Translation Policy

We pledge that the translations we offer have been provided by real human beings, many prominent in the Anthroposophical movement for decades. These are NOT ‘literal’ or AI-generated translations without human review. There are a number of problems inherent in those translation methods:

• Nuances are missed, especially in the case of older documents

• Archaic abbreviations, word usage, and concepts that can easily be misinterpreted.

• Grammatical constructions, such as the ordering of clauses in sentences, are not untangled.

• Using the most common meaning of a term, unable to recognize reasonable context.

For example, in a Rudolf Steiner lecture concerning the characteristics of genius, the literal translation was “In Faust, Goethe portrayed the genial personality” rather than “In Faust, Goethe portrayed him with the personality of a genius.”

The works of Rudolf Steiner present special challenges, similar to the difficulty in translating poetry:

• Subtle nuances are critical to understanding Steiner's complicated philosophical ideas.

• Steiner often coined new words to express novel ideas.

• Knowledge of events and individuals Steiner refers to is necessary to correctly interpret the concepts and terminology.

We prefer not to aid and abet ahrimanic materialism.