Recent Heidegger translations and their German originals

a grassroots archival perspective

Theodore Kisiel

pp. 263-287

in: Continental Philosophy Review 38, 2005.

Abstract

This survey seeks to delineate the present situation and climate for translating Heidegger into English after the disastrous translation in 1999 of the Beiträge, Heidegger's second magnum opus after Sein und Zeit. The 13 translations that have appeared since then tend to handle Heidegger's neologisms in less ludicrous and more lucid ways and continue to find ways to bend the highly restrictive rules imposed on translations by Heidegger's literary executor. There are still errors of omission and commission in the German originals that carry over into the translations. A few of the English translators add to the errors of omission and commission but the majority tends to be competent and conscientious, generally producing good results. Yet even the best translators slack off in their production of the permitted glossaries, which are indispensable for demarcating Heidegger's terminology in the time period involved and provide the reader with a starting basis for an index, which is prohibited.

Cited authors

Heidegger Martin