Abstract

One of the common denominators linking the many different strands and schools of philosophy in the second half of the twentieth century is an appreciation of, and reflection on, difference and translation. Each translation is a unique challenge. It is difficult to translate one theory into the conceptual framework of another, or to translate one performative game or text from one language into another. Heidegger provides a striking example of some of the problems associated with translation. His extensive use of abstract nouns as subjects of sentences, his reference to idiomatic, or more or less archaic, words, his ability to unfold the meanings supposedly implicit in a word through the addition of various prefixes and suffixes, or, conversely, his penchant for tracing back different words to the same root, combined with his complicated, often somewhat convoluted, syntax and grammar, make it difficult to translate his texts. The wealth of possible connotations, associations, and references to other words and passages in his work and in everyday language simply cannot be preserved in any translation. In this paper, I will present an example of these problems in relation to four passages in the German texts and the English translations respectively. In the first section I will take my example from Being and Time, and in the second section from “The Question Concerning Technology” and “Building Dwelling Thinking.” In the third section this will be followed by a note on Heidegger’s notion of Gelassenheit which will draw together the preceding three passages. Thereafter, in the fourth section I will comment on some notions in “The Question Concerning Technology,” and in the fifth section I will discuss the passage from “The Question Concerning Technology” in the context of the entire essay. In these two sections, i.e. the fourth and the fifth, I will make a suggestion concerning the notorious question of “Heidegger and Auschwitz,” which in some sense is my only concern in the entire paper. Following this, in the sixth section I will address a passage in An Introduction to Metaphysics. In the seventh section, I will present a passage in the as yet untranslated lecture course on Hölderlin, given in the summer semester of 1942, and a short text of Heidegger’s, Der Feldweg, published in 1953, concluding with some summarizing remarks in the eighth and final section.