Alienation [antikvár]

NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS The English translations of Marx's works have been used whenever they were available. Where I had doubts about the translation of a particular expression I checked the German original. For the very involved Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, which occupies a central place in my study, I have used Martin Milligan's translation (Moscow, 1959) in preference to the more recent one by T. B. Bottomore (London, 1963) and Ria Stone's little known ' mimeographed translation (n.p., 1949). | Though very difficult to follow, it is my impression that Milligan's 5 ¦ effort is a more faithful rendering of what Marx wrote than either ^' of the others. Bottomore's work, in particular, in attempting to j simplify, has often chosen the better known English expression over the accurate one. On p. 157, for example, he translates Wesen as 'significance', while Milligan renders it as 'essence' (p. 103); on p. 153, Bottomore translates abstrahieren as 'eliminates', while Milligan renders it as 'abstracts' (p. 99); and there are many such instances. The importance of these differences, which may seem trivial now, will become clear as my interpretation develops. Furthermore, in preparing his translation of the text which appears in the Gesamtausgabe, Milligan made use of the recent corrections (1956) of typographical and other errors that had found their way into the first edition. Some of these changes are not without importance, such as the substitution on several occasions of Genuss (happiness) for Geist (spirit). In my own efforts at translating Marx's texts, I have tried to follow as far as possible the pattern set by Milligan. Thus, for example, Wesen is generally rendered by 'essence', 'nature' or 'being'; Kraft is generally rendered by 'power', and Wesenskraft by 'essential power'. Again, the significance of these English expressions, and others which I regularly substitute for Marx's originals, will become clear later. The attempt to be consistent has also meant that I have had, on occasion, to alter words in the English editions of Marx's other works. Any change considered significant is mentioned in the footnotes. The footnotes are also used to comment on problems that