Why I'm Re-Translating Metropolis
Some of the most important personal revelations for my understanding of the events of the past few years has come from literature. Just after the beginning of the first Covid lockdown, I began reading Solzhenitzyn’s Gulag Archipelago, and immediately began to understand why there were comparisons being made between the current culture in the West and the practises of the Soviet Union. Later, I progressed in to classic dystopian fiction, including 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, We, Lord of Light and others. This gave me an incredibly deep appreciation for the ability of fiction to convey things about our real existence and reality that could not be said otherwise, and of the power of story and narrative.
I feel the same can be said for certain films, and 1927’s Metropolis, from Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou, certainly strikes me as one of those. It is widely regarded as a pioneering science fiction film, dealing with themes of the loss of humanity, cult worship, the cost of technological “progress” and much more. Metropolis stands out from other science fiction and dystopian works in a number of ways. One is in the extensive use of religious and Christian imagery which is largely absent from many of its successors, which is used exceptionally well in exploring the worship of false idols, playing God with people’s lives, the corruption of innocence and so forth.
Another interesting distinction of Metropolis is that it makes the case for *both* those at the top of social pyramid as well as those at the bottom having contributed to the degradation of humanity. It even goes so far as to suggest there is a rightful place for both the “working class” and “elites”, but only when there is an effective “mediator” that can prevent both mob rule and totalitarian overreach – embodied in the protagonist of Freder.
It’s a fascinating film that has aged spectacularly well, and still proves to be just as relevant today – if not more – than it was at the time of its release. If you’ve never seen the film, the whole film can be watched, for free, on YouTube:
What is less known, however, is that the film also has a novel version, written by Thea von Harbou, which was based on the original screenplay for the film. When I first picked up the book, I found many elements of it just as enchanting as the film version, containing wonderful descriptions and elaborating on many themes and ideas which were ultimately cut from the film, such as ideas around the occult and on the motivations of characters like Rotwang, the “mad scientist” of Metropolis, who ended up being comparatively under-developed in the film version.
It is widely agreed, however, that the style of the original English translation of the book can be somewhat challenging at times, due to some awkward sentence structuring and wording. There was a “Revised Edition” released a few years ago to try and clean up the English text for modern readers, but when I delved into the German version of the text, it became apparent that the text would benefit from a wholly new translation. While some passages were translated fairly well and were in keeping with the source material, some clauses and lines from the German had been skipped or very liberally altered. It also seemed that many of the individual German words had arguably better English counterparts than the ones settled on for the original translation.
With all this in mind, I felt compelled to begin re-translating the novel. I kept the original English translation as a reference, but went through each line of German sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word, making adjustments to bring the text more in-line with the original source material, while still being enjoyable to read in English.
Given the significance of Metropolis, and that next year marks one hundred years since the novel’s original German publication, I want to create a version of this text that does full justice to von Harbou’s ideas for an English audience. However, without some sort of financial backing on this project to help cover personal and project-related expenses, I simply won’t be able to sustain this endeavour for more than a few chapters, and in no way get it done in time for this landmark occasion.
To this effect, I have decided to serialise it chapter-for-chapter via Substack, with the final goal of creating a print version of the new translation. Here’s how it works:
I’ve made the first chapter available for free. This gives an opportunity for everyone to see why I think this endeavour is worthwhile with their own eyes, and allows you all to see some of the genius of von Harbou’s ideas and writings.
Subsequent chapters and occasional essays on my approach to translation, and on the significance of the text, will be available for paid subscribers. I aim to release two, possibly three, chapters a month in order to have the whole novel re-translated in time for the one-hundred year anniversary.
In some ways, this is a very fitting publication method: the original German text was serialised in the magazine Illustriertes Blatt in 1925 prior to its publication in novel form in 1926.
I intend to continue writing new poems at the same rate as I have been. If you can think of other ways that you wish to help support this project, please get in touch with me using the contact form on my website.
Thank you all for the wonderful support you have shown me so far. With your backing, I am optimistic that this new translation will see the full light of day. Please spread the word to those who you believe would be interested in this project.
With gratitude,
Tom