Dear Professor Brodbeck,
Ludwig’s English translation was completed between ten and seventeen years after his German translation of the Rigveda. During this time, the progress achieved in Rigvedic studies was substantial, and this includes the research carried out by Ludwig himself.
Thus, his English version is supposed to outdate his earlier German one of course. Its posthumous publication is therefore predominantly though not exclusively of “antiquarian” interest for the English speaking audience as it makes Ludwig's historical pioneering achievement visible and verifiable. It can now be consulted for the first time, which was not the case before its publication.
In quite a number of respects, Ludwig’s translation may - and naturally will - prove to be obsolete. However, an age of more than 100 years is not a sufficient basis to earn accurate translations exacted with the precision of 19th century philologists the overall predicate of being "hopelessly outdated".
Everyone can now vet and form a judgement themselves. Frankly, I see no reason why the publication of an important document in the field of the history of Indological studies, the existence of which was overlooked until this date, needs to be justified or even defended.
It is therefore that I politely suggest that whoever is further interested in this matter kindly dedicate themselves to the edition – published at a very moderate price given its volume -, in which the necessary information can be found.
Warm regards,
Walter Slaje
Dear Professor Slaje,
An observation from the perspective of translation studies, if I may. Unless I am misunderstanding the situation, this most welcome publication is apparently aimed at an audience that reads German and English with equal facility. But then, since Ludwig's English translation was produced after his publication of a German translation of the same text, doesn't the target audience of this new publication seem to be a rather different audience than the one for which Ludwig's English translation was originally intended? Since now, more than a hundred years later, we have the English translation of Jamison and Brereton for the use of those who do not read German, is the new publication anticipated to be primarily of antiquarian interest? Is that the reason for its being aimed at a polyglot audience? Since those who do not read German were presumably the originally intended audience of Ludwig's English translation (and since there was an appetite for the Jamison and Brereton translation, notwithstanding recent translations of this text into German), might we perhaps look forward to a future version of this publication aimed at a similar kind of audience? Or is it thought that there will not be such an audience for such an old piece of work? I understand that you are not the publisher, but nonetheless I would be interested to hear your thoughts on these issues.
Yours collegially,Simon BrodbeckCardiff University
On Nov 4, 2019, at 1:19 PM, Walter Slaje via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote_______________________________________________Dear Colleagues,
I should like to draw your attention to a new publication in the field of Vedic studies:
Alfred Ludwigs englische Übersetzung des Rigveda (1886–1893).1. Teil: Bücher I–V.Herausgegeben von Raik Strunz. Preface by Walter Slaje. [Veröffentlichungen der Indologischen Kommission der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz. 6]. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Publishers 2019. pp. XXXII, 622; 1 Portrait, 1 Image. 78,00 Eur. ISBN: 978-3-447-11306-9
Alfred Ludwig, full professor of comparative linguistics at the then German University in Prague (born 1832 in Vienna, died 1912 in Prague), was a pioneer in research pertaining to the Rigveda. He translated the Rigveda completely into German for the very first time (1876) and was the first to open up the content of the Rigveda by means of a multi-volume commentary (1878-1888). The fact that Ludwig, in the aftermath of his German translation of this important literary document, had also produced an English translation of the Rigveda between the years 1886 and 1893, which at the same time proved to be the first scholarly translation into English, remained entirely unnoticed by the Vedicist and Indological communities. Ludwig could not publish his completed translation during his lifetime. Shortly after his death, his handwritten translation was purchased by the University of Oxford. It was tacitly taken into custody by the Boden professor at the time, Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1854-1930) and left to the Max Müller Memorial Fund in Oxford only after his death.
With Maṇḍalas I-V, the first half of Ludwig’s English translation of the Rigveda is now brought to light. The publication of the second half, containing Maṇḍalas VI-X, is under preparation.
For all titles in this series, see:
Kindly regarding,Walter Slaje
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