Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy

Abstract

The Seventy have bequeathed us a translation of gala. It is called the Apocalypse. In Greek, apokalupsis wou ld translate words derived f rom the Hebrew verb gala. I am referring here, w i thou t drawing any author i ty f rom them, to some indications of Andre Chouraqui to wh ich I shall return. But I must forewarn you even now: the (hi)stories or enigmas of translation I hear spoken of, that I intend to speak about , and in wh ich I shall get myself entangled for reasons more serious than my incompetence, they are, I believe, w i thou t solut ion or exit. That wil l be my theme. More than a theme, a task (Aufgabe des Ubersetzers, Benjamin's just assignation) I shall not discharge. The other day Jean Ricardou asked me, w e were talking then about translation, to say a little more about wha t I had sketched out on a grace given beyond work , thanks to [grace au] wo rk , but w i t hou t it. I was talking then of a gift g iven (il y a, es gibt), but above all given there w i thou t having, in the final account, to merit it in responsibil i ty. We must translate and we must not translate. I am th ink ing of the double bind of Y H W H w h e n , w i th the name of his choice, w i th his name one could say. Babel, he gives to translate and not to translate. A n d no one, forever, since then, eludes the double postulat ion. Wel l , to Jean Ricardou I shall reply as fo l lows and do so in the fo rm of an elliptical thanks for wha t I am given here, given to think or simply

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