Ben Petre, The Misadventures of Kazantzakis's Kapetan Michalis in Translation

The Misadventures of Kazantzakis's Kapetan Michalis in Translation

Ben Petre

Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Supplement to Volume 28,Number 1, May 2010, pp. 241-262 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University PressDOI: 10.1353/mgs.0.0107

For additional information about this article

Access Provided by your local institution at 08/12/11 11:50PM GMT

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mgs/summary/v028/28.1A.petre.html

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mgs/summary/v028/28.1A.petre.html

Journal of Modern Greek Studies 28 (2010) 241–262 © 2010 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

241

The Misadventures of Kazantzakis’s Kapetan Michalis in Translation

Ben Petre

Abstract

It has long been known that Jonathan Griffin’s English translation of Nikos Kazantzakis’s Kapetan Michalis is plagued by omissions and inaccuracies. Previous investigations accounted for these in terms of an attempt to remove blatantly anti-Turkish sentiment (Vamvaka 1998) or to reduce the author’s tendency to digress or provoke (Beaton 2006), without investigating the pos-sibility that Griffin was not translating from the original Greek text. Recently catalogued unpublished correspondence between translators, publishers, and Eleni and Nikos Kazantzakis reveals that Griffin based his version on Helmut von Steinen’s rendition of the novel in German, which was substantially altered by Walter Kahnert of Herbig Verlag before appearing in print. Moreover, it emerges that the English text is just one in a series of translations commis-sioned by the German-Jewish publisher Max Tau, who made use of an exten-sive network of contacts to promote Kazantzakis’s work on the international market, with what was often scant regard for the accuracy of foreign language editions. Based on this finding, a comparison of translations published in six Germanic languages (German, English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch) enables us to propose a stemma for Northern European versions of Kapetan Michalis.

To state that Nikos Kazantzakis is the most translated modern Greek prose author is something of a platitude. For decades now, the colorful dust jackets adorning foreign editions of his works have been on display at the Historical Museum of Crete and the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum in Varvari, Crete; since 1997 they have also been viewable online, thanks to the Historical Museum’s “Nikos Kazantzakis Files.”1 Yet beyond the admiration and pride justifiably felt in Greece at such a publishing feat, recent years have seen growing academic interest in the quality of the translations per se. In a 1997 paper given at the Eighth Congress of Cretan Studies, Stamatis Philippidis pointed out that a number of scenes were absent from the English translation of Kapetan Michalis (published in

242 Ben Petre

the in the U.S. as Freedom or Death and in the U.K. as Freedom and Death) (2000:213, note 7). The following year, Aristea Vamavaka used informa-tion provided by Philippidis about these omissions to check the French edition, which she discovered was much closer to the Greek original (1998). Six years later, at a conference in Rethymnon, Roderick Beaton examined numerous problems associated with the English translations of Zorba the Greek, Kapetan Michalis, and Christ Recrucified (2006).2

Due to the overall complexity of the issue, the present investigation is restricted to Kapetan Michalis, which fared worse than the other novels in terms of heavy-handed editing, abridgement, and mistranslation. This applies not only to English, but also to a series of editions com-missioned in other Germanic languages—German, Norwegian, Danish, and Dutch—even extending to Swedish, where it would appear that the accurate rendition by Börje Knös—a conscientious modern Greek scholar and close friend of Kazantzakis—was abridged before appearing in print. Diether Roderich Reinsch’s important observation that the Nor-wegian text was based on the German translation led to the inclusion of Scandinavian and Dutch-language editions in this study, since they allow for comparison with problematic passages in the English translation by Jonathan Griffin (Reinsch forthcoming). Four principal threads guide us through this linguistic labyrinth: previous studies, publication history, correspondence between the Kazantzakis couple and their editors and translators, and, of course, the texts themselves.

Whatever our findings may be, it is worth bearing in mind just how radically things have changed since the 1950s when Kazantzakis’s novels were written and first marketed abroad. At that time, professional modern Greek scholars capable of producing renditions equal to those by Börje Knös, and later by Peter Bien, were extremely rare.3 With their eyes firmly fixed on the Nobel Prize for Literature, to say nothing of financial gain, Kazantzakis, his wife Eleni, and their publishers would not unnaturally have been interested in establishing a worldwide readership as rapidly as possible. Beyond this, we know that the practice of indirect translation was far from unknown to Kazantzakis, since his numerous Greek renditions of works by German authors, and even Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, were based on French editions rather than on original texts (Koutsourelis 2007; Kazantzaki 2007:93).4

So how did Kazantzakis’s works come to be translated so rapidly and into so many languages? Investigation reveals that the key figure in disseminating the novels abroad was the German author, editor, and publisher Max Tau.5 His role, which is instantly apparent from relevant correspondence, as well as from multiple references to him by Pandelis Prevelakis (1965) and Helen Kazantzakis (1983), is stressed by Reinsch

243The Misadventures of Kapetan Michalis in Translation

Figure 1. Cover illustration for the first Greek Edition of Kapetan Michalis by Mavridis Press (1954). Photography by Ben Petre.

244 Ben Petre

(forthcoming). Tau’s acquaintance with Kazantzakis dates to 1951. In a warm letter written in Oslo on 29 August of that year, he stated: “Sie haben durch Ihr Werk meinem Leben eine neue Aufgabe gegeben; ich werde nicht ruhen, bis ich diese Aufgabe erfüllt habe” (“Through your work you have set me a new task in life. I shall not rest until I have accomplished that task”) (ΕΠΑΡΚ 1795).6 Others assisting in the attempt to win over publishers were the Dutch left-wing author, A. Den Doolard (Cornelis Spoelstra), and his wife, Erie, who lost no time in establish-ing contacts in the U.S. Prologues by den Doolard later appeared in the American editions of Christ Recrucified (original U.S. title, The Greek Passion) and Freedom and Death.7 Kazantzakis did have some reservations about Tau. In a letter to Eleni in June 1951, he described the publisher as «υπερβολικό» (“over the top”) and claimed that it might be wise not to accept his opinion. Yet he had no doubt of «τη φήμη που έχει ο Tau στις σκανδιναβικές χώρες» (“the prestige Tau has in the Scandinavian countries”) (ΕΠΑΡΚ 196Α–196Β). Much harsher judgment was passed by Knös, whose main concern as an academic was that the translations be of high quality. Writing to Kazantzakis on 2 December 1951, he com-mented: «είναι άνθρωπος πολύ ενθουσιώδης και πολύ επιτήδειος πραγμα-τευτής-εκδότης, όχι αγραμματισμένος [sic], μα ούτε πολύ μορφομένος [sic], κυρίως πραγματευτής» (“a very enthusiastic person and a highly skilled publisher-cum-dealer, neither illiterate nor highly educated—above all a dealer”) (ΕΠΑΡΚ 500). In a postscript, Knös expresses his indignation at the fact that Tau wanted the translation to be completed rapidly, without necessarily being accurate. The letter ends: «Είμαι σοβαρός φιλόλογος, και τούτο δεν μου αρέσει. Τούτο μεταξύ μας, Σας παρακαλώ!» (“I am a serious philologist, and do not like this. [Keep] this between us, please!”). The deal went ahead, nonetheless, and on 12 March 1952 the Kazantzakises informed Knös that Tau had signed contracts with publishers in America, Denmark, and England (ΕΠΑΡΚ 674Α–Β).

The publishers in question were Simon and Schuster in New York, Jespersen og Pios Forlag in Copenhagen, and the press run by Tau’s former employer Bruno Cassirer, re-established in Oxford after Cassirer and his son-in-law Günther Hell (later known as George Hill) fled Ger-many in 1938.8 From 1952 onwards, Dutch translations of Kazantzakis’s works were produced by De Fontein Press, possibly following mediation by Tau. This network also extended to Herbig Verlag in Germany, then owned by Tau’s old friend, Walter Kahnert, and to Tanum in Oslo, whose editor-in-chief was none other than Tau himself. This group of publish-ers produced two of the editions most plagued by mistranslations and omissions: Christ Recrucified 9 and Kapetan Michalis. Matters were rather


different in Sweden, where Knös collaborated with Ljus Förlag in pro-ducing accurate translations based on the original Greek manuscripts, beginning with Zorba the Greek in 1949, but the Swedish translation of Kapetan Michalis did not appear in full.

What were the consequences of this publishing network for the fate of Kapetan Michalis? To answer this question, we must turn to the translators and their texts. Here we are fortunate in having correspond-ence relating to the first translation to appear in a Germanic language, issued by Herbig Verlag as Freiheit oder Tot in 1954. The translation was entrusted to Helmut von der Steinen, a German-Jewish (like Tau) Homeric scholar and friend of Kazantzakis. From late 1953 onwards, he sent a series of letters from Cairo, where he was working from a Greek manuscript. Two of these letters unravel the mystery surrounding the omissions in so many editions of the novel. On 28 February 1954, von den Steinen wrote to advise Kazantzakis of the following:

Έκανα ό, τι μπορούσα να ξαναδώσω την άγρια φερσκάδα της γλώσσας Σας στα Γερμανικά, που, όπως ξέρετε, σχετικά εύκολα εφαρμόζεται στην έκφραση ξένου ρυθμού. Μα αυτό καθόλου δεν άρεσε στον φίλο Σας κ. Kahnert του Herbigverlag. Μου έκανε αυστηρές παρατηρήσεις για το undeutsche ύφος της μετάφρασής μου και την άλλαξε «σύσωμο». Και έκοψε παρά πολύ. Τις λεπτομέρειες δε ξέρω, γιατί δε μου έστειλε δοκίμια του αλλαγμένου κειμένου. Δε μπορούσα, βέβαια, τίποτε να κάνω, γιατί αυτός ξέρει καλύτερα από μένα το Γερμανικό κοινό και πιθανώς θα βρει περισσότερους αναγνώστες με την έκδοση τη banalisée παρά με την αυθεντική και άγρια . . .

Έγραψα αυτό και στον κ. Hill. Αυτός, λοιπόν, θα δει, ελπίζω, κάποια κεφάλαια που ο Herbig του στέλνει. Εγώ φυσικά δεν έχω τίποτα στα χέρια μου. Ο κ. Hill μου έγραψε πως θέλει να μεταφράσει τον ΚΜ κατ’ ευθείαν από τα Ελληνικά, όχι από τα Γερμανικά. Από μένα ήθελε μόνο να έχει γενική ιδέα για το έργο. (ΕΠΑΡΚ 3436)

I did what I could to render the wild freshness of your language into Ger-man, which as you know is quite easily applied in foreign tones. But that did not please your friend Mr. Kahnert at Herbigverlag one bit. He made stern remarks to me about the “undeutsche” style of my translation and changed it from top to toe. And he cut out a great deal. I don’t know the details, because he has not sent me proofs of the altered text. Of course, there was nothing I could do about it, since he knows the German public better than I, and will probably get more readers with the banal edition than with the authentic, wild one . . .

I have also written the same to Mr. Hill—I hope he will look at some chapters Herbig is sending him. Of course, I’ve got nothing in my hands. Mr. Hill wrote to me that he wants to translate KM directly from the Greek, not from German. All he wanted from me was a general idea of the work.

246 Ben Petre

In August of the same year, von den Steinen received the proofs at the State Hospital in Baden-Baden, Germany where he was convalescing. It was then that he discovered precisely what had occurred:

Τελείωσα λοιπόν εδώ και δυο εβδομάδες τα δοκίμια του Κ.Μ. και έχω τώρα σωστήν εντύπωση από το βιβλίο πως θα παρουσιάζεται στο Γερμανικό κοινό. Πολλά επεισόδια είναι κομμένα και το ύφος μου εφ όσο είναι (κατά τον κ. Κάνερτ) undeutsch, είναι φτιαγμένο πιο γλυκύ και «ομαλό». Πρέπει, όμως, να αναγνωρίζω πως το σύνολο κάνει καλήν εντύπωση, και είναι πιθανώς πιο εύχρηστο για την πούληση, παρά η «μαλιαρή» ολάκαιρη μετάφραση. Έτσι μπορείτε να είστε ικανο-ποιημένος από τον εκδότη Σας. (ΕΠΑΡΚ 3437)

Well, it’s been two weeks since I finished the proofs of K.M. and I now have a good idea of how the book will be presented to the German public. Several episodes have been cut out, and since (according to Mr. Kahnert) my style is undeutsch, it has been mellowed and “ironed out.” All the same, I must admit that the sum total makes a good impression, and is possibly easier to sell than the “unrefined” complete translation. So you can be satisfied with your publisher.

To a great extent, these letters absolve von den Steinen of any responsibility—he delivered a full translation, and we have no way of knowing how many of the other inaccuracies in the published edi-tion owe their existence to Kahnert’s attempts to render the style less “undeutsch.” What we do know is that the abridgements were not the work of an English publisher, motivated by political sensibilities aroused by tension on Cyprus, as hypothesized by Vamvaka (1998:55). Precisely what is meant by undeutsch is another question, best addressed by Kazant-zakis scholars with a comprehensive knowledge of German reality at the time, such as Reinsch or Dimadis.10 Whatever the case may be, it is tempting to conjecture that a decade after the end of World War II, Kahnert removed descriptions of Turkish atrocities—particularly from chapter XIII—because he knew or sensed that they were essentially a fictional reworking of similar crimes committed by German occupation forces on Crete. Angela Kastrinaki has shown how in writing the novel, Kazantzakis drew extensively on an earlier text entitled Η Κρήτη (Crete), initially derived from his experiences as a member of the Commission for the Verification of German Atrocities on Crete (2001:392–393).

Valuable testimony on the matter of foreign editions is also provided by Eleni Kazantzakis, in a letter written some 24 years later, in September 1978, to a Ms. Elisabeth Stader. Addressing concerns about the poor translations and the possibility of putting them aright, she notes:

Oui, je le savais depuis fort longtemps que les traductions en allemand et malheureusement aussi en anglais des livres de mon mari sont très très


mauvaises. . . . Nous aurions pu avoir en allemande encore deux merveilleu-ses traductions, celles qu’a fait Helmut von den Steinen, d.i. Freiheit oder Tod et Le Pauvre d’Assise. Mais le propriétaire de Herbig Verlag, Walter Kahnert, était un homme absolument impossible, il se croyait écrivain et encore grand écrivain et se permettait de . . . corriger Kazantzaki. Von den Steinen était venu en Suisse, et c’est avec des larmes aux yeux qu’il nous a dénoncé Kahnert. Figurez-vous qu’il avait change 200 adjectifs du seul roman La Liberté ou la Mort. (ΕΠΑΡΕΚ 1846)

Yes, I have known for a very long time that the translations of my husband’s books into German, and unfortunately also into English, are extremely poor. . . . We could have had another two wonderful translations into German, done by Helmut von den Steinen, i.e. Freedom and Death and God’s Pauper. But the proprietor of Herbig Verlag, Walter Kahnert, was an altogether impossible man—he considered himself an author, and an excellent one at that, and he allowed himself to . . . correct Kazantzakis. Von den Steinen came to Switzerland and, with tears in his eyes, denounced Kahnert to us. Just imagine that he had changed 200 adjectives in the novel Freedom or Death alone.

Returning to the 1950s, we have already seen that the adulterated German translation was used as the basis for numerous other editions. The provenance of the Norwegian version cannot be doubted, since the title of the original work is cited on the flyleaf in German (Freiheit oder Tod), rather than in Greek. The Danish edition clearly states that it is: “Med forfatterens tilladelse forkortet og oversat fra tysk efter ‘Freiheit oder Tod’” (“[a]bridged with the author’s permission and translated from German after Freiheit oder Tod ”).11 As one would expect, the Swedish edition clearly states that it is translated “från författarens manuskript av Börje Knös” (“from the author’s manuscript by Börje Knös”).12 The Dutch version refers to the Greek original: “Titel van de oorspronkelijke Griekse uitgave: «ο Καπετάν Μιχάλης»” (“Title of the original Greek edition: ‘O Kapetan Michalis’”),13 but in other respects follows the Swedish so closely that the two texts appear to be related. Lastly, the English translation is devoid of any such reference other than the translator’s name.

With regard to English, we have seen that George Hill at Cassirer obtained the German text from Kahnert, but told von den Steinen that he was only interested in gaining a general impression of the work, with a view to having it translated straight from the Greek. Whatever the case may be, the translator was Jonathan Griffin—in 1955 his rendition was issued by Simon and Schuster in New York as Freedom or Death and the following year by Cassirer in Oxford, under the slightly altered title Freedom and Death.

Unfortunately, unlike other translators, Griffin would not appear to

248 Ben Petre

have entered into direct correspondence with Nikos or Eleni Kazantza-kis.14 From other sources we learn that, during his lifetime (1906–1990), he wrote poetry and produced translations from several languages, mainly from Portuguese and French, in addition to serving as a diplomat and director of BBC European Intelligence during the war.15 Yet, apart from turning up two “problematic” Kazantzakis novels—Kapetan Michalis and Christ Recrucified—a search of library databases fails to yield any other translations by him from modern Greek. Perhaps more importantly, the 1976 Manchester Royal Exchange production of Heinrich von Kleist’s Prince of Homburg was based on a translation by Griffin. There can thus be no doubt that he was capable of producing literary translations from German.16

Moving on to the texts, it is immediately obvious that the passages missing from the German translation are almost identical to those already noted by Vamvaka and Beaton in the English editions (Table 1). At the above points in the novel, the gaps in the English translation are exactly the same as those in the German, Norwegian, and Danish texts, with the exception of the fainting episode involving Kapetan Polyxingis’s sister Chrysanthi in Chapter Three, which has been cut out of the English ver-sion. At additional points, the Norwegian and Danish texts vary in what they omit; yet, as we would expect, they do not contain any passages miss-ing from the German translation on which they were based. Furthermore, neither the Swedish nor the Dutch translation is complete, but the gaps they contain are different from those in the “German” group. The fact that the Dutch text includes the tale narrated by Barbayiannis, which is missing from the Swedish edition, is a point to which we will return later. What Table 1 reveals is that the 12 different episodes translated into six different languages should in theory have yielded 72 renditions, yet only ten of these ever appeared in print.

Could there be any other way to corroborate the claim that Griffin was working from the corrupt German translation, as we now suspect? As it turns out, in the novel’s opening chapter there is a passage that will serve as an admirable litmus test. In the first few pages of most edi-tions, there is a paragraph which contains several pronounced deviations from the Greek original. It depicts Kapetan Michalis looking out over the harbor at Megalokastro:

Κοίταξε ζερβά του κατά το λιμάνι—τα καΐκια, τις βάρκες, τη θάλασσα. Ως πέρα ο μόλος βούϊζε· εμπόροι, μαρινάροι, βαρκάρηδες, χαμάληδες πηγαινόρχουνταν ανάμεσα σε λαδοβάρελα και κρασοβάρελα και σωρούς χαρούπια και φώναζαν, βλαστημούσαν, φόρτοναν, ξεφόρτοναν αραμπάδες· βιάζουνταν, πριν τσακίσει ο ήλιος και σφαλήξει η καστρόπορτα, να νετάρουν. Κουφόβραζε η θάλασσα, μύριζε το λιμάνι σαπημένα κίτρα, χαρούπι και κρασόλαδo. Δυο τρεις μεσοκαιρίτισες

Tabl

e 1.

Om

issi

ons

iden

tifi

ed b

y Va

mva

ka17

(19

98)

and

Bea

ton

(20

06)

in t

he

En

glis

h t

ran

slat

ion

, an

d co

rres

pon

din

g pa

ssag

es i

n o

ther

edi

tion

s18

Cha

pter

Pas

sage

GK

1

GK

2G

ER

EN

G1

EN

G2

DA

NN

OR

SWE

NL

III

Ch

rysa

nth

i an

d th

e fa

inti

ng

epis

ode

104–

105

119–

120

117–

118

[101

][1

11]

93–9

410

4–10

5[6

8][8

1]

VK

apet

an P

olyx

ingi

s at

th

e gr

avey

ard

174–

182

196–

206

[190

][1

66]

[181

][1

44]

[167

][1

09]

[126

]

VII

I

1. T

urks

set

out

for

Kap

itan

Mic

hal

is’s

hou

se25

729

1[2

67]

[237

][2

58]

[189

][2

35]

159

187

2. B

arba

yian

nis

tel

ls t

he

Pash

a a

stor

y 25

8–25

929

2–29

4[2

67]

[238

][2

58]

[190

][2

35]

[159

]18

7–18

9

3. K

apet

an M

ich

alis

’s d

ream

260

294

[267

][2

38]

[258

][1

90]

[236

]15

9–16

018

9

4. K

apet

an M

ich

alis

sta

bs h

imse

lf26

129

5[2

67]

[238

][2

58]

[190

][2

36]

160

[190

]

5. T

hra

saki

per

form

s th

e “d

onke

y lit

urgy

”26

1–26

229

6–29

7[2

67]

[238

][2

58]

[190

][2

36]

[161

][1

90]

6. K

apet

an M

ich

alis

an

d th

e fe

ar o

f de

ath

262

297

[267

][2

38]

[258

][1

90]

[236

][1

61]

[190

]

XI

Th

rasa

ki c

omes

nea

r to

pro

voki

ng

a ri

ot37

3–38

041

8–42

6[3

81]

[339

][3

71]

[276

][3

17]

[241

][2

73]

XII

Kri

aras

th

e rh

ymes

ter

visi

ts K

apet

an S

ifak

as38

9–39

243

5–43

9[3

89]

[346

][3

78]

[284

][3

24]

249–

252

[280

]

XII

I

1. H

ow t

he

old

lady

’s s

ons

wer

e ex

ecut

ed42

6–42

747

7–47

8[4

24]

[379

][4

13]

[318

][3

45]

[280

][3

08]

2. H

ow K

ubel

ina’

s so

n w

as e

xecu

ted

429–

430

480–

481

[426

][3

81]

[415

][3

20]

[347

][2

80]

[308

]

TO

TA

L N

UM

BE

R O

F E

PIS

OD

ES

PE

R E

DIT

ION

12 121 1

— —1

14

3

250 Ben Petre

μαλτέζες, βαμένες με το μυστρί, ορθές στο μουράγιο, βραχνοκακάριζαν κ’ έκαναν νοήματα σε μιαν κοιλάρα μαλτέζικη ανεμότρατα που κατάφτανε φορτομένη ψαρι. (GK1:10)

The corresponding passage in the Griffin translation is as follows:

He gazed leftwards at the harbor—at the steamers, the sailing ships and the sea. Sounds came from up on the mole: dealers, sailors, boatmen and porters were swarming between oil- and wine-casks and piles of rubbish, shouting, cursing, loading and unloading. They were hurrying to be done with it by the time the sun went down and the fortress gate shut. The sea poised sultrily, and the harbor stank of rotten oranges, turnips, wine and oil. Two or three middle-aged Maltese women sprinkled with spray stood on the wharf and chattered hoarsely. They were waving to a broad-beamed Maltese steamer, which was coming in with a cargo of bottles. (ENG1:4; ENG2:8)19

At the very minimum, this could be emended to read:

He gazed leftwards towards the harbor—at the caiques, the skiffs and the sea. Sounds came up from the mole: dealers, sailors, boatmen and porters were swarming between oil- and wine-casks and piles of carob, shouting, cursing, loading and unloading carts. They were hurrying to be done with it before the sun went down and the fortress gate shut. The sea poised sultrily, and the harbor stank of rotten citron, carob, wine and oil. Two or three middle-aged Maltese women plastered in make-up stood on the wharf and chattered hoarsely. They were waving to a broad-beamed Maltese ketch, which was coming in with a cargo of fish.

The original Greek text is taken from the 1953 Greek edition by Mav-ridis, which differs from later ones only with respect to the prologue—which was written some years later, and therefore never appeared in translation—and Kazantzakis’s somewhat idiosyncratic spelling. Table 2 gives the renditions of the italicized words and phrases published in each language.

Turning first to the German text, we note the removal of any refer-ence to carob, which is translated in the first instance as “rubbish” and in the second as “turnips.” Quite apart from the marked inconsistency, this does away with an important historical detail, since at the time described by Kazantzakis, considerable quantities of carob were exported from Crete (Perakis 2005, vol. I:289–291). These substitutions may perhaps owe their existence to Kahnert’s efforts to render the text more comprehensible to the German reading public, which would obviously have been more familiar with rubbish and turnips than carob. Be that as it may, Knös had no hesitation in choosing the correct word johannisbröd on both


Table 2. The Harbour at Megalokastro

Edition Page

GK1 10 .. σωρούς χαρούπια

κίτρα χαρούπι βαμένες με το μυστρί

φορτομένη ψάρι

GK2 14 .. σωρούς χαρούπια

κίτρα χαρούπι βαμμένες με το μυστρί

φορτωμένη ψάρι

GER 8 … gehäuftem Abfall

Orangen Rüben vom Schaum bespritzt

mit Flaschen beladen

ENG1 4 … piles of rubbish

oranges turnips sprinkled with spray

with a cargo of bottles

ENG2 8 … piles of rubbish

oranges turnips sprinkled with spray

with a cargo of bottles

NOR 6 … hauger av sammenrasket boss

appelsiner rotfrukter oversprøytet med sjøskum

lastet med flasker

DAN 6 affaldsdynger appelsiner roer mens vandet sprøjtede op på dem

lastet med flasker

SWE 8 höger av johannisbröd

frukt johannis-bröd

tjockt målade som med murselv

lastad med fisk

NL 6 hopen Johannesbrood

fruit Johannes-brood

dik onder het blanketsel, alsof er een troffel aan te pas gekomen was

volgeladen met vis

occasions. Furthermore, the meaning of the phrase «σοβαντισμένες με μακιγιάζ» (“plastered with make-up”) either escaped the translator or was purposely altered to “sprinkled with spray.” Lastly, the German word Flaschen; i.e., “bottles” rather than “fish,” may have been due to an error on the typesetter’s part, particularly if a handwritten manuscript was the source, since it closely resembles the accurate rendition Fischen.

However the errors are accounted for, it is instantly apparent that they passed into Griffin’s English text, as well as into the Norwegian and Danish editions. On the other hand, the Swedish and Dutch texts fol-low the original more closely. The fact that both of them render «κίτρα» (“citrons”) simply as “fruit” may be taken as an indication that one is dependent on the other. And since we know that Knös was translating

252 Ben Petre

from Greek, it is not unreasonable to surmise that the Dutch was based on the Swedish.20

Furthermore, it emerges that the German text may well shed light on other errors in the English version. One striking inaccuracy examined in some detail by Beaton concerns the phrase «δυο φρύδια κερκέζικα» (“two Circassian eyebrows”), which return to haunt Kapetan Michalis in a nightmare he has in Chapter Three. As Beaton points out, the pub-lished English rendition—“two Circassian women”—fails to establish the obvious connection with Emine, who is the object of Kapetan Michalis’s desire, and instead depicts the protagonist as lusting after Circassian women in general (2006:114). In this particular case, von den Steinen is entirely accurate in choosing the word Brauen (eyebrows). What appears to have happened is that Griffin misread this word as Frauen (women); in German the two words differ only by one letter, whereas Greek φρύδια (eyebrows) bears absolutely no resemblance to γυναίκες (women). Fur-thermore, Table 3 clearly shows that the error cannot have originated in any of the other languages under examination.

There is, however, at least some evidence that Griffin may occasion-ally have consulted the Greek text.21 In Chapter 13, the ribald ditty about Aunt Thodora is rendered fully and reasonably faithfully in German, but with an altered rhyme scheme. On the other hand, Griffin constructs rhyming couplets in tune with the Greek, but leaves two of them out (see also Vamvaka 1998:56).

The same spirit of bowdlerism may account for the alteration of the phrase «με σένα τα ’χω θεέ μου, όχι με τους ανθρώπους» (“It’s you I’m at odds with, my God, not with people”) uttered by Kapetan Michalis towards the end of Chapter Four. This is faithfully translated into German („‚Mit dir bin ich zerworfen, mein Gott,‘ murmelte er, ‚mit dir, nicht mit

Table 3. “Two Circassian eyebrows”

Edition Page Translation Referent “Women”

GK1

GK2

87101

δυό φρύδια κερκέζικαδυό φρύδια κερκέζικα

eyebrows γυναίκες

GER 98 Zwei tscherkessische Brauen eyebrows Frauen – (Weiber)

ENG1 ENG2

84 93 — two Circassian women women women

NOR 87 To tsjerkessiske øyenbryn eyebrows kvinner

DAN 77 To tjerkessiske øjenbryn eyebrows kvinder

SWE 59 två cirkassiska ögonbryn… eyebrows kvinnor

NL 72 Twee Cirkassische ogen... eyes vrouwen


den Menschen.‘“ GER:155) but, as Beaton showed, in English it becomes “‘With Thee I can endure life, my God,’ he muttered. ‘with Thee, not with men’” (ENG1:134; ENG2:147), perhaps indicating that Griffin could not bring himself to accept such hubris (2006:114).

Returning to all six translations, we find that they can be grouped according to specific phrases and sub-sections. On the phrase level, the message rung out by the bells of Saint Minas at Easter—toward the end of Chapter Five—is rendered in one of three distinct ways:

The Swedish and Dutch versions are accurate but interpretive: Kapetan Manolis is Emmanuel; i.e., Christ. Yet for some unknown rea-son, in the German group Manolis is taken to mean Crete itself, which is not “liberated,” but simply alive. The resurrection of Christ is thus dissociated from the notion of national rebirth once the Ottoman yoke has been cast off.

The above phrase appears on the last page of Chapter Five in all of the translations examined here, since the episode involving Kapetan Polyxingis’s visit to the graveyard is omitted, as we saw in Table 1. Yet once again there are differences which clearly separate the various edi-tions into groups. At this point the Greek text consists of five distinct paragraphs (see GK1 173; GK2 195–196; GER 189–190; ENG1 165–166;

Table 4. The Ditty about Aunt Thodora (Chapter XIII)

GK1 (p. 429)GK2 (p. 480) GER (p. 426)

ENG1 (p. 381)ENG2 (p. 415)

Με τη θειά μου τη Θοδώραεπηγαίναμε στη χώρα

Mit meiner Tante TheodoraGing ich zur Stadt in froher

Lust

I took my Aunt Thodora downOne summer evening to the

town

Κ’ έλεγέ μου κ’ έλεγά τηςΚι άγγιζέ μου κι άγγιζά της.

Wir sprachen viel—sie griff an meine,

Und ich griff auch an ihre Brust.

Είδε ο Θιός και πέφτει η θειά μου

ωχ, τ’ ανάσκελα μπροστά μου

Gott ließ es zu,—und hingebreitet

Lag dann die Tante dicht vor mir.

-Άχου, θειά μου, τέτοια κάλλη!Άχου θειά μου, νά ’σουν άλλη!

Wie bist du schön, ach, meine Tante,

Ach, wärst du eine andre hier!

Your beauty’s set me in a whirlAh, if you were some other girl!

Κάμε, γιέ μου, τη δουλειά σουΚι ύστερά ’μαι πάλι θειά σου!

Tu deine Pflicht, mein Sohn! Hernieder!

Und deine Tante werd ich später wieder.

Child, be a man, and have your way,

I’ll be your aunt again, some day

254 Ben Petre

Table 5. The message rung out by the bells (Chapter V)

Edition Page Απόδοση

GK1 173 .. δεν πέθανε ο καπετάν Μανόλης, δεν πεθαίνει ο καπετάν Μανόλης, λεφτερόθηκε η Κρήτη!

GK2 195 .. δεν πέθανε ο καπετάν Μανόλης, δεν πεθαίνει ο καπετάν Μανόλης, λεφτερώθηκε η Κρήτη!

GER 189 … Kreta ist nicht tot. Kreta lebt!

ENG1 165 … Crete is not dead. Crete lives!

ENG2 180 … Crete is not dead. Crete lives!

NOR 167 … Kreta er ikke død! Kreta lever!

DAN 144 ... Kreta er ikke død. Kreta lever!

SWE 109 ... (att) Kristos inte var död, att Kreta var fritt!

NL 126 ... (datt) Christus niet dood was, datt Kreta vrij was!

ENG2 180–181; NOR 167; DAN 144; SWE 109; NL 126). The Norwegian and Swedish versions, which are the shortest of all, end with the pealing of the bells; the German and English editions omit paragraphs two and three, but include one, four, and five, whereas the Swedish and Dutch translations leave out paragraphs one, three, and five, but include two and four.

Lastly, similar findings emerge from a closer look at subsections of the novel that run to several pages. The journey made by Kosmas and Kostandis to the village where Kapetan Sifakas lies on his deathbed is a good example (Chapter 13). This contains a series of digressions con-cerning the people and places the two young men encounter; it attracted the attention of previous researchers precisely because several passages are absent from the translations (Vamvaka 1998:54; Beaton 2006:113). Table 6 shows that the Norwegian text is the most heavily abridged, and that once again the omissions in the English edition are identical to those in the German one.

It is somewhat surprising to see that the Dutch translation yet again includes a passage on how Sifakas abducted his bride, absent from the Swedish edition. The most likely explanation is that H. C. M. Edelman—who does not appear to have translated any other works from modern Greek—had the entire unpublished Swedish text by Knös at his disposal, but that different choices regarding abridgement were made before the two translations went to press. This hypothesis is entirely credible if one considers that other novels by Kazantzakis were translated from Swedish into Dutch.24

Tabl

e 6.

Th

e jo

urn

ey t

o K

apet

an S

ifak

as’s

vill

age

(Ch

apte

r X

III)

GK

1

GK

2

GE

RE

NG

1

EN

G2

DA

NN

OR

SWE

NL

1In

trod

ucti

on42

147

141

937

440

831

334

427

730

5

2H

ow S

ifak

as a

bduc

ted

his

bri

de42

2–42

347

2–47

342

0–42

237

5–37

640

9–41

031

4–31

5[3

45]

[277

]30

6–30

7

3T

he

mur

der

of H

usse

in–A

rnao

utis

2242

3–42

447

4–47

542

237

741

131

6[3

45]

278

307

4D

escr

ipti

on o

f th

e m

ass

exec

utio

n o

rder

ed b

y H

usse

in42

4–42

547

5–47

6[4

22]

[377

][4

11]

[316

][3

45]

279

307–

308

5W

ith

th

e ol

d pe

ople

at

the

villa

ge w

her

e th

e ex

ecut

ion

too

k pl

ace

425

476

423

377–

378

411–

412

316–

317

[345

]27

9–28

030

8

6O

n t

he

plai

n—

the

mee

tin

g w

ith

th

e «χ

ατζίν

α»

(ren

dere

d as

“old

wom

an”)

42

647

742

437

8–37

941

2–41

331

7–31

8[3

45]

[280

][3

08]

7H

ow t

he

old

wom

en’s

son

s w

ere

exec

uted

426–

427

477–

478

[424

][3

79]

[413

][3

18]

[345

][2

80]

[308

]

8A

t K

ubel

ina’

s vi

llage

—th

e m

eal—

the

ditt

y42

7–42

947

8–48

042

5–42

637

9–38

141

3–41

531

8–32

0[3

45–3

47]

[280

][3

08]

9H

ow K

ubel

ina’

s so

n w

as e

xecu

ted

429

481

[426

][3

81]

[415

][3

20]

[347

][2

80]

[308

]

10K

ubel

ina’

s gi

ft t

o K

osm

as43

048

142

738

141

532

034

723[2

80]

[308

]

11K

osm

as r

eflec

ts o

n C

rete

an

d h

er c

hild

ren

430

482

427

381

415–

416

321

347

280

[308

]

12A

rriv

al a

t th

e vi

llage

—th

e h

ot s

outh

win

d43

048

242

738

141

632

134

728

030

8

TO

TA

L N

UM

BE

R O

F PA

SSA

GE

S12

99

94,

56

6

Tabl

e 7.

Pos

tula

ted

stem

ma

for

Ger

man

ic-la

ngu

age

tran

slat

ion

s of

Kap

etan

Mic

halis

Hor

nel

und

(DA

N)

Kri

stia

nse

n(N

OR

)

Kap

etan

Mic

halis

man

uscr

ipt(

s).

Gre

ek e

diti

ons

(GK

1,2 )

Gri

ffin

(EN

G 1,

2)

Swed

ish

edi

tion

(SW

E)

Ede

lman

(NL

)

Abr

idge

men

ts1B

von

den

Ste

inen

(Ger

man

)

Inte

rven

tion

s an

d ab

ridg

emen

ts b

y K

ahn

ert

Ger

man

edi

tion

(G

ER

)

Abr

idge

men

ts1A

Abr

idge

men

ts1C

Abr

idge

men

ts2B

Abr

idge

men

ts2A

Kn

ös(S

wed

ish

)


To sum up, on the basis of the similarities and differences between editions in the Germanic languages, Table 7 proposes a stemma for the translations discussed. It is clear that two translations were based on the original Greek text—those by von den Steinen (German) and Knös (Swedish). The Norwegian, Danish, and English editions all derive from von den Steinen’s text after the heavy-handed interventions made by Kahnert; each was further abridged according to the preferences of the publisher concerned (1A, 1B, and 1C). On the other hand, a different set of passages was removed from Knös’s accurate Swedish translation before it appeared in print (2A). His text appears to have been used in its entirety for the Dutch version, which was abridged in yet another way prior to publication (2B).

The obvious conclusion is that Kapetan Michalis was never published in full in any of the Germanic languages.25 In German, Danish, Norwe-gian, and English we have only Kahnert’s interpretation of Kazantzakis. The Swedish and Dutch renditions of the novel are more accurate, even if the abridgements do an injustice to the serious efforts undertaken by Knös. Although we do not know precisely why these abridgements were deemed necessary, they may well be attributable to the editorial policy practiced by Tau, who established contacts in Sweden while living in exile during the war.26

As others have stressed, over half a century after Kapetan Michalis first appeared in print, the time is ripe for a new series of full translations, all of which should be based on the original modern Greek text (Beaton 2004:115; Reinsch forthcoming). Yet beyond any such exhortations, the existing foreign-language editions provide fertile ground for research into publishing history, offering valuable insight into the misadventures of an important novel on the international market

UNIVERSITY OF CRETE

NOTES

Acknowledgements. A Greek version of this paper, entitled «Ποιος έκανε το ψάρι μπου-κάλι; Πιάνοντας τον μίτο της μεταφραστικής κακοδαιμονίας του Καπετάν Μιχάλη», originally appeared in Αριάδνη (Ariadne), academic journal of the School of Letters at the University of Crete, vol. 13, 2007:127–146.

1 See http://www.historical-museum.gr/kazantzakis/en/index.html. Cover illustrations

258 Ben Petre

now also appear in the website recently created by the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, along with a comprehensive bibliography of works in translation (http://www.kazantzakis-museum.gr/).

2 Interest in the subject shows no sign of abating: in March 2007 the Institut Fran-çais d’Athènes joined with other institutes in organizing a conference entitled «Ο Νίκος Καζαντζάκης μεταφραστής και μεταφραζόμενος» (“Nikos Kazantzakis as a Translator and in Translation”). I wish to thank Professor Diether Roderich Reinsch of the Freie Universität Berlin for kindly agreeing to send me a copy of his paper (Reinsch forthcoming).

3 The scarcity of qualified translators in the 1950s is also mentioned by Reinsch (forthcoming). For comments on Werner Kerbs, German translator of Christ Recrucified, see note 21 below.

4 In Galatea Kazantzaki’s novel Άνθρωποι και υπεράνθρωπο (Men and Supermen) (2007), the young Alexandros Artakis—a fictional mask for Kazantzakis—is depicted as translating Darwin’s On the Origin of Species from the French. In true life, Kazantzakis’s Greek transla-tion of the work was published by Fexis Editions in 1915. Professor Stylianos Alexiou has informed me that the French edition of Darwin used by Kazantzakis was later given to his father Lefteris Alexiou, and has since been donated to the Vikelaia Library in Heraklion. On Kazantzakis and the Alexiou family, see Stylianos Alexiou (2004). Ironically, however, there is evidence that later in life Kazantzakis was not in favor of indirect translation. In a letter to Stamos Diamantaras regarding a series of mass-market translations into Greek, dated 7 February 1942, he wrote: «Και να μπει μια απαράβατη γενικη αρχη; όποιος αναλάβει να μεταφράσει, να μεταφράσει απο την πρωτότυπη γλώσα του βιβλίου και όχι απο δέφτερη μετάφραση, όπως κάνουν για ευκολίατους οι λόγιοι μας, μεταφράζοντας τα πάντα απο τα γαλικα» [author’s stress and original orthography retained] (“Let there be an inviolable general rule: whoever undertakes a translation must do so from the book’s original language and not from a secondary translation, as our scholars do to make things easy, translating everything from French.”) (manuscript KΑΖ. Δ/25, Historical Museum of Crete). Many thanks to Professor Peter Bien (his translation) for this recently discovered reference.

5 Details of Tau’s biography are from the website of the Friedenspreis des deutschen Buchhandels: http://www.boersenverein.de/de/96671?pid=110657 (accessed 8 December 2008). The network of contacts he established in Scandinavia was partly a consequence of the exile forced upon him by Nazi anti-Semitism, which involved him fleeing from Germany to Norway and then to Sweden. After the war Tau returned to Norway, where he worked extensively for reconciliation between Christians and Jews.

6 ΕΠΑΡΚ (Nikos) and ΕΠΑΡΕΚ (Eleni) code numbers are given as used in the database for the Nikos and Eleni Kazantzakis Correspondence Archives established and maintained by the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum in Varvari, Crete. Following extensive renovations to the entire building in progress at the time of writing, summaries and full images of the original letters will be accessible via the digital library on the museum website (http://www.kazantzakis-museum.gr).

7 See the numerous letters from the den Doolards to Nikos and Eleni Kazantzakis, now held in the Kazantzakis Museum correspondence archives. For the prologue to the U.S. edition of Kapetan Michalis, see ENG1, v–viii. The ill-fitting opening reference to Kazantzakis’s following in Holland is due to the fact that the text is an English translation of the prologue written by den Doolard for the Dutch edition by Uitgeverij Bosch and Keuning (Baarn, undated:5–7).

8 In later correspondence with the Kazantzakis couple, Hell is referred to by the anglicized name Dr. George Hill.

9 Originally published in English as The Greek Passion (1953), in line with the German title Griechische Passion (1951).


10 See Reinsch (forthcoming) and also Dimadis (2002) who analyzes the impact of politics on Kazantzakis’s travel writing, and the British-German cultural rivalry on the eve of World War II.

11 Reverse side of title page (DAN). It is worth noting that though the completed Swedish translation was handed over to the publisher in 1951 (ΕΠΑΡΚ 501); i.e., two years before the first Greek edition appeared in print and three years before the German one, it was not to be published until 1955. To Knös’s disappointment, it did not serve as the basis for the German translation, as had been the case with previously published novels by Kazantzakis (ΕΠΑΡΚ 531). Indeed, one cannot rule out the possibility that Knös worked from a different, shorter manuscript than that used for the first Greek edition by Mavr-idis. In order to establish this, further efforts must be made to locate the manuscript or manuscripts in question, which are not among the holdings at the Historical Museum of Crete in Heraklion or the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum in Varvari.

12 Title page (SWE). 13 Reverse side of title page (NL).14 Regarding translators of Kapetan Michalis, museum collections on Crete only have

letters from Knös and von den Steinen (written in Greek in both cases). There are also a few from Kerbs (in German), but they concern his translation of Christ Recrucified, which was based on the Swedish edition.

15 Brief biographical information on Griffin appears on the Poetry Library website maintained by the Southbank Centre, London England (http://www.poetrymagazines.org .uk/magazine/record.asp?id=12679, accessed 7 December 2008).

16 Information on the Royal Exchange production is taken from the theater’s website (http://www.royalexchangetheatre.co.uk/page.aspx?page=474, accessed 4 December 2008). Griffin is highly unlikely to have translated the Kazantzakis novel from the French, since Gisele Prassinos’s and Pierre Fridas’s French version appeared one year after the English version (in 1956), and does not omit the passages removed by Kahnert (see Vamvaka 1998:53).

17 In a personal communication, Professor Stamatis Philippidis has informed me that Vamvaka based her comparative examination of the Greek original and the English and French translations on the omissions that he had observed in English editions.

18 Page numbers where omissions occur are given in square brackets. For abbrevia-tions of editions, see works cited. Beyond the slightly altered title and page numbering, the 1955 U.S. edition (ENG1) is almost identical to the U.K. one which first appeared the following year (ENG2). Minor differences in punctuation and spelling may have allowed interested parties to determine the origin of pirate editions.

19 There are minor differences between the British and American versions here, though not with regard to the mistranslated words and phrases examined here.

20 I have been unable to locate any evidence that H. C. M. Edelman, the Dutch translator, ever produced any other translations of works in modern Greek. Furthermore, correspondence by Knös indicates that foreign-language editions of previous novels were based on his Swedish text (ΕΠΑΡΚ 531—see note 11 above).

21 As in the case of Werner Kerbs, German translator of Christ Recrucified. On 25 April 1951, he wrote to Kazantzakis (in German) to request a copy of the original Greek text (ΕΠΑΡΚ 3118). While working from Knös’s Swedish text, he had come up against a number of difficulties and apparent inconsistencies. While he had no knowledge of mod-ern Greek, he believed that his high school lessons in the ancient tongue and a modern Greek dictionary would assist him in getting the main gist of the original. Indeed, it is not unreasonable to assume that other translators would likewise have drawn on their

260 Ben Petre

familiarity with the classical language, which lay at the core of European school curricula in the early twentieth century.

22 Vamvaka erroneously claims that reference to the murder is missing from the English translation (1998:54).

23 At this point, the Norwegian text is consistent with regard to editing; Kubelina does not say that the dark red stains on the stone were formed by her son’s blood. On the other hand, the German, English, and Danish versions retain this remark, despite having removed the previous reference to the son’s existence and the circumstances surrounding his gruesome death.

24 See letter from Knös to Kazantzakis dated 30 July 1953 (ΕΠΑΡΚ 531). 25 It was not possible to obtain a copy of the Icelandic translation by Skúli Bjarkan for

inclusion in the original study (Kazantzakis 1957). A recent preliminary examination, mainly on the basis of the “litmus test” in Chapter I described above, suggests that it belongs to what I have termed the “German” group of translations.

26 See biographical information on Tau, note 5 above. Alterations to the Swedish translation may have been associated with the delays and difficulties Knös encountered in finding a Swedish publisher for Kapetan Michalis, which he attributed to Tau’s negative stance toward the novel (see ΕΠΑΡΚ 531).

REFERENCES CITED

Alexiou, Stylianos 2004 Στυλιανός Αλεξίου, «Νίκος Καζαντζάκης: Από τη ζωή, τη σκέψη και το έργο του»

(“Nikos Kazantzakis: From his life, his thought and his work”). In Νίκος Καζα-ντζάκης: το έργο και η πρόσληψή του. Πεπραγμένα διεθνούς επιστημονικού συνεδρίου: Πανεπιστημιούπολη Ρεθύμνου, Γάλλος, 23–25 Απριλίο 2004 (Nikos Kazantzakis: His Oeuvre and its Reception, Proceedings of the International Conference at the University of Crete Rethymnon Campus, Gallos, 23–25 April 2004), edited by Kostis Psychogios, 7–15. Heraklion: Center for Cretan Literature.

Beaton, Roderick 2006 «Οι τύχες του Νίκου Καζαντζάκη σε αγγλική μετάφραση: Οι περιπτώσεις του Ζορ-

μπά και του Καπετάν Μιχάλη» (“The Fortunes of Nikos Kazantzakis in English Translation: The Cases of Zorba and Kapetan Michalis”). In Νίκος Καζαντζάκης: το έργο και η πρόσληψή του. Πεπραγμένα διεθνούς επιστημονικού συνεδρίου: Πανεπι-στημιούπολη Ρεθύμνου, Γάλλος, 23–25 Απριλίου 2004 (Nikos Kazantzakis: His Oeuvre and its Reception, Proceedings of the International Conference at the University of Crete Rethymnon Campus, Gallos, 23–25 April 2004), edited by Kostis Psychogios, 109–115. Heraklion: Center for Cretan Literature.

Dimadis, Konstantinos 2002 “Kunst und Macht: Bemerkungen zu drei Reisebüchern von Nikos Kazantzakis.”

(“Art and Power: Observations on Three Travel Books by Nikos Kazantzakis”). In Annäherungen an Griechenland. Festschrift für Anastasios Katsanakis zum 65. Geburtstag (Approaches to Greece. A Festschrift for Anastasios Katsanakis on His 65th Birthday), edited by Horst-Dieter Blume and Cay Lienau, 28–42. Choregia, Münstersche Griechenland-Studien, Heft 1, Münster.


Kastrinaki, Angela2001 Αγγέλα Καστρινάκη, «Η εμπειρία της νίκης και η μυθοποίηση της ήττας. Εικόνες

του Τούρκου στο έργο του Καζαντζάκη» (“The experience of victory and the mythologizing of defeat. Images of the Turk in the work of Kazantzakis”). In Η τελευταία φάση του Κρητικού Ζητήματος (The Last Phase of the Cretan Question), edited by Th. Detorakis and A. Kalokerinos, 389–397. Heraklion: Society of Cretan Historical Studies.

Kazantzaki, Galatea2007 Γαλάτεια Καζαντζάκη, Άνθρωποι και υπεράνθρωποι (Men and Supermen). Athens:

Kastaniotis.

Kazantzakis, Helen 1983 Nikos Kazantzakis. A Biography Based on his Letters. Berkeley, CA: Donald S. Ellis

Creative Arts Book Co.

Kazantzakis, Nikos1951 Griechische Passion. Translated by Werner Kerbs. Berlin-Grunewald: Herbig.1953 The Greek Passion. Translated by Jonathan Griffin. New York: Simon and

Schuster1957 Frelsið eða dauðann (Freedom or Death). Translated by Skúli Bjarkan. Reykjavík:

Almenna Bókafélagid

Koutsourelis, Kostas2007 Κώστας Κουτσουρέλης, «Νίκος Καζαντζάκης, μεταφραστής επαγγελματίας και

μεταφραστής προγραμματικός» (“Nikos Kazantzakis: Professional translator and translator by conviction”). Nea Estia 1806 (December):1101–1106.

Perakis, Manos2005 Μάνος Περάκης, Έρευνες για την οικονομία και την κοινωνία της Κρήτης του 19ου

αιώνα (Researches into the economy and society of 19th century Crete). Doctoral dis-sertation (2 volumes). Herakleion: University of Crete

Philippidis, Stamatis2000 Σταμάτης Φιλιππίδης, «Λαϊκότροπα στοιχεία στον Ν. Καζαντζάκη» (“Folk elements

in N. Kazantzakis”). Πεπραγμένα Η’ Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου (Proceedings of the 8th International Cretan Studies Association), Γ, 2:203–219. Heraklion: Society of Cretan Historical Studies.

Prevelakis, Pandelis1965 Παντελής Πρεβελάκης, Τετρακόσια γράμματα του Καζαντζάκη στον Πρεβελάκη

(Four hundred letters from Kazantzakis to Prevelakis). Athens: Eleni N. Kazantzaki Editions.

Reinsch, Diether Roderich forthcoming «Ο Καζαντζάκης μεταφραζόμενος στα γερμανικά» (“Kazantzakis in German

translation”). In Πεπραγαμένα Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου «Ο Καζαντζάκης μεταφραστής και μεταφραζόμενος» (Proceedings of the International Congress on “Katzantzakis as translator and in translation”). Athens, 13–15 March 2007.

Vamvaka, Aristea1998 Αριστέα Βαμβακά, «Νίκος Καζαντζάκης: Ο Καπετάν Μιχάλης και οι γαλλικές και

αγγλικές μεταφράσεις» (“Nikos Kazantzakis: Kapetan Michalis and its French and English translations”). Anazitiseis, 6:53–56.

262 Ben Petre

Editions and translations of Kapetan Michalis (cited in the order given in tables)

Greek (GK1): Καζαντζάκης, Νίκος 1953: Ο Καπετάν Μιχάλης. Athens: Mavridis.

Greek (GK2): Καζαντζάκης, Νίκος 1981: Ο Καπετάν Μιχάλης. Athens: Kazantzakis Editions.

German (GER): Kazantzakis, Nikos 1954 Freiheit oder Tod. Deutsch von Helmut von den Steinen. Berlin–Grunewald: Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung.

English (ENG1): Kazantzakis, Nikos 1955 Freedom or Death. Translated by Jonathan Griffin, preface by A. den Doolard. New York: Simon and Schuster.

English (ENG2): Kazantzakis, Nikos 1956 Freedom and Death. English Translation by Jonathan Griffin. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer.

Danish (DAN): Kazantzakis, Niko 1955: Frihed eller Død. På Dansk ved Karl Hornelund. København: Jespersen og Pios Forlag.

Norwegian (NOR): Kazantzakis, Niko 1955: Frihet eller død. Oversatt av Leif Kristiansen. Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum.

Swedish (SWE): Kazantzakis, Niko 1955: Freihet eller död. Översättning från författarens manuscript av Börje Knös. Stockholm: Ljus Förlag.

Dutch (NL): Kazantzakis, Niko 1955: Kapitein Michalis. Vertaling: Mr. H. C. M. Edelman. Baarn: Uitgeverij De Fontein.

Documents

Ben Petre, The Misadventures of Kazantzakis's Kapetan Michalis in Translation