A few hundred posts ago Tigersoap suggested that it might be best to read the book in one`s mother language.
While reading Henderson I wondered about the authenticity of translated versions of Beelzebub, especially the German one.
Here, have a look now at the following translations:
Spanish Transl. said:
El hecho de que este tronco repose sobre las patas de un `León´ significa que dichos trabajos deben ser ejecutados con esa lucidez, coraje y fe que caracterizan
a todos los actos y el `Poderío´ de aquel ser que entre los seres lo posee en grado máximo: el León.
French Transl. said:
Et que ce torse soit fixé sur les pattes d'un « lion » signifie que ce labeur doit s'effectuer avec la conscience et le sentiment de hardiesse et de foi en sa propre
« puissance », la puissance étant la propriété que possède au plus haut degré, entre tous les êtres de la planète, le propriétaire de ces pattes - le puissant lion.
German Transl. said:
Dass dieser Rumpf auf den Pranken eines Löwen ruht, bedeutet, dass die besagte Arbeit mit dem Bewusstsein und dem Gefühl von Mut und Zutrauen zu seiner eigenen
Kraft ausgeführt werden soll, jener Kraft, die von allen Wesen der Erde im höchsten Grade von dem Besitzer jener Füsse besessen wird, dem mächtigen Löwen.
Seems to me that none of these translations is totally trustworthy. The German one is not quite as messed up as the english revised one, but obviously completely ridded of irony.
That means, while for me the German copy is still useful when it comes to reading it aloud to my inner child, it`s not useful at all when it comes to "fathom the gist" of it.
ONLY the original unrevised copy of Tales can be trusted!!!
Only the first edition of BT has been authorized by Gurdjieff (and we understand now fully why he was so impatient in getting the book published).
Meetings with Remarkable Men and
Life Is Real Only Then, When I Am appeared after Gurdjieff`s death and have been extensively and grossly revised by Madame & Company,
who overestimated themselves on an epic, not to say criminal, scale (with the best intentions, of course!).
One of the things which can be easily understood when reading BT for the first time, and even automatically so, is the topic of wiseacring (read: revising),
which is one of the red threads in the book.
Beelzebub makes a huge deal of the "maleficient wiseacring" of the three brained beings (us). Not only did Gurdjieff have a clear understanding that whenever
(during the past thousands of years) some really wise being had introduced a Great Teaching, that in subsequent generations said teaching would be wiseacred/revised
until, as Mullah Nassr Eddin would have said: "There is everything in it except core, or even kernel", but also that his own `sacred books´ would undergo the "blessings" of revision.
John Henderson said:
In the following (BT p. 659) G apparently pays Jeanne de Salzmann the tribute of naming an entire solar system in her honor.
The captain of the ship Karnak is speaking to Beelzebub:
"Very good, your reverence, I will think out how it may be possible to carry out your desire. I do not know just what obstacles there were then for the captain of the ship Omnipresent, but in the present case, on the direct route between the holy planet Purgatory and the planet Deskaldino, there lies the solar system called Salzmanino, in which there are many of those cosmic concentrations which, for the purposes of the general cosmic Trogoautoegocratic processes, are predetermined for the transformation and radiation of the substances Zilnotrago; and therefore the direct falling of our ship Karnak, unhindered, through this system, will scarcely be possible. In any case, I will try in one way or another to satisfy the desire expressed by your Reverence."
The pupil (and former lover) de Salzmann, most likely glanced at that passage (if she ever saw it at all), was flattered by her part in the grand
"Trogoautoegocratic processes", and then left it at that.
But that was only the first part of the message. We, who remain with Gurdjieff for the duration, will follow up on the second part, the lightly mentioned Zilnotrago.
For this we return to a place very early in the book, page 56, where we find the footnote:
The word "Zilnotrago" is the name of a special gas similiar to what we call "cyanid acid".
In my opinion, this information about Zilnotrago is placed in a footnote so as to make certain we notice it. (...)
As to the function of Salzmanino`s anticipated action on those entering her sphere of influence, and on the same page as this footnote we find:
...Zilnotrago, which on entering the planetary body of a being disorganizes most of its functions until all the "Zilnotrago" is volatized out of it.
As this acid is a corrosive, a disorganizer of function, so we have seen the similar corrosion of Gurdjieff`s text due to the revision initiated
and sponsored by de Salzmann - though we haven`t seen all of it by any means, nor have we yet seen the worst damage wrought by Jeanna and her followers
- those who have made her into the "Golden Calf" of our age.
This incomplete little story sheds a new light on the wiseacring of books like the Bible which are considerably older than Beelzebub`s Tales.
Another story, which would explode this post, is that Gurdjieff apparently knew exactly what would happen and how he did some damage control.
