Cambridge, Massachusetts. The translation of Rudolf Steiner’s texts from German into other languages plays a crucial role in the global networking of the anthroposophical movement and in its research. Thoughts by Henry Holland, translator and co-organizer of the “100 Years of Rudolf Steiner” conference at Harvard University.
Ever since the first consecutive lecture translations in London in 1902, translations of Steiner’s writings and lectures into scores of languages have been indispensable in spreading what was originally a tiny movement to all corners of the Earth. The conference at Harvard could never have had the appeal it is having without these translations. Around 100 individuals have submitted papers, from a spectrum of linguistic, national, and class backgrounds, including people of color wanting to speak on the racism question. Most of these individuals don’t read German. The UNESCO’s Index Translationum, “the first census of translated works in the world,” reveals that for the 1979-2009 period during which anthroposophy continued to reach new groups globally, Steiner was the third most translated German-language author, behind only Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, and, surprisingly, ahead of Freud, Nietzsche, and Marx. An influential Germanophone scholar has recently belittled the overall quality of the English translations, prompting his preposterous conclusion that serious “anthroposophy research” must be reserved for those who read German. Yet what are biodynamic farmers in Peru—some of whom have expressed strong interest in the Harvard Conference—doing through their daily work, other than conducting significant research into anthroposophical principles? Rather than casting blanket aspersions on the heterogeneous translations to date, commentators should look at protagonists intervening now on translation quality. Thomas O’Keefe, lead translator and editor at Chadwick Library Press, deserves attention for the “new and thoroughly revised translations” he’s directed. The major new English biography of Steiner, which Aaron French and I are currently writing, also foregrounds new translations of excerpts from Steiner, coming from our critical encounter with this captivating figure in cultural and intellectual history, about whom ignorance and clichéd polemic continue to abound.
More Program for the Evolution of Spirituality
Image Harvard shield, Xiangkun Zhu
