Dr. Luther and his asses
Excerpt from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Translated from: Sendbrief von Dolmetschen by Gary Mann
Nuremberg Sept. 15, 1530.
To the Honourable and Worthy N., my favourite lord and friend.
Grace and peace in Christ, honourable, worthy and dear Lord and friend. I received your writing with the two questions or queries requesting my response. […] You also tell me that the Papists are causing a great fuss because St. Paul’s text does not contain the word sola (alone), and that my changing of the words of God is not to be tolerated. […]
On the first hand, if I, Dr. Luther, had thought that all the Papists together were capable of translating even one passage of Scripture correctly and well, I would have gathered up enough humility to ask for their aid and assistance in translating the New Testament into German. However, I spared them and myself the trouble, as I knew and still see with my own eyes that not one of them knows how to speak or translate German.
It is obvious, however, that they are learning to speak and write German from my translations. Thus, they are stealing my language from me – a language they had little knowledge of before this. However, they do not thank me for this but instead use it against me. Yet I readily grant them this as it tickles me to know that I have taught my ungrateful students, even my enemies, to speak.
Secondly, you might say that I have conscientiously translated the New Testament into German to the best of my ability, and that I have not forced anyone to read it. […] I will not allow the papists to judge for their ears continue to be too long and their hee-haws too weak for them to be critical of my translating. I know quite well how much skill, hard work, understanding and intelligence is needed for a good translation. They know it less than even the miller’s donkey for they have never tried it.
[…] It was also like this for St. Jerome when he translated the Bible. Everyone was his master. He alone was entirely incompetent as people, who were not good enough to clean his boots, judged his works. This is why it takes a great deal of patience to do good things in public for the world believes itself to be the Master of Knowledge, always putting the bit under the horse’s tail, and not judging itself for that is the world’s nature. It can do nothing else. […]
We have seen that bungler from Dresden play master to my New Testament. (I will not mention his name in my books as he has his judge and is already well- known). He does admit that my German is good and sweet and that he could not improve it. Yet, anxious to dishonour it, he took my New Testament word for word as it was written, and removed my prefaces and glosses, replacing them with his own. Then he published my New Testament under his name!
Dear Children, how it pained me when his prince in a detestable preface condemned my work and forbid all from reading Luther’s New Testament, while at the same time commending the Bungler’s New Testament to be read – even though it was the very same one Luther had written! […]
What type of virtue is this that slanders and heaps shame on someone else’s work, and then steals it, and publishes it under one’s own name, thereby seeking glory and esteem through the slandered work of someone else! I leave that for his judge to say. I am glad and satisfied that my work (as St. Paul also boasts ) is furthered by my enemies, and that Luther’s work, without Luther’s name but that of his enemy, is to be read. What better vengeance?! […]
We do not have to ask about the literal Latin or how we are to speak German – as these asses do. Rather we must ask the mother in the home, the children on the street, the common person in the market about this. We must be guided by their tongue, the manner of their speech, and do our translating accordingly. Then they will understand it and recognize that we are speaking German to them. […]
Why should I talk about translating so much? I would need an entire year were I to point out the reasons and concerns behind my words. I have learned what an art and job translating is by experience, so I will not tolerate some papal ass or mule as my critic, or judge. They have not tried the task.
If anyone does not like my translations, they can ignore it; and may the devil repay the one who dislikes or criticizes my translations without my knowledge or permission. Should it be criticized, I will do it myself. If I do not do it, then they can leave my translations in peace. They can each do a translation that suits them – what do I care? […]
Testify!
· · • · ·
Comment
- oh, dear me! that is brilliantly funny. thank you for this pre-easter delight.
— michelle Apr 8, 12:10pm # - Translating is an art. My fave joke on translation goes: A translation computer is finally built and a great launch party is underway. Some Chinese guests approach the glowing-with-pride engineers who have developed this landmark technology and ask for a demo. But of course. So the marketing team thinks and thinks to come up with a great example. Aha! “Out of sight, out of mind”. Perfect. They load it into the wondrous machine. Bells ring and out pops the translation. The Chinese read it and murmur appreciatively. They ask if the machine can do it in reverse. But of course. The Chinese plug in the same text to the clever computer and out pops, “Blind and stupid.”
— bluepoppy Apr 9, 1:49pm # - It is a true pleasure to witness a man of God mock folly without any sense of unease. Forget all the pietistic bullshit—just go for the throat, but fight the battle on the ground you choose, not theirs. I like that. Satire, mocking, godly taunting are weapons that have gone dull in our PC, meta-tolerant, wonky times. Luther demonstrates us how the sharpened blade of mockery may work to expose the Emperor in his nakedness when wielded with balance and ferocity. And if they are offended, mission accomplished. We must, when we recognize folly, seek to offend—as so few tend to do in these indecisive times. This is why we have no real politicians, why our revolutionary thinkers are fragmented into many and various issues each clawing for their piece of the pie. We need to bark our ridicule at the idols of our time (we may disagree on what the idols are, but still we should be fearless in our condemnation—you will find people you can stand with soon enough) remove the faux-tolerant blinders and get the grindstone to spinning so we can sharpen up our taunting and satirical wit. The politicians (even the best of them) have not defined the issues yet. WE need to define them for ourselves. We need to send the pigs out to pasture, grab a shotgun to keep the dogs at bay, and push over a few rotting carcesses so we can really get to work and create the world we want. Isn’t that the kind of battle that Luther was engaged in? the battle to bring the power to the people, to let them think and interpret for themselves. This is a struggle that needs to be resurrected. We need to take back the power of words.
— QHLTH60 Apr 11, 3:19am # - Very interesting debate on translating – though I must mention that Luther’s addition of “sola” (alone) is not merely a point of contention for those few scholars who like to bandy words (present in every century), without much relevance to the wider social and political sphere. Luther’s vehemence against the ‘Papists’ here is intended to obscure the fact that Luther was waging a very real political-religious rebellion around the doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone’ (thus no papal decree could save you) – so very convenient then when his translations added ‘alone’ to the biblical text.
It was a major political act to do this addition, for his own vision of the Church and his own power struggles. ‘Power to the people’ it may seem, but in reality this defense is not one.
In terms of the ethics of translation, this example is certainly a candidate for ‘great moments in translating history.’ Ah, the Reformation!
— minerva Apr 15, 11:39am # - German requires the addition of the word “alone” to say what the Greek original states without a separate word, just as in English the phrase “my wife” rather clearly implies that the speaker is not a polygamist but in Arabic one might have to use a number.
— profkovo May 2, 8:44am #
commenting closed for this article