Paradigms for a Metaphorology

A Note on the Translation

A Note on the Translation I have tried to follow the presentation of Blumenberg’s text as closely as possible, generally only deviating from this principle where he quotes in Greek, Latin, Italian , or French. On these occasions I have provided English translations in the main text and consigned the original wording to the footnotes, except in the case of very short quotations, where the phrase in the original language follows in parentheses upon the English translation. My insertions in the text and notes are enclosed in square brackets. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. I wish to thank Bryan Cooke for insisting that I translate this book, Peter Uwe Hohendahl for accepting it for publication, David Roberts and Paul Fleming for offering valuable feedback, and Helen Slaney for sharing her expertise in Greek and Latin. During the revision process I benefited greatly from consulting Didier Gammelin’s French translation, Paradigmes pour une métaphorologie (Paris: Vrin, 2006). An Ernst Keller Travelling Fellowship from the Australian Academy of the Humanities, combined with a Marbach Stipend, allowed me to spend a month at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv researching and writing the afterword; my thanks to Marcel Lepper for the friendly interest he showed in my work, and to Dorit Krusche for guiding me through Blumenberg’s posthumous papers. Finally, I am grateful to Bettina Blumenberg, Henning Ritter, and Peter Rothacker for graciously granting me permission to quote from Blumenberg’s unpublished postdoctoral dissertation, “Die ontologische Distanz,” and from his correspondence with Joachim Ritter and Erich Rothacker in my afterword. ...