German Literature

Band 7 der „Gesammelten Schriften“ von Johann Georg Sulzer bietet erstmals eine philologisch zuverlässige Präsentation sowie eine detaillierte Kommentierung und Kontextualisierung seiner Beiträge zur Dichtung und Literaturkritik der Aufklärungsepoche. Abhandlungen, Vorreden und Rezensionen dokumentieren Sulzers vielfältige Partizipation an den literarischen Debatten seiner Zeit. Zugleich rückt Sulzer selbst als Dichter ins Blickfeld, der etwa die Erzählung „Damon oder die platonische Liebe“ und das Schauspiel „Cymbelline“ verfasste. Die versammelten literarischen und literaturkritischen Texte umfassen Sulzers gesamte Schaffensphase (1745–1779) und stellen eine entscheidende Schnittstelle zu weiteren Bänden der Edition dar, etwa zu den ästhetischen und philosophischen Schriften (Band 2 und Band 4) und zu dem Briefwechsel Sulzers mit Johann Jacob Bodmer (Band 10), der demnächst erscheint.

Max and Moritz in Biblical Greek is a translation of Max and Moritz: A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks, written and illustrated by Wilhelm Busch (originally in German). The Greek wording is based on idioms of the Greek NT and Septuagint. The vocabulary is selective and limited by design to better serve the interests of students of biblical Greek. All words appearing fifty times or fewer in the Greek NT have been footnoted and glossed at the bottom of each page. Beginning Greek students typically learn Greek words occurring fifty times or more; thus, after completing two semesters of Greek, a student will be able to read this work without the aid of a lexicon. There is also a new English translation of the Greek text in the back of the book. Each chapter is a "trick" (δόλος), numbered using the standard convention of a Greek letter marked with an overline (e.g., α is 1, β is 2, etc.). Proper names are footnoted only at their first occurrence within each chapter. The text is divided into lengthy portions and, for ease of reference, verse numbers have been added.

As an epigraph to his Satires Durs Grünbein suggests the above-mentioned Juvenal’s lines in his own German translation. He translates morbus as Übel, not as more appropriate Krankheit, and what is worse, Juvenal’s statement that pain (disease, evil or whatsoever) comes from the lack of money (inde caput morbi) happens to be of no significance for the German author. Still, in his comment to the epigraph he insists on the opposite, though not giving any reason for it hereafter or in his other texts. As Übel Grünbein translates morbus in two more works i.e. in the essay “Sleepless in Rome” (2001) and, quite logically, in his translation of the third satire (2010). Whereas for Juvenal the sources of sleeplessness are definitely external (health problems caused by the discomfort of life in the big city), in Grünbein’s description these factors become rather metaphysical. Man is bereft of sleep because of his eternal fight against some demon called properly insomnia “which is more obsessive than any tweedledum” and “makes of a city-dweller the chronic invalid”. That should be the meaning of Übel. Grünbein comments that the key motive of his Satire is die Schlaflosigkeit, insomnia, as well as durchwachte Nacht, vigilia which is lacking in Latin, though Juvenal uses vigilare once in gerund form. Vigilia comes from emotional disorder for which every city-dweller is inevitably destined, even if he is not affected by the harmful impecuniousness like Juvelnal’s hero.