The Antichrist

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Joseph Roth said in a 1934 interview: ‘For me, a good translation is that which renders the rhythm of my language.’ I hope that I have met his standards, which, because of the differences in German and English syntax, can be a challenge. As I worked I tried to be as faithful to the spirit of the German original as possible. I carefully compared the original English translation of 1935 with Roth’s German text of 1934 while creating the new translation of 2010. I have preferred to retain Roth’s sometimes brief and emphatic sentences rather than combine them. For the most part I use the same paragraph breaks as Roth, rather than split longer paragraphs and combine shorter ones (the first English translation featured much of the latter). I have also tried not to eliminate any sentences in their entirety, even if repetitive. Precisely because Roth’s emphatic writing style is a bit different in Der Antichrist than in his other books, I wanted to retain and highlight that difference. I have sought to preserve the tone and style of the original German version; the result is an interesting sermon-like quality in parts of the book, which I believe Roth fully intended. Fresh from being forced into exile from the country he loved, Roth was both angry and frightened, eager to warn the world of its dire situation, and I wanted to ensure that this came across in translation.

The original English translation glossed over some important moments in the book. One notable instance occurs on pages 94, 96 and 163, when in the original German Roth says ‘Hollywood, ein Holle-Wut’. This play on words meaning ‘hell fury’ was entirely left out of the original English translation, probably because the translator simply did not know what to do with it. This wordplay in particular was a concern of Roth’s at the time. In fact, he enquired of his French translator what she had done about it in her version. In this new English translation I have chosen to use ‘Unholywood’ as it sounds and looks close to Hollywood and has a meaning I believe is close enough to what Roth intended with his clever play of words. Using ‘hell fury’ in English would not make sense in the context; however, I do use it later in conjunction with a repeated use of ‘Unholywood’. (Similar wordplay by Roth, the use of Edisons versus Edi-sohns, worked in English because sohn translates as ‘son’.)

In dealing with the Hollywood film studio mentioned in the last chapter, I have gone with what the German original text says: ‘Goldwein-Mutro-Meyer’ (which is referred to twice and then, bizarrely, is switched to Mutro-Goldwein-Meyer), whereas the first English translation takes a less provocative path with ‘Cinema Ltd’.

Interestingly, Roth used one English word in the entire book — ‘nothing’ — the word used by the Hollywood talent agents to tell the shadows there is no work to be had.

I would like to thank the wonderful Peter Owen, Antonia Owen and Simon Smith for their belief in this important project. I would also like to thank Simon Hamlet for his encouragement. Thanks also to the Leo Baeck Institute in New York.

Richard Panchyk

New York, 2010