Attunement and translation

Frank Schalow

pp. 291-311

in: Frank Schalow (ed), Heidegger, translation, and the task of thinking, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

This paper addresses this question of how hermeneutic directives govern the task of translating the key terms of Heidegger's thinking. These directives are never reducible to the standards of semantical equivalency supported by a dictionary; instead, they issue from the hidden wellspring of what is unspoken and unsaid, whose manner of attunement brings thinking into its reciprocity with being and permits its disclosure in the most "elemental words." A "hermeneutically sound" translation, then, renounces the presumption of absolute transfer of Heidegger's key words, taking its orientation instead from the attuned response and comportment toward the disclosing power of language. In a way that harks back to Heidegger's essay at the inception of this volume, it is seen that the venture of translating, like thinking, must first descend into the "poverty" of language in order to experience the "wealth" of its power to let being become manifest.

Cited authors

Heidegger Martin