ERNST JÜNGER: DIE SCHERE #17 Text Der Weg birgt ein Ganzes, an welchem Punkte er auch beendet wird. »Unterbrochen« ist ein besseres Wort dafür. In der Welle schlummert die namenlose Kraft. Sie artikuliert sich, wo sie strandet und brandet: auf Widerstand stößt. Funkströme setzen sich in Laut und Farbe, in Romane und Melodien um. Das sind Gleichnisse. Die Fabel wendet sich mit Vorliebe dem Tierreich, das Gleichnis den Pflanzen zu dem Senfkorn, dem Lotos, dem Feigenbaum, der Lilie. Das sind Verwandte, ja Vorbilder des Menschen in der belebten Welt. Beispiele aus dem Unbelebten finden sich in den Sprichwörtern. »Der Krug geht so lang zum Brunnen, bis er bricht.« »Steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein.« Wir nähern uns der Märchenwelt. Das Kind schlägt den Tisch, an dem es sich gestoßen hat.
WALTER'S TRANSLATION 17 The path contains a whole, regardless at which point it is terminated. "Interrupted" is a better word for it. The nameless force dwells in the wave. It articulates itself where it rolls or breaks - where it meets resistance. Streams of radiation transform to sound and colour, to novels and melodies. These are parables, images. A fable preferably takes place in the realm of animals, a parable in that of plants - the mustard seed, the lotos, the figtree, the lily. These are relatives of, even models for man in the enlivened world. Examples from the unenlivened are found in proverbs. "The jug is carried to the well until it breaks." "Constant drop hollows the stone." We approach the fairy-tales. The child beats the table it knocked against. DIE SCHERE #17: Notes Absolution will be granted to every life because it is a whole even if it, as it may seem, was terminated prematurely. This is a metaphysical statement of belief which is in line with EJ's assertions in #16 about justification being needless for a life lived. Keeping in mind that "Weg" is here not only the general concept of "way" or "path" but includes the idea of the life of the individual regarded as a whole, the next sentence carries an astounding message. Though EJ seemingly discusses a mere stylistic question (namely which word fits the context better here, "terminate" or "interrupt") he serenely implies that the end of a life is not a termination but an interruption. There is something to come after death which is both a continuation of what was before the interruption and at the same time something quite different. Only on the surface the next sentence is a change of topic. Both sea waves and radio waves carry with them a latent force which metamorphoses into something visible, be it colourful or meaningful, as soon as the waves terminate by clashing with resistance, breaking onto the beach (cf. #11) or flashing round the globe until they are captured by radio or TV aerials. As EJ usually does in his writings when he touches upon metaphysical matters in the realm of the timeless, beyond the Zeitmauer, he merely hints but does not explain. The sober phrase "These are similes" invites the reader to ponder for himself those hints and trace their implications concerning what death may mean and what may come after it. You might find them breathtaking, as I surely do. He does some non-metaphysical explaining, however, in the rest of aphorism # 17. He defines the simile by differentiating it from the fable and from the proverb. He ends by detecting elements of the fairy tale in such proverbs in which inanimate things are regarded, as children like it to do, as living beings. Günter Rebing
