What has been added to philosophy, or about “Simply blunt use of words” (bloβer dumpfe Wortgebrauch). Part I

Review of the translation into Russian: Heidegger, M. (2020) Beiträge zur Sache der Philosophie (Vom Ereignis). Translator E. N. Sagetdinov. Moscow: Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy Publ., 640 p.

Abstract

This review provides a detailed analysis of the key translation principles used in the translation of the German text “Beiträge zur Sache der Philosophie” by Martin Heidegger. The peer-reviewed translation into Russian was carried out by E. N. Sagetdinov and published under the title “Towards Philosophy. About the event.” It was published by the Gaidar Institute publishing house in Moscow in 2020 (ISBN 978-5-93255-589-7). The German text by Martin Heidegger “Beiträge zur Sache der Philosophie” is comparable in terms of semantic complexity with his other major work “Sein und Zeit,” completely translated into Russian by V. V. Bibikhin. However, this peer-reviewed translation does not meet the standards of accuracy when conveying the meanings of the original that are characteristic of V. V. Bibikhin. This is exemplified by the translator’s failure to observe the foremost principle of such works—i. e. the preservation of the text’s integrity—with E. N. Sagetdinov calling the result “a deliberately arbitrary collection of notes.” Missing the general conceptual framework of the entire work, the translator distorts both its general idea and individual key theses and concepts, when he uses similar concepts taken from the lexical and stylistic thesaurus of the Russian language and the conceptual field of Russian philosophical terminology to translate Heidegger’s theses and concepts into Russian. To prove this statement, my review provides translation fragments that most vividly demonstrate the distortion of the original meaning of the German text. This meaning is shown not only by the analysis of the German text, but also by the comparison of the Russian translation and the translations of the German text “Beiträge zur Sache der Philosophie” into other European languages (Italian, Spanish, English), which are much more accurate and correct in relation to the original text.