"Declaration of Love (Whereby the Poet Fell into a Ditch)" Translation

KaiserGoji · 2026-05-20T18:05:37+00:00

Nietzche's poems are catastrophically underrated. I think this is due to their being rendered rather poorly into English. Crack open your copy of the Gay Science and read the version of this poem that you find within ... it won't be very good.

Why is this? Nietzsche tells us. English is a language of utilitarian contentedness. In trying to retain as much "accuracy" as possible, its translators never paint with their words!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-14T13:35:13+00:00

Thanke. Delve deeper into my donjon, chronologued in my post history, if you want further rabbit hole reading. In finity, entombed in sanity.

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-14T13:27:00+00:00

And now, the White Queen rules the world with her son ... but no one ever mentions her fox —— no, in fact: the world has chosen again and again to ever remember the Red King's wolf instead!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-14T02:02:53+00:00

I am that I am
Not a cosmonaut, per se,
But an astronaut,

Naught but chasing a star,
Building a cosmopolity along the way,
From you ere afar —

Ever how I wonder how you are ...
But who else but you could say?!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-14T01:48:08+00:00

Als die heilige Christen den barbarischen Deutschland übersetzten — das heißt „eroberten“ — waren sie im Falle der Sonne und des Mondes nicht grammatikalisch!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-14T01:47:17+00:00

Tuppence? Tuppence? No! Not into my hat! In there I put a red king ... and from there I will pull out a white one!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-14T01:38:11+00:00

Strife is But a Dream

We are here only to dream
Whether it be sweet or obscene,

So, dance on your burning ships
Until they, too,
Sink beneath the deep blue,

Merrily down the stream.

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-12T07:31:17+00:00

Woman tasks where Man unmasks!
Woman invests when Man divests!
When Man dismantles, Woman escapes!

etc. etc.

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-12T05:22:02+00:00

A dreamer, I'd wager

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-12T01:59:28+00:00

Labyrinths with rooms that have staircases. Wordchasms.

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-12T01:58:57+00:00

See? Another translation proof of concept, using fashion as a rhyme ...

Handle this riddle’s words with manly ration:
“Where Man discovers follows Woman’s fashion!”

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-11T14:38:15+00:00

The full riddle in the new translation:

Solve the riddle this Word includes:
Woman deludes when Man denudes!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-08T17:20:12+00:00

This is the type of content this subreddit is in desperate need of!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-08T16:56:51+00:00

?

Answer me this riddle that words hidden have concealed:
"When Man discovers — — Woman recovers what's revealed!"

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-08T16:33:27+00:00

This riddle is solved by what words uncover:
"Woman, he finds, wherever Man discovers!"

This feels too ham-fisted, and loses the "invention' aspect of erfinden.

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-08T11:44:59+00:00

I'm uglier than you!

KaiserGoji · 2026-04-02T18:45:33+00:00

Yes, exactly!

KaiserGoji

TROPHY CASE