The first English translation of Zarathustra was published in 1896 by Alexander Tille.
Common (1909)
Thomas Common published a translation in 1909 which was based on Alexander Tille's earlier attempt.[26]
Kaufmann's introduction to his own translation included a blistering critique of Common's version; he notes that in one instance, Common has taken the German "most evil" and rendered it "baddest", a particularly unfortunate error not merely for his having coined the term "baddest", but also because Nietzsche dedicated a third of The Genealogy of Morals to the difference between "bad" and "evil".[26] This and other errors led Kaufmann to wonder whether Common "had little German and less English".[26]
The German text available to Common was considerably flawed.[27]
From Zarathustra's Prologue:
The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman shall be the meaning of the earth!I conjure you, my brethren, remain true to the earth, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not.
Kaufmann (1954) and Hollingdale (1961)
The Common translation remained widely accepted until more critical translations, titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra, were published by Walter Kaufmann in 1954,[28] and R.J. Hollingdale in 1961.[29]
Clancy Martin states the German text from which Hollingdale and Kaufmann worked was untrue to Nietzsche's own work in some ways. Martin criticizes Kaufmann for changing punctuation, altering literal and philosophical meanings, and dampening some of Nietzsche's more controversial metaphors. Kaufmann's version, which has become the most widely available, features a translator's note suggesting that Nietzsche's text would have benefited from an editor; Martin suggests that Kaufmann "took it upon himself to become [Nietzsche's] editor".[27]
Kaufmann, from Zarathustra's Prologue:
The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not.
Hollingdale, from Zarathustra's Prologue:
The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the Superman shall be the meaning of the earth!I entreat you, my brothers, remain true to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of superterrestrial hopes! They are poisoners, whether they know it or not.
Oxford University Press
Parkes (2005)
Graham Parkes describes his own 2005 translation as trying to convey the musicality of the text.[30]
Del Caro (2006)
In 2006, Cambridge University Press published a translation by Adrian Del Caro, edited by Robert Pippin.
