Morals are for Sissies

Today I finally finished The Prince- all 72 pages of it. It’s quite an accomplishment, so feel free to applaud; but please no flash photography. Although it may not seem like much of an accomplishment, it was long 72 pages; I guestimate it took me  4-5 hours round trip. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Because the book was written in 16th Century Italy, Machiavelli didn’t know much English. He wrote the book in ancient Italian, so the translator must first change it into modern Italian to even hope changing it into English. For an accurate comparison, try changing Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream into modern English, then translating into Italian. The result would be nothing like what Shakespeare originally wrote; but depending on the translator it could be readable. I have to give a shout out to Robert Adam’s here- he did a wonderful job translating Machiavelli’s ideas into English.

2. Machiavelli wrote in long, serpentine sentences. Think Emerson and Thoreau. It would be quite difficult to translate the two philosophers’ work because of the complexity of their sentences. Many subjects and verbs are placed next to each other, and sorting them out can be a monumental task on its own, let alone translating the whole sentence into another language.

3. Languages commonly have unique constructions and words that cannot be translated directly- the translator must choose the best phrasing he can find even if it doesn’t come close to the meaning of the foreign word (like virtù).

4. Translations like these put me to sleep. Think back to the Iliad and Odyssey. Depending on which translation one had, reading just a few sentences forced your eyelids closed (my Iliad was like this, my Odyssey was better- I finished the whole book!! The Iliad however is a work in progress…). The point is translations are oftentimes unlike the constructions that we have grown used to reading. For a comparison I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray in about the same amount of time as The Prince, and Dorian Gray is three times longer.

5. The footnotes were overwhelming. Machiavelli references seemingly every battle and military leader from the birth of Christ to his lifetime. Granted there were footnotes explaining most of the allusions, but I ended up with a list of 24 historical figures/events that I need to research in order to gain a complete understanding of Machiavelli’s logic. OU library…here I come!

I know, I’m a pretty good complainer. In all honestly I did enjoy the book- It was interesting to read the ideas of a man philosophers have called “the Anti-Christ” and “Lucifer”. And after finishing the book, I can’t say I blame them. Strangely, I have a fascination with Machiavelli’s ideas. True, they are cold and heartless. True, he endorses a world with out rules. But still, I cannot help but agree with him. All of the assumptions he makes about human nature make sense- that is they can, and have been, observed and tested.

Now I have 210 more pages to read in my book. I’ll explain. I bought a Norton Critical Edition, which means there is other material that helps the reader understand Machiavelli, and some awesome footnotes, as I have mentioned before. And after that I have about 500 more pages of The Discourses, which are Machiavelli’s actual thoughts on government. It turns out The Prince was a “Sparknotes version” of his actual thoughts- it was purposely written in a harsh, logical tone to get his point across. The Discourses take plenty of time (more than 500 pages of time) to explain his thoughts in detail. I think it will be interesting to compare how his ideas are presented in The Prince to how they are presented in The Discourses. Sounds like something that will go in my final project!

Anywho, I think I formalized my membership to the Nerd Herd for that last paragraph. This project feels like quicksand- the more I struggle to finish, the more work I create for myself. I guess that’s just how things work. Now I’m really glad I started this project ridiculously early, so I will have time to read and digest all of the information necessary for its completion.

Bill out- mom just brought home Chinese food!!!