Kierkegaard: M.G. Piety on Translating the Philosopher People Should Love to Read

Per Contra Fall 2007 features an essay by M.G. Piety that elaborates on Søren Kierkegaard, and covers translation. As Piety describes in the beginning of her essay, Kierkegaard is "supremely readable." The good news for us is that the same could be said for Piety's essay:

"Søren Kierkegaard is one of the few philosophers often found on the shelves of shopping mall bookstores. Why is Kierkegaard so popular? The answer is not simply that he addresses perennial human questions, like the meaning of life, the nature of ethical and religious truth, and the debilitating nature of guilt. The answer is that he does this in a supremely readable manner. He is one of the great Danish prose stylists. He deals with serious issues, but often with humor and sometimes with devastating sarcasm. His style is closer to Mark Twain’s or H.L. Menken’s than to Heidegger’s, with whom he is often compared.

Kierkegaard loved language, particularly the Danish language. He petitioned to be allowed to submit his dissertation in Danish rather than the then requisite Latin, and, although many of his Danish contemporaries sometimes wrote in French or German to insure their works a wider audience, Kierkegaard insisted on writing exclusively in Danish. He particularly despised neologisms and the pedantic obscurity of academic writing. One should not, he cautioned, “get out of touch with everyday speech and usage. . . as sometimes happens to a scholar. . . with the result that he continually collides with the everyday and, without really being aware of it, offends against the genius of the language and the legitimate shareholders in the common property of the language.”

So how does someone who reveres the everyday usage of language end up sounding so awkward and wooden as Kierkegaard does in most English translations? The fault is not Kierkegaard’s–it’s the translators’. The problem, for the most part, has not been a failure of the translators to appreciate the substance of his works, but a misguided commitment to fidelity to the language of the original texts...." - Read the complete essay.

You can find other essays at Per Contra Non-Fiction Fall 2007.