Kierkegaard’s Own Words
Thanks to those who tracked down the Kierkegaard quotation I was looking for in the comments to my previous post. For anyone who’s interested, I now have a copy of the relevant volume of the Danish edition of Soren Kierkegaards Papirer, and will paste the relevant paragraph here. (Update: I now also have here a little information about when in his life SK wrote this passage.)
As noted in the comments to the previous post, the reference is:
Soren Kierkegaards Papirer, ed. P. A. Heiberg, V. Kuhr and E. Torsting; 11:3:B:57 (1854)
About the date (I’ve been told it helps — well, it helps those who know enough — in understanding things SK wrote to know when in his life SK wrote them): This appears to have been written in December of 1854 — a little less than a year before SK’s death (Nov. 11, 1855).
And the English translation in Soren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers, Vol. 6 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, assited by Gregor Malantschuk, p. 557, is as follows:
What I have repeated again and again should be kept in mind: “I am without authority, am only a poet, an average man.” I do not claim to be better than others, only that I am not bound by a pledge to the New Testament and am not an ordained man, either. No, in no way do I pretend to be better than others, but I do want it made known that this is the way we carry on-I want some truth here and want it said honestly, loudly, and clearly. But I do not pretend to be better than others. Therefore what the old Bishop once said to me is not true–namely, that I spoke as if the others were going to hell. No, if I can be said to speak at all of going to hell then I say something like this: If the others are going to hell, then I am going along with them. But I do not believe that; on the contrary, I believe that we will all be saved, I, too, and this awakens my deepest wonder.
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Comments
Bruce: There was an interesting discussion in the comments to the previous post, “Help with a Kierkegaard Quotation?”. No: Nobody’s checked the translations we have against the original Danish for us, but in the previous post’s comments, we do have two apparently independent translations from Danish to English.
Posted by: Keith DeRose | July 20, 2006 at 11:16 PM
Hi, is anyone allowed to post on this site? if so, how do you post more than just comments? thanks.
Posted by: matt | July 20, 2006 at 11:33 PM
It’s my understanding that only the “Contributors” — the current list of whom is on the left of the page — can contribute their own posts here, though anyone can comment.
Posted by: Keith DeRose | July 21, 2006 at 12:00 AM
Hey. I speak Danish and that’s an accurate translation.
Posted by: Arni | July 21, 2006 at 03:51 AM
Thanks, Arni
Posted by: Keith DeRose | July 21, 2006 at 02:30 PM
Have you concluded anything? Is the above translation accurate from the original language?
Posted by: bruced | July 20, 2006 at 10:20 PM