From: Schaberg <Schaberg-AT-aol.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 19:50:16 EDT
Subject: Re: Nietzsche In Turin


In a message dated 98-04-10 16:47:23 EDT, you write:

>A new book came out called "Nietzsche in Turin", by Leslie Chamberlain (a
>Brit).  Did anyone else read it?  I think it is strange that she refers to
>"The Gay Science" as "The Science of Joy".  

Quite frankly, I found this translation delightful and was immediatly ready to
adopt it.

Somehow "The Gay Science" doesn't communicate the whimsical flavor of the
original German: "Die froehliche Wissenschaft". "Froehliche" means something
like merry, gay and cheerful although none of these words capture the full
meaning of the original German. "Wissenschaft" is even more problematic. No
single English word encompasses the ideas of science, knowledge, scholarship
and intelligence -- all of which are contained in the German. The orginal
English translation of the title by M. A. Mugge was "The Gay Science" but it
was soon contested by Thomas Common who called his translation of the book
"The Joyful Wisdom". Other proposals have included "The Cheerful Wisdom", "The
Joyful Science" and "The Joyous Science". 

On this board -- about a year and a half ago -- the subject was brought up by
a very perceptive gentleman (whose name now escapes me) who noted that in the
1887 "second issue" of the book (which included a new preface, the new fifth
chapter "We Fearless Ones" and 14 pages of poetry), Nietzsche changed the
title page to read: "Die froehliche Wissenschaft ('la gaya scienza')" --
adding a clarification with the parenthetical addition of the French Provencal
phrase. [Obviously, he felt that people hadn't "gotten it".] The gentleman
making this observation noted that since this was the true full title of the
book that the title should therefore be translated as: "The Joyful Wisdom (the
gay science)" -- which rather neatly sidesteps the problems noted above. 

That is all well and good but I really do like Chamberlain's translation. "The
Science of Joy" puts a whole new spin on the English title by not slavishly
following the German word order and syntax and thereby captures much more of
the flavor and meaning of the original German. I like it a lot -- it made me
rethink what Nietzsche was trying to communicate by chosing the original title
and then expanding it by using two different titles in his 1887 edition.

I hope they adopt "The Science of Joy" for the upcoming new "Complete Works"
translation being done by Stanford University.

William H. Schaberg
Author of "The Nietzsche Canon: A Publication History and Bibliography
(University of Chicago Press, 1995)


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