Something does, on occasion, fall from a torch. A bit of pitch.
Karl Kraus (F 279-280: 5)

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post № 10

15 January 2015

 

New translation: The cross of honor

The cross of honor” (1909) is a translation of “Das Ehrenkreuz” (F 272-273: 2-5) and is, to the best of my knowledge, the third English translation of this essay. Harry Zohn, one of the forerunners in Kraus translation, translated this essay and included it in his anthology In These Great Times: A Karl Kraus Reader. Frederick Ungar, another forerunner in Kraus translation, also translated this essay and included it in his anthology No Compromise: Selected Writings of Karl Kraus.

 

Why, then, does the world need another translation of this essay? The answer is two-fold and probably unsatisfactory. On one hand, there is the subjective reason that both Zohn and Ungar have not handled certain stylistic issues very well. Their Kraus is just not the Kraus I know and love. On the other, there is the objective reason that both Zohn and Ungar have each translated this essay not only with at least one inconsequential omission for reasons that are simply indiscernible to me, but also with certain mistakes that are simply uncharacteristic of their work in general. A translation rectifying these issues seems justified. And I have attempted to provide that translation.

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