'd present it here:<br /><br />The Smile of Mona Lisa (1928)<br />Kurt Tucholsky (1890 – 1935)<br /><br />I can't turn my eyes from you <br />the way you hang over your guardian<br />with softly folded hands,<br />and grin.<br /><br />As famous as the Tower of Pisa<br />your smile stands for irony.<br />Yes... why is the Mona Lisa smiling?<br />Is she laughing at us, about us, despite us, with us<br />against us -<br />or some other why? <br /><br />You silently teach us what must be<br />because your image, Lisa, proves:<br />one who has seen much of this world<br />smiles, lays the hands on the abdomen<br />and is silent.<br /><br />Tucholsky was a brilliant and prescient satirist of the Weimar Republic era in Germany who saw exactly where the country was going politically and warned against it. He was so on target, to me it's as if he could actually see the future. I'm not the first person to call his work visionary. I intend to translate some of his shorter pieces sometime soon, just to show how accurate they still are.<br /><br />I originally translated this to send it to David Raphael Israel as it related to his delightful lyric on Mona Lisa. He took my translation and made a <a href="http://kirwani.blogspot.com/2006/01/smile-of-mona-lisa-translation.html" target="_blank">real poem</a> out of it, worthy of the original! We intend to do more of these in the future.<br /><br />The German original is <a href="http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/tucholsk/anderswo/monalisa.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515347.post-1136841069507407082006-01-04T11:39:00.000-08:002006-01-11T05:11:51.433-08:00Introduction and PurposeThis blog has the goal of sharing some of the shorter works of Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935), a German author, satirist, poet, song-writer, journalist, with an English speaking audience. There's no sense in my repeating the excellent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Tucholsky">Wikipedia article</a> on Tucholsky, so I will concentrate instead on why I want to do this.<br /><br />I came to Germany in 1987 at the age of 24. At that time I spoke no German, but was faced with the task of learning the laguage from scratch. In doing this I sought out the authors and works that most people have probably heard of outside of Germany, including of course Hermann Hesse's "Steppenwolf" and "Demian," Friedrich Nietzsche's "Also sprach Zarathustra," Goethe's "Faust," Berthold Brecht, etc. I also began reading selections from the works of the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, whom I had remembered from my student years. Later as I became more deeply immersed in the German language I explored the names and works that aren't heard of outside of the German-speaking world, works that were even relatively unknown in modern day Germany. I found that the literature I enjoyed best in German had been written during the 1920's and early 1930's before the Nazis destroyed the rich culture that had blossomed in the language they spoke. The cultural scene in Germany has never quite recovered.<br /><br />But it wasn't until 1998 that I read anything by Kurt Tucholsky. His name had always been familiar to me - one hears it occasionally - but on my own I had never read anything. While studying for my German masters I met a fellow student, from Italy, who spoke the highest praise for this author, and recommended a selection of his best works ("Zwischen Gestern und Morgen"). I've been using the receipt as a bookmark, and the date on that is November 5th, 1998. So that's when I first read Tucholsky.<br /><br />A few years later I found the remarkable book "Deutschland, deutschland über alles" (1929). This book was out of print at the time, a sad fate that befalls many of the best German authors who had been verboten and burned during the Nazi era. This was a volume containing a mixture of texts by Kurt Tucholsky and photo montages by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Heartfield">John Heartfield</a>. The work attempted and - I believe - succeeded in capturing the zeitgeist of that time. It was Tucholsky's shot at point blank range in the face of the fascism developing in his country. The points he made are crystal clear, and so compellingly delivered, and so accurate in terms of what actually came to pass, he must have been a prophet. I read these pieces and ask myself, "How could he have known? How could he anticipate all the post-Nazi literature and analyses handling the themes from a historical perspective." Tucholsky despaired that his warnings had gone unheeded, stopped writing and eventually took his own life in Sweden (1935), where he had lived since the 1920's.<br /><br />Occasionally I have translated works by authors I've enjoyed, 1) to share them with friends who did not speak German, and 2) to gain a deeper appreciation of the work's nuances. When one reads a text for enjoyment, especially in a foreign language, one tends to skip over words one doesn't understand, skim passages, allow the context to help one through the denser sections. When one translates a text, and does an honest job of it, one is forced to face it word for word and understand it, really understand it. I speak German fairly fluently and will do my best to apply that knowledge, and my command of English, to the task of showing how relevant Tucholsky's works are for our modern times.<br /><br />This project came into being rather spontaneously, by my sending a quick translation of Tucholsky's lyric about Mona Lisa to the poet <a href="http://kirwani.blogspot.com">David Raphael Israel</a>, whose own poem about Mona Lisa had entertained me some weeks before. My translations of the poetry will not be the work of a poet. I am not a poet, nor do I understand much about poetry. It will be interesting to see how David will render these poems into English based on my literal translations, and a study of the original. So that's what we decided to do. We plan to document this process along the way, so that any insights we gain may be shared with everyone.Indeterminacyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11112417911577798263noreply@blogger.com2