UPDATE:
Please don't miss below and in previous posts Vladimir D. Janković's wonderful suggestions and brilliant commentary:
Please don't miss below and in previous posts Vladimir D. Janković's wonderful suggestions and brilliant commentary:
Color codes:
Orange—please help me with your thoughts and ideas in the comment section
Red—I need even more help ;)
Blue—these are omissions in the English translation
Light Green—reviewed changes implemented :))
Green—changes supported by authoritative sources, i.e. Bible
[italics]—discarded English translations
Orange—please help me with your thoughts and ideas in the comment section
Red—I need even more help ;)
Blue—these are omissions in the English translation
Light Green—reviewed changes implemented :))
Green—changes supported by authoritative sources, i.e. Bible
[italics]—discarded English translations
Israel, luckily [by good fortune], had not been [wasn't] condemned to lifelong suffering. The prophets, the angry interpreters of the gods, had prophesied a better fate: Hear, O Israel, — they sayeth [said], — God, who bestowed upon [gave] you Amram's [his adopted] foundling Moses to deliver you from the enslaved body [to free you from captivity of the body], will give you his only-begotten son to deliver [free] you from sin, the yoke [bondage] of the soul. And he will not be one of those false saviors which all peoples have at all times. His kingdom will not be of this but of another [that] world, and in his hand[s] he will not hold a sword but an olive branch!
Izrailj, srećom, ne beše osuđen na doživotnu patnju. Proroci, gnevni tumači bogova, prorekoše mu bolju sudbinu: Čuj, Izrailju, — govorahu oni. — Bog ti je darovao Amramovo [Avramovo] posvojče Mojsija da te izbavi iz ropstva tela, daće ti i sina svog jedinorodnoga da te izbavi iz greha, jarma duše. I neće to biti jedan od prevarnih [prevarenih] spasitelja, koje imaju u svim vremenima svi narodi. Njegovo carstvo neće biti od ovog, nego od onog sveta, i u ruci neće držati mač, već grančicu maslinovu!
Israel, zum Glück, wurde nicht zum lebenslangen Leiden verurteilt. Die Propheten, die wütenden Dolmetscher der Götter, hatten ein besseres Schicksal prophezeit: Höre, Israel, — sagten sie. — Gott, der euch Amrams Findling Moses schenkte um euch vom versklavten Körper zu erlösen, wird euch seinen eingeborenen Sohn geben, um euch von der Sünde zu erlösen, das Joch der Seele. Und es wird nicht einer der betrügerischen Erlöser sein, die alle Völker zu allen Zeiten haben. Sein Reich wird nicht von dieser sondern von jener Welt sein, und in seiner Hand wird er nicht das Schwert, sondern einen Olivenzweig halten!
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Izrailj, srećom, ne beše osuđen na doživotnu patnju. Proroci, gnevni tumači bogova, prorekoše mu bolju sudbinu: Čuj, Izrailju, — govorahu oni. — Bog ti je darovao Amramovo [Avramovo] posvojče Mojsija da te izbavi iz ropstva tela, daće ti i sina svog jedinorodnoga da te izbavi iz greha, jarma duše. I neće to biti jedan od prevarnih [prevarenih] spasitelja, koje imaju u svim vremenima svi narodi. Njegovo carstvo neće biti od ovog, nego od onog sveta, i u ruci neće držati mač, već grančicu maslinovu!
Israel, zum Glück, wurde nicht zum lebenslangen Leiden verurteilt. Die Propheten, die wütenden Dolmetscher der Götter, hatten ein besseres Schicksal prophezeit: Höre, Israel, — sagten sie. — Gott, der euch Amrams Findling Moses schenkte um euch vom versklavten Körper zu erlösen, wird euch seinen eingeborenen Sohn geben, um euch von der Sünde zu erlösen, das Joch der Seele. Und es wird nicht einer der betrügerischen Erlöser sein, die alle Völker zu allen Zeiten haben. Sein Reich wird nicht von dieser sondern von jener Welt sein, und in seiner Hand wird er nicht das Schwert, sondern einen Olivenzweig halten!
Vladimir D. Janković:
Bestowed upon is great, I think.
* * *
This is what's written in the Serbian original: ...
da te izbavi iz ropstva tela, daće ti i sina svog jedinorodnoga da te izbavi iz greha, jarma duše.
BODY is what makes him a slave, BODY is his tyrant, and he is its slave who is about to be delivered (ropstvo tela, the slavery of the body).
* * *
da te izbavi iz ropstva tela, daće ti i sina svog jedinorodnoga da te izbavi iz greha, jarma duše.
BODY is what makes him a slave, BODY is his tyrant, and he is its slave who is about to be delivered (ropstvo tela, the slavery of the body).
Deliver, deliver – Pekić uses this verb twice, I don’t see why we should change it… So, this would be: … his only-begotten son to deliver you from sin, this yoke of the soul. Yes, I believe that this yoke is convenient, too.
False saviors – This option is not bad at all. There are some other possibilities – fraudulent or deceptive, for instance – but false seems better to me. If we have to opt for a different solution, deceptive is more convincing than fraudulent.
Pekic later in life regretted Vreme čuda... not the criticism on dogma, religious and any other, but the fact that some people misappropriated it as an atheist manifesto... because, as you will see, in his Vreme čuda, there really is no good news at all... but it decidedly was NOT EVER meant as an atheistic stance; like Voltaire, his criticism on religious dogma had never an anti-spiritual intent.
AntwortenLöschenOn the contrary, when he says in this video that Morality is the most important issue, and realizing that our conception of Morality is of course deeply rooted in the Judeo/Christian tradition and of course dogma, finding out what his definition of Spirituality would have been, takes centre stage; becomes the key to his entire life's work... And only after finding the near perfect definition of Spirituality according to Pekic, as if from the grave... did I venture out to tackle his first book, Vreme čuda!
If you are interested, read the brilliant definition of Spirituality as Intellectual Honesty from Prof. Thomas Metzinger. It was originally only a speech from 2010, but after many encouragements, including my own, he expanded it slightly into the current essay.
Pekic, as a great admirer of Nietzsche, has taken great umbrage at the notion of a dogmatic promise like a better fate in the hereafter... Instead, his idea of Spirituality is very much that of the here and now; of the importance of our choices now and what we make of them...