XIV. Aesthetic Education

The farther west we go, the more we find that people have lost the ability to appreciate the artistic element in language, which Asians can still experience. It is very important for us to regain at least some basic experience of the living genius of language. This will especially promote worldwide social understanding. Forgive me if I use another example—near and dear to me—to explain what I mean. But please be very careful not to misunderstand what I am about to say. On page eighty-eight in the English translation of my book Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage—translated as The Threefold Commonwealth—I find this: “The freedom of one cannot prosper without the freedom of all.” This sentence makes no sense when weighed by a deep feeling for words. As I said, you must not misunderstand me, but this English sentence is simply nonsense, because it says something very different from the original German words, which read, “ Die Freiheit des Einen kann micht ohne die Freiheit des Anderen gedeihen.” This sentence really tries to say something completely different.