Bereshit

Dear Anna,

The current epoch, now ending, began in the 17th century with the apocalyptic ideas of Bacon and Newton, who both wrote commentaries on Daniel and Revelation. The emerging epoch, whose character remains unclear, if it even is to have a character, will begin at the only place there is to begin after the apocalypse: Genesis.

I’ve been translating בראשית. At first I thought it was only a literary exercise. I was trying to express the concision of the Hebrew prose, which is lost in other English translations (almost all of which are variations on the wordy KJV). Now I understand my translation in broader terms as a political and poetic project at the heart of founding or discovering new regimes of truth, a parallel task to the hunt for the missing surrealists. Or, perhaps, the same task.

Have you read Jacob Taubes’ letter to Armin Mohler? Of the highest importance now, along with Augustine’s Confessions, which of course end with instructions on how to read Genesis. What makes Taubes so vital is that he made sense of Schmitt and Mohler but knew Hebrew. (You agree that nothing new can be done in German.)

ευ πραττειν,
D

ps. I’ve enclosed the beginning of my translation and eagerly await your notes. When my choices are confusing, consult the old Greek. It is just as alive for me as the “original.” I reject proximity to origin as a criterion for truth.

pps. Please send updates on your canal research, if you can. And pass along my regards to your husband.