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[ZARATHUSTRA IN RUSSIAN] Tak govoril Zaratustra: [Kn. dlya vsekh i nikogo] [i.e. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: [A Book for All and None]

Nietzsche, F.

Item #2022

St. Petersburg: tip. M.M. Stasyulevicha, 1899. XIV, [2], 106 pp. Contemporary quarter-leather. Rubbed spine, worn edges, otherwise internally clean copy.

Scarce. First edition of the second translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Translated from German by S. Nani. Bilingual edition in German and Russian. With the translator’s foreword. Original printed in 1883.
One of the first Russian translations of Nietzsche’s philosophical fiction Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The book features nine excerpts from the original work: the Night-Song, the Grave-Song, the Academic Chairs of Virtue, the Soothsayer, the Three Metamorphoses, Scholars, the Way of the Creating One, Reading and Writing, and the Three Evil Things. The text was translated from German by S. P. Nani and published in St. Petersburg in 1899. At the time, Russian authorities subjected Nietzsche’s works to substantial censorship, prompting Nani to carefully choose passages for translation. Importantly, Nani’s rendition emerged just a few months after Yu. Antonovsky’s “rather… poor translation” of Zarathustra first appeared in Russian print. This positioned Nani’s translation as the second Russian interpretation of Nietzsche’s masterpiece and one of the earliest Russian translations of anything by the German philosopher.
Until the late-19th century, Nietzsche, who had published his first work in 1872, was unknown to the Russian audience. Nietzsche’s books were prohibited by Russian censorship, which had grown extremely strict under the reign of tsar Aleksandr III. Nietzsche’s works were first translated into Russian in the late 19th century, with Yu.
Antonovsky’s 1898 translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra standing as the first contribution. However, these early translations were subject to censorship, resulting in selective adaptations to align with the prevailing ideologies of the time. This censorship persisted through the Soviet era, forcing translators to navigate carefully through Nietzsche’s texts to ensure compliance with official ideologies.

Worldcat shows 2 copies of the edition at the Library of Congress and Cleveland Public Library.

Price: $850.00