The Untranslatable in Translation. A Hegelian Dialectic

Abstract

The essay articulates the dialectical predicament in which translating is confronted by non-translating or the untranslatable in Hegel’s philosophy. It presents systematically different meanings of the untranslatable at the heart of dialectical translation itself and addresses the central question: What is, for dialectic-speculative thinking, the Untranslatable as such? In answering this question, the first part of the essay inquires into the different possible forms that the untranslatable assumes in translation, and explores the dialectical relation that connects them. On this basis, the second part of the essay discusses a specific case in which that relation can be seen at play in Hegel’s philosophy. Herein Hegel’s Logic as the first part of the encyclopedic system is presented as the paradigmatic case of the Untranslatable from which the dialectical translation taking place in the Realphilosophie issues.