Re: Die Schere (the title)

[Ulrich Oswald <uoswald@access.ch>]

Gary Kern schrieb:

> Dear Jüngerites:
>
> It occurs to me that we have not yet translated the title of DIE
> SCHERE.
> Perhaps it cannot be done until we have read the book entire, but
> those
> who already have read it can advise.  In English "The Scissors"
> suggests, well, scissors, but also a careful cutting, especially a
> cutting in half.  The translation "The Shears," however, carries quite
>
> different connotations.  Here the instrument and the action are
> bigger,
> grosser and more likely brutal.  "Scissors"--careful, meticulous
> cutting, artistic and possibly cruel.  "Shears"--heavy chopping,
> razing,
> indiscriminate and never kindly.
>
> GK

   When I was musing on the sense of that title it occurred to me that
Die Schere, as The Scissors or the Shears, have the form of a rhomboid
cross, as shows the cover of the book (edition Klett-Cotta). EJ remarked
that the cross was a significant sign for what happened two thousand
years ago. However it would not matter if it was actually the instrument
by which Jesus came to death. It would equally have emerged e.g. as a
sword. The importance of the scissers or the cross or the sword  lies in
the two main sectors: the one with the uncut possibilities and the one
with the cut reality. The latter is in addition symbolic for the cutting
of the Parzes.

Ulrich Oswald