2nd Nadirism: The Writer’s “Soul.”
The writer possesses nothing more than the word, with which they shoot up flares from the distant islands of their “soul.” It is both tool and product, both fiddle and song.
Der shrayber farmogt nisht mer vi dos vort, mit velkhn er git funk-signaln fun di farvorfene indzlen fun zayn “neshome.” Es iz zayn getsayg un produkt, zayn fidl un lid.
3rd Nadirism: The Other Side
Just as a hunted animal does not jump over a fence for the sake of jumping, but to reach the other side, so I use words, merely in order to overcome them all the quicker, in order to reach the other side of words.
Punkt vi a faryogte khaye shpringt nisht ibern ployt tsulibn shpring, nor kedey tsu zayn af yener zayt, azoy nuts ikh verter, bloyz kedey zey ibertsukumen vos shneler, kedey tsu zayn af der anderer zayt verter
4th Nadirism: Too-much/Too-little
For some writers, writing is a process of self-liberation from their own too-muchness; for other writers, it is a process of filling their own too-littleness.*
Bay a teyl shraybers iz dos shraybn a protses fun bafrayen-zikh fun zeyer tsufil, bay andere vider iz dos a protses ontsufiln dem eygenem tsuveynik.
5th Nadirism: Bad Writers
The bad writer always writes what they want, the good writer writes what they can. But the honest writer can always write what they want, for what they want is always within the borders of their ability.
Der shlekhter shrayber shraybt shtendik dos vos er vil, der guter shrayber shraybt vos er ken. Nor der erlekher shrayber ken shtendik shraybn dos er vil, vayl dos vos er vil iz shtendik in di grenetsn fun zayn kenen.
(From the section Ink and Pen (tint un feder.))
By Moyshe Nadir
Translated by Corbin Allardice
*- Nadir’s choice of terms here strikes me as interesting as it seems that several dominant theorists (Particularly Eric Santner and Zizek) have, in recent years, taken to using this same term “too-muchness” (tsufil) as opposed to the perhaps more expected “excess.” Indeed, Google’s Ngram Viewer shows that the term entered English publications around 1830 and, after undergoing various spikes and falls, has steadily risen since 1996 to its highest ever usage by a factor of two. The term is, of course, attested in German (Das Zuviel), so perhaps it is not as interesting as I make it out to be.
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