xt7zgm81pg6k https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7zgm81pg6k/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1959-02-10 This letter is from collection 75m28 Thomas Merton papers. archival material 75m28 English  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Thomas Merton correspondence Letter from Thomas Merton to Victor Hammer, February 10, 1959 text Letter from Thomas Merton to Victor Hammer, February 10, 1959 1959 1959-02-10 2023 true xt7zgm81pg6k section xt7zgm81pg6k 9WW42mWJJemm/dw. be

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OUR LADY OF GETHSEMANI
TRAPPIST, KENTUCKY

Feb 10,1959

My Dear Victor:

After reading over the Fiedler ms I find myself in a

difficult position. The material is extremely interesting.
The translation seems to me to be inadequate. At least it reads
very heavily, and at times is almost impossible to understand.
There is a wealth of mixed metaphors, and very often one runs up
against expressions that are not Whglish, but hang in a sort of
no man's land between English and German. I cansee where the
translator has worked nobly at a very difficult job, but I really
think it requires a lot more work and some more heads need to get
together on it.

I wish I could offer something more constructive myself but
I do not want to rush in with my own inadequate knowledge of
German, and the Italian is not enough to go on.

I think you ought to edit the work quite a lot, as the
tramlator suggests. But above all it should be reduced to fluent,
readable English. Technical if you like, but without too great
a burden of jargon, and with greater precision all along the
line. This may be demanding a lot- perhaps only a really first
class translator, an extraordinary translator, would be able to
manage it, and such peeple are rare.

I am enclosing the sheet on which I started to jot down observations
as I went along, but I stopped doing so since they were so largely
negative. It would be ungracious to find fault without having anything
constructive to offer to balance it. I am very sorry I cannot be of more
help to you.

Tomorrow is Lent, and in order to clear the decks I am getting
the mamscript back to you now so that you can go further with it.
I look forward with interest to the notes on Classical Art which you
announce.

And now as for the Desert Fathers- hm can anyone argue with

a Santuccio? Certainly the manuscript belongs to the Smtuccio.
Print it as you please. The conditions mentioned in your letter
are quite acceptable: namely 50 copies for the Santuccio to sell
and 12 for me to give away. This letter will serve as a contract
and I will keep yours for the same purpose.

May lent be a ver sacrum full of light and joy for both of
you, a season of mEfiaI'ih—Ereparation for the great renewal of
Easter.

Faithfully in Christ