or to the horizon of understanding of such opinion. Making something understandable means awakening our understanding to the fact that the blind obstinacy of habitual opinion must be shattered and abandoned if the truth of a work is to unveil itself.
This interim remark about the essence of translation is meant to recall that the difficulty of a translation is never merely a technical issue but concerns the relation of human beings to the essence of the word and to the worthiness of language. Tell me what you think of translation, and I will tell you who you are.
We have the task of translating the fundamental word of this choral ode, which is a fundamental word of this tragedy and even of Greek antiquity itself. What is meant by τὸ δεινόν? The dictionary informs us: δεινόν means that which is fearful and therefore arouses fear. Yet fear does not necessarily have to be that habitual fear or fearfulness that readily degenerates into the avoidance and trembling of cowardice. The fear that the δεινόν awakens can also be that fear pertaining to reverence and awe. The δεινόν, as the fearful, is then not that which is frightening, but rather that which commands and calls for reverence: that which is worthy of honor. The fear in such reverence is not avoidance or flight, but rather a turning toward something in heed and respect, the awe pertaining to admiration, a standing firm in honoring that which awakens such fear.
As the frightful, the δεινόν can thus instill fear and chase one into open flight, yet as that which is worthy of honor, it can also awaken awe, and thus become binding and take one into its concealed protection. We may already gather from this that something counterturning prevails in what the Greeks name δεινόν. Yet on each occasion, the δεινόν, be it frightful or worthy of honor, is such as to be capable of many things, that is, powerful. That which is powerful [das Gewaltige] can be something that looms over us. and then it approaches what is worthy of honor; it can also be what is actively violent [das Gewalttätige]. and then it approaches the frightful. That which is powerful always exceeds our usual and habitual Powers and abilities. The δεινόν is therefore at the same time that which is inhabitual. But whatever lies beyond the habitual need not necessarily lie "outside" of the habitual as does the extraordinary [das Ungeheure]. which directly and essentially exceeds the habitual, so that in a certain way it stands outside of the habitual. The inhabitual can. on the contrary, also remain within the habitual in governing all that is habitual and turning itself to everything with equal ease. What lies beyond the habitual is then that which is skilled in everything. Such skillfulness is beyond the habitual