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No, it got changed from My Struggle (the English translation of the original title) to "Sterben", which means "dying". The correct German translation of My Stru
by niklasd 8y ago
No, it got changed from My Struggle (the English translation of the original title) to "Sterben", which means "dying". The correct German translation of My Struggle would have been "Mein Kampf", and this is why they choose to change the title in German.
I somehow would have liked the actual translation better. Sure, it would have been strange that it would share the title with such an infamous book, and I think that the similarity was not intended by the author. But I don't really like the German titles (they have individual ones for every book, Sterben is just for the last one) and I just like the intellectual honesty of a literal translation.
[Edit] Correction: Sterben is the first volumne, not the last.
- Theizestooke 8y agoI'd have thought "Mein Streben" would be a suitable alternative. Weird choice with "Sterben", although I don't know anything about the book.
- kpil 8y agoThe similarity is obviously intented. The "original" titles in Norwegian are "Min Kamp" and "Min Kamp: 1" respectively, since Knausgård planned it to be a hexalogy. (Or at least more than one book.) I suppose it's a slightly controversial title in Norway, but I guess it's too much in Germany.
- niklasd 8y agoYou're right, that seems correct. The Wikipedia [0] article also points in that direction. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_novels) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_no...
- jacobush 8y agoMore than slightly, in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
- wodenokoto 8y ago> I just like the intellectual honesty of a literal translation. If a literal translation has a completely different meaning or connotation in the target language, then it is not an "honest" translation, since you are implicitly (but knowingly) telling the reader in the target language something that isn't in the source language.