62 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
62 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
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Translator's Preface
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TO THE ENGLISH EDITIONS OF 'THE EGO AND HIS OWN', MAX STIRNER
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If the style of this book is found unattractive, it will show that I
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have done my work ill and not represented the author truly; but, if it
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is found odd, I beg that I may not bear all the blame. I have simply
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tried to reproduce the author's own mixture of colloquialisms and
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technicalities, and his preference for the precise expression of his
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thought rather than the word conventionally expected.
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One especial feature of the style, however, gives the reason why this
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preface should exist. It is characteristic of Stirner's writing that the
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thread of thought is carried on largely by the repetition of the same
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word in a modified form or sense. That connection of ideas which has
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guided popular instinct in the formation of words is made to suggest the
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line of thought which the writer wishes to follow. If this echoing of
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words is missed, the bearing of the statements on each other is in a
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measure lost; and, where the ideas are very new, one cannot afford to
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throw away any help in following their connection.Therefore, where a
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useful echo (and then are few useless ones in the book) could not be
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reproduced in English, I have generally called attention to it in a
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note. My notes are distinguished from the author's by being enclosed in
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parentheses.
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One or two of such coincidences of language, occurring in words which
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are prominent throughout the book, should be borne constantly in mind as
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a sort of Keri perpetuum; for instance, the identity in the original of
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the words "spirit" and "mind," and of the phrases "supreme being" and
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"highest essence." In such cases I have repeated the note where it
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seemed that such repetition might be absolutely necessary, but have
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trusted the reader to carry it in his head where a failure of his memory
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would not be ruinous or likely.
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For the same reasonQthat is, in order not to miss any indication of
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the drift of the thought Q I have followed the original in the very
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liberal use of italics, and in the occasional eccentric use of a
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punctuation mark, as I might not have done in translating a work of a
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different nature.
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I have set my face as a flint against the temptation to add notes
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that were not part of the translation. There is no telling how much I
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might have enlarged the book if I had put a note at every sentence which
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deserved to have its truth brought out by fuller elucidation Q or even
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at every one which I thought needed correction. It might have been
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within my province, if I had been able, to explain all the allusions to
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contemporary events, but I doubt whether any one could do that properly
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without having access to the files of three or four well-chosen German
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newspapers of Stirner's time. The allusions are clear enough, without
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names and dates, to give a vivid picture of certain aspects of German
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life then. The tone of some of them is explained by the fact that the
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book was published under censorship.
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I have usually preferred, for the sake of the connection, to
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translate Biblical quotations somewhat as they stand in the German,
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rather than conform them altogether to the English Bible. I am sometimes
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quite as near the original Greek as if I had followed the current
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translation.
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Where German books are referred to, the pages cited are those of the
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German editions even when (usually because of some allusions in the
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text) the titles of the books are translated.
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STEVEN T. BYINGTON
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