Heidegger and the Problem of Translating the Greek Beginning

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of translation in Heidegger based on the concept of beginning. Depending on how the beginning is thought of, the meaning of translation changes decisively. Thus, starting with a clarification of the concept of beginning within ‘being-historical thinking’, which is often absent from the debate on translation in Heidegger, the groundlessness of a Greek beginning understood as a pure, extra-historical and unspeakable origin, which would therefore determine translation as an inevitable failure, is shown. From the ‘spatio-temporal structure of the beginning’ opened up by translation – thus from Heidegger’s premises – a downgrading of the priority of the Greeks is also suggested, regaining the possibility of a ‘Latin beginning’.