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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/ithou00bube_0 I AND THOU t. I AND THOU Martin Buber A NEW TRANSLATION WITH A PROLOGUE “I AND YOU” AND NOTES BY WALTER KAUFMANN CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK Translation Copyright © Charles Scribner’s Sons 1970 Introduction Copyright © Walter Kaufmann 1970 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons. 192123252729 C/C 302826242220 23252729 C/P 30282624 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-123845 SBN - (trade cloth) 684 10044-4 SBN - (trade paper, SL) 684 71725-5 CONTENTS Acknowledgments 1 Key 5 I AND YOU: A PROLOGUE by Walter Kaufmann 7 A Plan Martin Buber Abandoned 49 Martin Buber’s I AND THOU 51 First Part 53 Second Part 87 Third Part 123 Afterword 169 Glossary 183 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The present volume owes its existence to Rafael Buber. In June 1969 he phoned me from Boston, explained that he was Martin Buber’s son, and asked whether he could come to see me in Princeton. We had never met, and he offered no explanation; but when he came a few days later, there was an instant rapport, coupled with an intriguing lack of directness. He told me of his desire for a new English translation of Ich und Du and asked my counsel. I recalled how his father had told me that he considered Ronald Gregor Smith, who had done I and Thou, by far his best translator. Rafael insisted that those whose advice he valued were agreed that the old version had to be replaced. I myself had attacked the use of “thou” instead of “you” in print, but at this point did not let on that I did not like the old translation. Instead I pointed out how nearly un¬ translatable the book was. Rafael did not protest, but his mind was made up, and he wanted my help. I mentioned names. They would not do: the new version had to be done by someone who had been close to his father; and he had come a long way and did not want to return home to Israel without having accomplished this mission. Now I insisted that the book really was untranslatable, and that all one 2 I AND THOU could do was to add notes, explaining plays on words—and I gave an example. Instant agreement: that was fine—a translation with notes. He wanted me to do it, however I chose to do it, and it was clear that I would have his full cooperation. This I got. That unforgettable day in my study, and later on in the garden, was the fourth anniversary of Martin Buber’s death. I hesitated for a few days, but the challenge proved irresistible. Thus I was led back into another dia¬ logue with Martin Buber, well over thirty years after I had first seen and heard him in Lehnitz (between Berlin and Oranienburg) where he had come with Ernst Simon at his side to teach young people Bibel lesen—to read the Bible. In the summer of 1969 I visited the Buber Archive in Jerusalem and had a look at the handwritten manuscript of Ich und Du and at Buber’s correspondence with Ronald Gregor Smith. I asked for copies of the complete manu¬ script and of all pages on which Buber had commented on points of translation. The material was promptly sent to me and turned out to be of considerable interest. (See the Key, below.) Having noticed some discrepancies between the first edition of the book and the later editions, I asked Rafael Buber whether he had a record of the variants. He did not, but made a list himself, by hand, for my use. Both from him and from Mrs. Margot Cohn, who for decades was Buber’s secretary and who now works full¬ time in the Archive, I have encountered not only kindness and cooperation at every point but the spirit of friendship. I have been equally fortunate with my undergraduate research assistant at Princeton, Richard L. Smith ’70. He had read the original translation of I and Thou 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 ques-