Die Schere #27: Text, translation, notes

[Rebing <Rebing@compuserve.com>]

Ernst Jünger, Die Schere #27: Text 

Wenn ein »Gesicht<< sich bestätigt, ergreift den Betroffenen das vage
Gefühl eines Menschen, der von einem Ausflug zurückkehrt, über den er
nicht Rechenschaft geben kann. Bislang konnte die Schau als Traum
passieren — ihre Verwirklichung läßt ahnen, daß mehr im Spiele war. Die
Schere, vorerst als Bild erschienen, kann schneiden— das ist unheimlich.
Die Erinnerung behielt vielleicht nur eine Nebensache wie die Randnote
auf einem Blatt, dessen Text gelöscht worden ist. Doch was geschah
außerdem? Eine ähnliche Stimmung kann einem Tieftrunk folgen; der
Trinker weiß nicht, was er getrieben hat. Immerhin hat sich ein Knoten
geschürzt; er fand in seine Person und in deren Normen zurück.
Der Trunk aus Mimers Brunnen ist tabu.


Die Schere #27: Thomas Friese's translation

When a "vision" takes place, the afflicted is assailed by that vague
sensation which is felt by a man, who, upon returning from an excursion, is
unable to give any account thereof. At the time, the vision could have
passed as a dream - its realisation makes one suspect that more was in
play.
The scissors, appearing before only as image, can cut - this is uncanny.
        Perhaps memory conserves only a secondary particular, as does a
note in the
margin of a page whose text is smudged. Has more taken place? A similar
mood
can follow a heavy inebriation: the drinker does not know what drove him to
it. In any case, a tie has been made - he has found his way back to his
person and his norms. Drinking from the Well of Mimer is taboo.

Die Schere #27: Notes
The moment his vision is corroborated by actually happening the Vorschauer
will have an uneasy feeling. He had seen a scissors that did not cut. (With
EJ, this image stands for what is seen in dreams, visions, moments of
ecstasy). But now he realizes that the seeming phantom scissors is in fact
capable of cutting. In these lines an uncanny element emerges in what has
been so far a mere "play of ideas". The uneasiness of the Vorschauer is
intensified by his awareness (not unlike the feeling after alcoholic
excesses) that he recollects maybe only a minor detail of the future event
he witnessed, and he asks himself in vain what else might have happened. 

The last sentence is intended not as an explanation but rather as a
justifcation of that incapability to remember the totality of the vision.
Later in Die Schere (#174) EJ mentions the Germanic myth that drinking from
Mimer's spring bestows knowledge of "ultimate things"; such knowledge,
however, is too much even for the gods, so the taboo is also for them. The
Vorschauer has skirted a dangerous secret on his time journey but he
escapes and finally finds himself back within his personality and his
world.

The next aphorism will examine what is implied when the traveller fails to
return to safety.

Günter Rebing