Letter to the Committee of the Library of Classics of Philosophy written 29.05.1954

Prof. Roman Ingarden Sr.                     c                                  c                  Krakow, 5/29/1954
Krakow, Biskupia St. 14

To
The Editorial Committee of the LCP at the PAS
      c           c        in Warsaw

      c     Please find attached herewith the first part of the typescript of my translation of I. Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”. /pp. 1 – /
      c     I checked the entire text again, comparing it with the source and taking into account those corrections of Jerzy Gałecki, PhD, that seemed justified. Mr. Gałecki also compared the entire translation with the original.
      c     The text I am sending is therefore basically ready for printing. Some technical details regarding the printing method /e.g. the parallel printing of editions A and B/ must be discussed directly during my trip to Warsaw in mid-June. If there are any fundamental doubts regarding the core terminology, I am willing to participate in such a discussion once again, but only whilst taking into account the entire contextual material. In such case I would have to be notified in advance and I am willing to come to Warsaw on a separate occasion. /This mainly concerns the issue of how to translate the term “Erscheinung”/.
      c     However, I am not willing to accept any “stylistic” changes /apart from any possible suggestions as to the presentation of the particular terms/. I devoted almost three years to translating “Critique” and each sentence is thought through and has been reviewed many times. Corrections made by even the most capable person with regards to literature and the subject matter, but inherently undertaken while foregoing a deep study of Kant and “Critique” and hence failing to realize the difficulties that had to be overcome in the course of creating the most faithful translation possible can only deteriorate the quality of the translation by introducing ill-considered deviations from the original and confusion in terminology.
      c     Notwithstanding, if the Presidium of the Committee were of the opinion that some or all interpretative footnotes I supplied my translation with are unnecessary, I am willing to agree to remove them, even though they cost me a lot of work.
      c     I will be sending the upcoming parts of the translation every two weeks, with the “Introduction” and the “Terminological Supplement” sent after the delivery of the full translation. Same with the index, which I will only be compiling after the setting of the correction is done /in general I have already prepared it/.

/prof. Roman Ingarden/