A Reader's Guide to Dag Hammarskjöld's Waymarks
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A Reader’s Guide to Dag Hammarskjöld’s Way marks by Bernhard Erling A Reader’s Guide to Dag Hammarskjöld’s Waymarks by Bernhard Erling Waymarks was originally published in Swedish as Väg märke n © Albert Bonniers Förlag AB 1963 © Bernhard Erling 1982 (Translation), 1987 (Reader’s Guide) Guide combined with Translation 1999 Reprints 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9602240-3-6 St. Peter, Minnesota 56082 To Ma r i l y n in gratitude for eleven lustrums of love and companionship Abbreviations DH - Dag Hammarskjöld JB - Th e Jerusalem Bible KJV - King James Version NEB - Th e New English Bible NRSV - New Revised Standard Version RSV - Revised Standard Version S-G - Secretary General UN - United Nations Where the Bible translation is not indicated, it is from the NRSV. Introduction I. Th e Translation After Dag Hammarskjöld’s death in September 1961, a manuscript was found in his New York apartment entitled “Vägmärken” (Waymarks). Attached to the manuscript was the following undated letter, addressed to the Swedish Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Aff airs, Leif Belfrage: Dear Leif, Perhaps you remember that I once told you that I was after all keeping a kind of journal which I wanted you some time to take charge of. Here it is. It was begun without the thought that anyone else would ever see it. But in view of what has since happened in my life, all that has been written about me, the situation has changed. Th ese notations give the only correct “profi le” that can be drawn. And therefore during recent years I have reckoned with the possibility of publication, though I have continued to write for myself and not for the public. If you fi nd these notations worth publishing, you have my permission to do so – as a kind of “white book” concerning my negotiations with myself – and with God. Dag Th e original manuscript consists of a collection of brief typewritten statements placed in a loose leaf folder. Hammarskjöld, it appears, from time to time typed out his journal entries and placed them in the folder. Nothing indicates that he considered the journal completed, or that he was not intending to continue it. Th e manuscript was published in its entirety in 1963 by Alb. Bonniers, Stockholm, with nothing changed or excluded. Th e rubrics and dates, accordingly, are Hammarskjöld’s own. An English translation, in the preparation of which W. H. Auden and Leif Sjöberg collaborated, appeared in 1964 entitled Markings, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, and Faber and Faber, London. Given Auden’s distinguished literary reputation, the question may be asked as to why another vii | English translation should be attempted. Th e chief reason is to achieve a more accurate English translation. Auden acknowledged that he knew no Swedish and therefore needed a collaborator to give him a literal word by word translation, to which he gave fair form and for which fi nal version he took sole responsiblity. He also stated that there were passages which both he and Sjöberg found obscure. In some such cases Auden claimed the translator’s right to write intelligible English sentences, even if this meant alteration of the original meaning. Th is translation was for the most part completed at Kansai University of Foreign Studies, Osaka, Japan, where during 1980 I was teaching a seminar on Hammarskjöld’s Markings to Japanese students. As I found more and more passages (which shall hereafter be called waymarks and identifi ed by the year and number of the waymark during that year) that I felt needed revision, I fi nally decided to attempt a new translation. An example of a waymark that was apparently thought to be obscure and which has been given an altered meaning is 25-30:13. With the words for which there is no basis in the Swedish text in italics, the Auden-Sjöberg translation reads as follow: “To be sure, you have to fence with an unbuttoned foil: but, in the loneliness of yesterday, did you not toy with the idea of poisoning the tip? (Markings, New York: Knopf, 1964, 8). A foil by defi nition has a fl at guard. If this protective device is removed the weapon ceases to be a foil. In the Swedish text, furthermore, the foil and the poison are kept separate, and the waymark may be interpreted as contrasting the relative safety of the one with the danger of the other, rather than, as in the Auden-Sjöberg translation, the two being brought together, so that the no longer blunt fencing sword becomes not only dangerous but treacherous. Other waymarks that in this translation diff er signifi cantly from the Auden- Sjöberg translation are: 20-30:5, 41-42:14, 45-49:13, 50:35, 50:42, 50:44, 51:19, 55:1 (the second line has been added from the hymn Hammarskjöld quotes to make the waymark intelligible to the non-Swedish reader), 56:39 (the following sentence has been omitted in the Auden-Sjöberg translation: “It is this idea that demands your blood -- not the defective creation in which it in this historical period has been incarnated”), 56:47, 57:6, 57:13, 57:46, 58:8, 59:81-82, 60:3. Th ere are, of course, many waymarks in this translation that do not diff er greatly from the Auden-Sjöberg rendering. Th ere would be little point, for viii | example, in trying to fi nd another way of translating “Not I, but God in me” (53:6). Generally, though, this translation is somewhat more literal than the Auden-Sjöberg translation. Hammarskjöld’s often elliptical style has also more often been retained. Th is translation is being called “Waymarks,” which is a literal translation of Väg märke n. While “waymark” is not a common English word, it is to be found in unabridged dictionaries and it does signifi cantly appear in Jeremiah 31:21 in both the King James and the Revised Standard versions of the Bible. Th e 1917 translation of the Swedish Bible also has vägmärken in this verse. An additional reason for literal translation at this point is that it introduces “way” into the title. Hammarskjöld has much more to say about “the way” than about the marks or markings he makes along that way. In the notes that accompany this translation Hammarskjöld’s quotations have been identifi ed insofar as possible. Hammarskjöld does identify some of the sources he quotes (53:8, 55:2, 55:21, 56:30, 56:39, 56:53, 59:94, 59:95, 59:101, 59:112, 60:3, 61:15), but does not identify others. Use has been made of source identifi cations in the Swedish edition and the Auden-Sjöberg translation. In waymarks 53:8 and 55:21 Hammarskjöld refers only to “Th omas.” It was incorrectly assumed by the Swedish editors and Auden-Sjöberg that this was Th omas Aquinas, but the attribution should be to Th omas à Kempis. Where the source of a quotation has not yet been found, this is indicated in the notes. Hammarskjöld quoted the Psalter from a 1762 edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Auden stated that, while German quotations should be translated, it could be assumed that the average American reader would have no diffi culty with the French quotations. In this translation all non- English quotations are translated. In the waymarks, where one fi nds words in parentheses, they are in the original Swedish text. Words in brackets have been added by the translator. II. Th e Reader’s Guide When Dag Hammarskjöld’s posthumously discovered journal was fi rst published in 1963, the Swedish publisher, Bonniers, found within months that additional printings were needed. Th e following year the publishers of the English translation by Leif Sjöberg and W. H. Auden, Markings (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), had the same experience. Th e book was published on October 15. In November there had already been a seventh printing. In 1983 ix | Markings fi nally appeared in a paperback edition (New York: Ballantine Books) and again within the year fi ve printings were needed. Th ere has also been extensive distribution of translations of Väg märke n in several other languages, among which are Dutch (1965), French (1966), German (1965/2005), Italian (1966), and Japanese (1967). Th ough DH’s (in what follows the initials “DH” will be used to refer to Hammarskjöld) journal has been widely sold and is now being called “a modern spiritual classic” (Markings, Ballantine edition, 196), many who have found in the book inspiring meditations have been puzzled by other passages. As a result some have placed the book on the shelf after a partial initial reading and thereafter rarely consulted it. It is to help such readers rediscover DH’s journal and to introduce new readers to this important text that this reader’s guide has been written. Two extremely helpful interpretations appeared shortly after the publication of Markings : Dag Hammarskjöld: Th e Statesman and His Faith by Henry P. Van Dusen (New York: Harper & Row, 1967) and Dag Hammarskjöld’s White Book: An Analysis of Markings by Gustaf Aulén (Philadelphia: Fortress: 1969); Sw Dag Hammarskjölds vitbok (Stockholm: Bonniers, 1970). Th is Reader’s Guide diff ers from these previous studies in that it is based upon my own new translation of Väg märke n, in which I have attempted to remove the translation errors in Markings to which Aulén called attention (Aulén, viii). Th is study of DH’s journal also diff ers from previous studies in that it is a commentary in which, in addition to brief introductions to the waymarks of each year, each individual waymark is discussed.