Die Schere #3

[Gary Kern <gkern@ucr.campus.mci.net>]

Here is my rendition of #3.  Natives please correct me.

German:
 
Jedermann ist auch der Autor seines eigenen Lebenslaufes, sein
Autobiograph. Er ist sein Romancier und ist sich dieser Aufgabe bewußt.
Daraus erklärt sich, daß fast jeder einen Roman zu schreiben zum
mindesten einmal begonnen hat.

Die Frage bleibt, wie dem Einzelnen diese Darstellung gelingt. Das hat
nichts mit seinen äußeren Umständen zu tun, und auch nicht damit, ob
sein Roman zu einem glücklichen Ende führt. Zu fragen ist vielmehr, wie
er mit seinem Pfund gewuchert hat—und dieses Pfund ist vorgegeben, schon
ehe er das Licht der Welt erblickt.

English:

Everyone is also the author of his own life's course, its autobio- 
grapher.  He is its novelist and is conscious of this task.  Hence it is
clear that almost everyone has at least begun to write a novel.

It remains to be seen how well this portrayal works with each
individual.  It has nothing to do with his external circumstances and
also nothing to do with whether his novel will have a happy ending.  An
even bigger question is how he has profitted by his pound--and this
pound was given already before he saw the light of day.

Comments:

The thought reminds me particularly of Karl Gustav Jung, who also saw
individuals as the sole observers of their own "myth."  For Jung,
however, the thought was not altogether despairing, for one could grow,
achieve self-realization and link his life's course with the larger
development of mankind.  Jünger seems to reflect on the futility of
watching yourself through a lifetime, writing your own story for
yourself, but not being entirely responsible for it.

The two preceding reflections, however, keep this one from being
entirely negative.  The urge to art, to be an autobiographer, is
presented as a life-force, a positive and mysterious thing.  We have to
see what the next reflections will bring.

I take the "pound" in this one to refer to those New Testament parables
in which the landowner gives seed or money to each of three sons or
vassals, and two do poorly with it, but the third does well.  Something
like that.  Maybe someone knows the specific parable.

GK