Mein Kampf Translation Controversy.

MEIN KAMPF

Appendix A – Mein Kampf Errors & Corrections Translating from one language to another is very tricky. It is rare to nd someone who is equally procient in both languages. When translating a work that was written in the past, it becomes more difcult because language changes over time. It would be impossible to claim one translation was the only translation. It is possible to show that one translation is  better than another another.. One translator may translate some parts better and not others. A different translator with a different background may interpret passages completely differently resulting in a translation that does not represent the intent of the original author. The Ford translation has attempted to make  Mein Kampf  easier to read while also correcting errors and making the English translation tran slation as close to Hitler’s intended message as possible. This appendix documents a small portion of the errors found in various translations of   Mein Kampf . We began documenting errors as they were encountered but the process of  documentation soon became overwhelming. Sometimes we were nding three or more errors in every paragraph of the old translations. Soon we were spending more time documenting errors than translating and verifying. We We had to give up the effort to document all errors, and focused on examples that affected the meaning or altered the intent of the  passage. Following are the errors found in older translations translatio ns along alo ng with notes not es explaining the work more deeply. Card Game Original German: Genau so kümmerlich sind die Hoffnungen auf den sagenhaften Aufstand im

Ägypten. Der „Heilige Krieg“ kann unseren deutschen Schafkopfspielern das angenehme Gru-seln  beibringen, daß jetzt andere für uns zu verbluten bereit sind...

INACCURATE War’ can produce in our German Reynal-Hitchcock Reynal-Hitchco ck translation: The ‘Holy War’ muttonheads the pleasant thrill that now others are ready to shed their blood for us... War’ can give our German Schafkopf players the Manheim translation: The ‘Holy War’  pleasant thrill of thinking that now perhaps others are ready to shed their blood for us... War’ may bring the pleasing illusion to our German Murphy translation: The ‘Holy War’ nincompoops that others are now ready to shed their blood for them.

CORRECT Ford translation: The promise of a “Holy War” gives a strange, yet pleasant sensation

to our German sheeps-head players when they think others are now willing to shed their   blood for us.(Schafkopf or Sheepshead is a card game common in Bavaria )

Manheim most likely left the word untranslated because he did not know what it meant. Manheim did this frequently. If he did not understand a word or passage, he left it as the original untranslated German word or 

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