Translation as Close Reading

Antonella da Messina, St. Jerome in his Study, tempera on wood panel, 1475.

Translators differ from other readers in at least one way that matters, namely that they are obliged to not skip anything (apparently most readers do, regularly).  In my first reading(s) of the book Gesten: Versuch einer Phanomenologie I must have skipped (!) “The Gesture of Smoking a Pipe.”  That’s alarming.  It’s one of the longest essays in the book!  And lo these many years later, I know that it is, and always was, memorable, haunting, rich in provocative insights into art, ritual, religious practice.

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