I And Thou
Martin Buber
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN: 0684717255
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Martin Buber's I and Thou has long been acclaimed as a classic. Many prominent writers have acknowledged its influence on their work; students of intellectual history consider it a landmark; and the generation born since World War II considers Buber as one of its prophets.
The need for a new English translation has been felt for many years. The old version was marred by many inaccuracies and misunderstandings, and its recurrent use of the archaic "thou" was seriously misleading. Now Professor Walter Kaufmann, a distinguished writer and philosopher in his own right who was close to Buber, has retranslated the work at the request of Buber's family. He has added a wealth of informative footnotes to clarify obscurities and bring the reader closer to the original, and he has written a long "Prologue" that opens up new perspectives on the book and on Buber's thought. This volume should provide a new basis for all future discussions of Buber.
mysterious power whose concept has been found with all sorts of variations in the faith and science (both are still one at this point) of many primitive peoples—that mana or orenda from which we can trace a path all the way to the original significance of Brahman and even to the dynamis and charis of the magical papyruses and the Apostolic letters.3 It has been designated as a supra-sensible or supernatural force, in terms of our categories which do not do justice to those of primitive man. The
the capacity for experience and use generally involves a decrease in man’s power to relate—that power which alone can enable man to live in the spirit. * Spirit in its human manifestation is man’s response to his You. Man speaks in many tongues—tongues of language, of art, of action—but the spirit is one; it is response to the You that appears from the mystery and addresses us from the mystery. Spirit is word. And even as verbal speech may first become word in the brain of man and then become
the entire burden of the dead mass of the world. The craving for redemption grows by leaps and bounds and remains unsatisfied in the end, in spite of all kinds of experiments, until it is finally assuaged by one who teaches men how to escape from the wheel of rebirth, or by one who saves the souls enslaved by the powers into the freedom of the children of God. Such accomplishments issue from a new encounter that becomes substantial, a new response of one human being to his You, an event that
Schenkenbuch), and the innkeeper is addressing the poet. This dialogue, incidentally, was added only after the original edition. But of whom could Buber have been thinking? Ich und Du bore no dedication; but the sequel, Zwiesprache (1932: Dialogue) was dedicated to Buber’s wife, Paula, with a four-line verse: An P. Der Abgrund und das Weltenlicht, Zeitnot und Ewigkeitsbegier, Vision, Ereignis und Gedicht: Zwiesprache wars und ists mit dir. “For P. The abyss and the light of the world, /
three times before he began to assist me, and he loved the book. There is no accounting for how many times he has read it now, comparing the new version with the old one, raising questions, compiling the glossary, and reading proofs. Working with him has been a delight. Siegwart Lindenberg, assisting me in two courses in 1969-70, very kindly went over the new translation during the semester break and compared it with the German text. His queries and suggestions have been immensely helpful, and