Differences of Translations Of Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson

[banjoechef]

Hi I did a few searches and I can't find any info about this in the forum, and I think this is the relevant place to post it.

Originally written in Russian and Armenian, it has twice been translated into English:

* The original translation of 1238 pages, first published in 1950 by Harcourt, Brace & Company (New York); Routledge & Kegan Paul (London). Copyright 1950 by G. Gurdjieff. This translation was made under the personal direction of the author, by a group of translators chosen by him and specially trained according to their defined individualities. Later published in 1964 by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., Library of Congress No. 50-5848. Again published in 1973 by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. in paperback (3 volumes), SBN 0-525-47348-3, 0-525-47349-1, 0-525-47350-5. Then published in 1993 by Two Rivers Press. Again published in 1999 by Penguin Arkana, a paperback which contains correction of errata and insertion of two paragraphs omitted from page 568 of Chapter 32 "Hypnotism" in earlier editions.

There is also a Guide and Index available for the original translation published in 1971 by Traditional Studies Press, ISBN 0-919608-01-9, copyright Traditional Studies Press 1973. There’s also a Beelzebub Syllabus available for the original translation printed in 1996.

* A revised translation of 1135 pages, first published in 1992 by Arkana, an imprint of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. Copyright Triangle Editions, Inc. 1992, ISBN 0-670-84125-0. This revision was begun on the initiative of Jeanne de Salzmann. The translation team included members of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York, aided by members of the Gurdjieff Society (London) and the Institut Gurdjieff (Paris), as well as Triangle Editions.

A Page Correlation Table between the original 1950 and revised 1992 edition is available.

This is from http://www.gurdjieff.org/beelzebub.htm

You can also find that same information on wikipedia


I was wondering if anyone knows what was altered from the original, I am lucky enough to have a 1st edition Routledge & Kegan Paul publication of it. Does that mean this edition is missing the 2 paragraphs on page 568? Has anyone looked into this very far?
If the edition I possess is missing the two paragraphs would someone be able to point me towards them if they are even supposed to be there since the first edition was made under G's supervision?

 

[Stevie Argyl]

Hi

The 1992 version was meant to reduce some of the 'confusingly constructed' sentences G used, to less confusing ones. Somehow though in the process, some sentences meanings were completely changed. For this reason I avoid it. There is a second theory going around is that the copyrights to the original ran till 1992 and if a pecentage was rewritten then copyrgiht could be maintained.

here is your two missing paragraphy from Hypnotism chapter

page 568, at line 18:
“So, my boy, when the hypnotist, by modifying the tempo of their blood circulation, temporarily suspends the action of the localization of their false consciousness is now the ruling master of their common presence – the sacred data of their genuine consciousness can blend freely during their ‘waking’ state with the entire functioning of their planetary body; and if then he rightly assists the crystallization of data evoking in that localization an idea contrary to what has been fixed there, and directs the action of that idea upon the disharmonized part of the planetary body, an accelerated modification of the circulation of the blood in that part can be produced.

“During the period of the Tikliamishian civilization, when the learned beings from the country of Maralpleicie first discovered the possibility of such combinations in their common psyche and tried to put one another at will into that special state, they soon found out and understood how to obtain it with the help of what is called being-hanbledzoin, that cosmic substance whose essence the three-brained beings of contemporary civilization came close to understanding, and which they named animal magnetism.

 

[banjoechef]

thank you for the two paragraphs
does anyone know why they were not included in the first place?