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Sunday, September 10, 2006
Schnörkelsinne! (Gesundheit!)
I have decided to translate “so umständlich, ehrwürdig und mit einem solchen Aufwande von deutschem Tief- und Schnörkelsinne...” as “so circuitously, venerably, with such display of German profundity and curlicuity...” Because so far as I can tell ‘Schnörkelsinne’ is not a word, albeit a hilarious one. And the same goes for ‘curlicuity’. (You get that echo of ‘acuity’ in there. ‘Tiefsinne’ is profundity - i.e. having a sense for depths. So ‘Schnörkelsinne’ is Schnörkelsensitivity - i.e. having a sense for scrollwork.) Any objections?
It’s from Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, §11. And, indeed, Schnörkelsinne seems to fit the bill. What is being characterized is Kant’s manner of composing his twelvefold table of the categories.
Comments
Sounds good to me.
‘Schnörkelsinne’ is ‘Schnörkelsensitivity’, but I don’t think Nietzsche meant it as a compliment (To explain it simply as “having a sense for scrollwork” seems too neutral for me).
Cheers,
Oliver
How do you feel about “a German sense for depths and curlicues”? It depends on how much of the joke comes from making up words and how much from the contrast between ‘Tief’ and ‘Schnoerkel,” I guess.
Yes, clearly we have to maintain a mocking tone here.
Oops, Mike J’s comment showed up in the meantime.
‘A German sense for depths and curlicues’ is good, and possibly superior to my sillier option. (Although mine does manage to preserve the parallelism of N.’s construction.) I think Kaufman translates it somewhat like you suggest - just plain curliques, no extra volute of ‘ity’. What I am really wondering is whether ‘Schnörkelsinne’ strikes native Germans as a silly, made-up word, like ‘curlicuity’. For all I know it has some very minor life like ‘dress sense’. That is, maybe interior designers are occasionally described in the pages of magazines as having good ‘Schnörkelsinne’. I guess I’ve got to find a German.
John,
as a native speaker of German, I think it is not a silly word, but one that clearly shows Nietzsche’s contempt (through a somewhat mocking description)of Kant’s method.
BTW, google finds “Schnörkelsinne” only in this particular text of Nietzsche and there are no hits for “Schnörkelsinn” at all, nor have I ever heard or read the word before.
Thanks, Oliver, that’s interesting. So it’s a neologism, but not - to a German ear - a silly one. Maybe Mike J’s suggestion is soundest, then. Or maybe it’s a toss-up. In case you’ve got nothing better to do that teach me German, I’ve got a post up at Crooked Timber containing more attempted Nietzsche translations.
As Kaufman’s bitchy footnotes attest, his translation of Nietzsche is the best possible. You would do well simply to transcribe his translations.
Interesting, but what is more interesting about FN’s somewhat bitchy comments regarding Kant (in BGAE and elsewhere) is how much he leaves out: there are few real engagements with the text or the arguments ( a philosopher in “the grand tradition” such as Nietzsche doesn’t bother himself with such humdrum tasks as refuting the synthetic a priori) ; there are, as with this example, complaints about method, or suggestions Kant was weak or Xtian. etc. It’s unlikely Herr Doktor Fritz (or his postmod descendents) possessed the metaphysical chops (not to say logical) to deal with the central issues (and yes, mistakes) of the 1st critique.
You’d think that no human being could hear “Schnörkelsinne” without laughing, but remember, Germans use the words “Handschuh” and “Fingerhut” as if they were perfectly ordinary.
Hello John,
would be glad to help you with your translations. It might be easier though if you’d send me an email with some passages (easier than reading blog postings and loads of comments).
Bud Bowl: Team Nietzsche (FN) vs. Team Kant (IK)
FN : fairly easy metaphysics (will to power, egoistic naturalism)
IK: fairly difficult metaphysics (synthetic a priori, transcendental idealism)
FN: generally opposed to science and “instrumentalism”
IK: attempting to preserve the objectivity of knowledge, including science
FN: hedonistic and machiavellian in terms of ethics : Be strong and do what you want
IK: self-sacrificing, moralistic. peacenik: consider each potential act as a maxim binding on all
FN: atheist
IK: xtian
Team FN 4; Team IK , 0. Time to par-tay! Frat boy’s gotta love Coach Nietzsche