The Tin Drum

by Günter Grass

  The English words have a different rhythm, and the German prepositional pairs—auf/ab, aus/ein, fort/nach—are only approximately matched in English by up/down, out/back, and dis/re, but drum and memory are now linked as Grass intended.

  From the day of his birth beneath two sixty-watt light bulbs, the rhythm of Oskar's life is rapped out on his drum. The novel itself is generated to that sound, which resonates from one passage to the next, at times soft and gentle, at times strident and insistent. As Oskar wears out drum after drum, the chapters rise in turn. And by the closing page those drumbeats have been transformed to poetry.

  In German the effect is often like jazz, with riffs on words instead of notes. In such freewheeling passages Grass urged us to find equivalents in our own language, but to sense and maintain a rhythmic flow. Encouraged by Grass, I have sometimes placed the sound and rhythm of a sentence above normal syntax and grammar.

  Chapter and Verse: Concluding Words

  The precision with which Grass weaves the verbal web of The Tin Drum is remarkable, and one of the major challenges of a new translation is to follow each thread in detail. Again and again Grass echoes earlier passages, building a cumulative effect by the end of the novel that is particularly powerful.

  Tracing these motifs in translation is sometimes difficult, but it is far easier today than it was fifty years ago, because we now have a technology that makes it easier for us to identify repetitions. As a collateral benefit, it has been possible to correct several dates, facts, and figures in The Tin Drum, including one or two instances of authorial inconsistency. (Thus the number of stairs Oskar threw himself down when he took his plunge into the cellar has now been firmly established as sixteen.)

  Even chapter titles in The Tin Drum are often precisely echoed in the text. In the new translation the episode formerly entitled "No Wonder" is now called "No Miracle," since in the chapter itself the phrase refers straightforwardly to the failure of the boy Jesus to perform a miracle for Oskar. The chapter title "He Lies in Saspe" remains unchanged, but when the phrase occurs in the text, it now, as in the German, repeats the title.

  These small points are multiplied many times over throughout the novel, and although the reader may not note and react to every one of them, they are central to aesthetics of Grass's text, as they are to music and art itself. In the new version, something of the beauty and complexity of Günter Grass's novel should be felt on every level, both in the macrostructure of the work and in its smallest details.

  The challenge of The Tin Drum has been remarkable. But nothing can match the challenge it must have posed almost fifty years ago. I am only too aware of the shortcomings of my own translation, of the debt I owe to Ralph Manheim, and of the good fortune I have had to share some part of this long journey with him.

  BREON MITCHELL

  January 2009

  * * *

  Glossary

  Atlantic Wall (Atlantikwall): an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by the Germans along the western coast of Europe during World War II to defend against an anticipated Allied invasion of the continent from Great Britain.

  Baron Münchhausen (1720-1797): a German baron famous for his outrageous tall tales about his adventures. The tales were later collected and published by others.

  Belisarius (ca. 500-565): one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine Empire.

  Biedermeier: a term used to refer to Central European culture from ca. 1815 to 1848, marked by the rise of an urbanized middle class that was focused on domestic affairs, with a sentimental taste in art and literature.

  Bollermann and Wullsutzki: popular characters in Danzig jokes and stories, symbolizing German and Polish elements.

  Bonbon: used colloquially to refer to the Nazi Party pin, which was round in shape.

  Burckhardt, Carl Jacob (1891-1974): a Swiss diplomat and historian who served as League of Nations High Commissioner of Danzig, 1937-1939.

  Cold Storage Medal: the colloquial name given to the medal for service in the German Army on the Arctic Front.

  Crossing the T: in naval battles, an attack against the flank of another ship.

  Currency reform: the West German monetary policy established in 1948. The introduction of the German mark (Deutsche mark) to replace the inflated Reichsmark had a highly beneficial psychological effect on German businessmen and was considered the turning point in the postwar reconstruction and economic development of West Germany.

  Der Cherubinische Wandersmann (The Cherubic Pilgrim) (1674): a collection of mystical poetry assembled by Angelus Silesius.

  De Gaulle's cross; the cross of Lorraine: the Cross of Lorraine was adopted by Charles de Gaulle as the official symbol of the Free French Forces during World War II.

  Draußen vor der Tür (Outside the Door; The Man Outside) (1947): a drama by Wolfgang Borchert (1921-1947) describing the hopeless situation of the returning prisoner of war after World War II.

  Edelweiß Pirates of Cologne: the most notorious of the armed bands of youths that appeared in Germany toward the end of World War II.

  Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften) (1809): a novel by Goethe, based on the metaphor of chemical attraction.

  Flex, Walter (1887-1917): a popular German writer who died from battle injuries in World War I.

  Forster, Albert (1902-1952): the Gauleiter, or Nazi district leader, of Danzig from 1930. On September 1, 1939, Forster declared the Free City Treaty provisions null and void, suspended the constitution, and proclaimed the annexation of Danzig to the German Reich with himself as sole administrator.

  Frings, Josef Cardinal (1887-1978): an outspoken critic of Nazism who served as Archbishop of Cologne from 1942 to 1969 and was elevated to Cardinal in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

  Greiser, Arthur (1897-1946): the president of the Danzig Senate from 1934 who signed a treaty with the Nazis regulating Danzig's relations with Poland. After World War II he was condemned to death in Poland as a war criminal.

  Gulden: the currency of Danzig from 1923 through 1939, when it was replaced by the German Reichsmark. It was divided into 100 pfennigs (pennies). Until 1923, Danzig issued paper money denominated in marks.

  Hartmannsweilerkopf: a pyramidal rocky spur in the Vosges Mountains fiercely contested by the French and the Germans in World War I.

  Heil dir im Siegerkranz (Hail to Thee in Victor's Crown): the unofficial national anthem of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.

  Hitler Youth Quex and SA Man Brand: leading characters in popular books and propaganda films who represent ideal members of the Hitler Youth (aged fourteen to eighteen) and the SA and who become martyrs for the Nazi cause. Quex, for example, is murdered by Communists. On his deathbed he converts his father, who is a Communist, to National Socialism.

  Home to the Reich (Heim ins Reich): the standard slogan in Nazi Germany promoting annexation of territories.

  Jan Wellem: the popular name for the elector palatine Johann Wilhelm (16791716), whose monument still stands today in Düsseldorf.

  July 20th conspiracy: a group, led by high-ranking German generals, who made an attempt on Hitler's life in 1944.

  Kashubes: a Germanized West Slavic people living in the northwestern part of the earlier province of West Prussia and in northeastern Pomerania. Until 1945, some 150,000 people spoke Kashubian as their mother tongue. The language forms a transitional dialect between Polish and West Pomeranian.

  Käthe Kruse dolls: individually designed, handmade cloth dolls from the workshop of the onetime actress Käthe Kruse.

  Kyffhäuser Bund: a right-wing, monarchist, ex-servicemen's association of a paramilitary nature founded in 1900. Its merger with other servicemen's groups after World War I resulted in a combined membership of over four million.

  Matka Boska Częstochowska (Black Madonna of Częstochowa): an icon representing the Virgin Mother which hangs in a monastery church in Częstochowa and is traditionally believed to have been painted by Saint Luke. Its miraculous power is said to be respon
sible for the lifting of a Swedish siege in the seventeenth century. One of the most famous religious and national shrines in Poland, it is still visited annually by throngs of pilgrims.

  Narses (478-573): along with Belisarius, one of the great generals in the service of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

  Niemöller, Pastor Martin (1882-1984): a Protestant clergyman and the leading figure in the anti-Nazi Confessional Church who spent seven years in a concentration camp.

  Pan Kichot: Polish for Don Quixote.

  Pay book: unlike American soldiers, who carried no identification but their dog tags, German soldiers carried a booklet containing full information as to their vital statistics, military history, and pay.

  Peace of Oliva (1660): a treaty that cost Poland considerable territory. Seven years later the Ukraine was ceded to Russia.

  Persil: a popular German brand of laundry detergent invented in 1907.

  Poland is not yet lost, etc.: in reference to the Polish national anthem ("Jeszcze Polska Nie Zginęła").

  Prince Eugen: François-Eugene, Prince of Savoy-Carignan (1663-1736), a famous military commander and patron of the arts who served three Hapsburg emperors with great distinction.

  Prince Heinrich at the Helm (Prinz Heinrich steht am Steuerrad): a well-known German song—"ein Volk, das solche Fürsten hat, das leidet keine Not" (a Volk that has such princes lacks for nothing).

  Rauschning, Hermann (1887-1982): the president of the Danzig Senate, 19331934. Rauschning ended his association with Hitler and the National Socialists in 1934 when he became opposed to the policies of the Danzig Gauleiter Forster. He fled from Germany in 1936 and subsequently wrote several books criticizing the Nazi regime.

  Realm of the Mothers: a reference to Goethe's Faust II (1832).

  Rentenmark: the temporary currency established in 1923 to stabilize money during the inflationary period in Germany following World War I.

  Röhm putsch: an alleged SA plot against Hitler in 1934 led by Ernst Röhm (1887-1934), used as an excuse for purging the SA on the "Night of the Long Knives."

  Rommel's asparagus (Rommelspargel): Early in 1944, under the direction of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (1891-1944), the Germans built a series of reinforced concrete pillboxes housing machine guns and light artillery along the beaches of Normandy to strengthen the Atlantic Wall. The beaches themselves were mined and provided with antitank obstacles, including slanted poles with sharpened tops, which the troops called "Rommelspargel."

  Rydz-Śmigły, Edward (1886-1941): a Polish political figure, the General Inspector of Poland's armed forces during the invasion of Poland in 1939.

  SA (Sturmabteilung): a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. These "stormtroopers" played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. They were often referred to as "brownshirts," from the color of their uniforms. The SA differed from the SS (Schutzstaffel), who were directly loyal to Hitler, by being seemingly more independent.

  Sauerbruch, Professor Ferdinand (1875-1951): a famous German surgeon.

  Schwedensprung: a site from which the Swedes launched a major attack against Poland in the seventeenth century.

  Sea marker (Seezeichen): a tall mast with nautical insignia marking the entrance to a harbor—here, the entrance from the Baltic into the Mottlau River.

  Siegfried Line: the defensive military line, called the West Wall by the Germans, built during the 1930s, opposite the French Maginot Line.

  Speicherinsel: an island formed by the Mottlau River in the middle of Danzig, so called because of its famous half-timbered grain warehouses.

  Spinach shirts of the PX (Chi Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name): members of this religious movement wore green shirts.

  SS (Schutzstaffel): the SS ("Shield Squadron") grew from a small paramilitary unit to a powerful force of almost a million men directly loyal to Hitler and the Nazi Party, with almost as much political influence as the German Army. Built upon Nazi racial ideology, the SS, under Heinrich Himmler's command, was responsible for most of the worst crimes of the Nazi Party, and was the primary organization that enacted the Holocaust.

  Störtebeker: the nickname of the leader of the Dusters. Klaus Störtebeker (ca. 1360-1401) led a group of privateers hired during a war between Denmark and Sweden to fight the Danish and supply the besieged Swedish capital, Stockholm, with provisions.

  Strength through Joy (Kraft durch Freude): a Nazi organization that provided regimented leisure for members of the German working class. It provided theater, sports, travel, and vacation opportunities at reduced prices. No organized social or recreational group was allowed to function in Germany except under the control of this official, all-embracing organization.

  Sütterlin script: the standard German script developed by Ludwig Sütterlin (1865-1917) and taught in schools from 1915 to 1945.

  Swedish punch: a form of torture in which peasants were forced to drink warm urine.

  Todt Organization: the organization directed by the engineer Fritz Todt (18911942) which conscripted forced labor—often children—for construction work, notably on the fortification of the West Wall (Siegfried Line) in 1938 and the Atlantic Wall in 1940.

  Vyazma and Bryansk: two important engagements in the Battle of Moscow (1941-1942).

  Wessel, Horst (1907-1930): a German Nazi activist who was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1930. He was the author of the song usually known as the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" (Horst Wessel Song), which became the Nazi Party anthem and Germany's official co-national anthem from 1933 to 1945.

  Wiechert, Ernst (1887-1950): a German writer popular in the 1930s and 1940s.

  Winter Aid (Winterhilfe): the major Nazi charity, set up under the slogan "War on Hunger and Cold," to which the German people made compulsory contributions.

  Women's Association (NS-Frauenschaft): a Nazi organization for women. Gymnastics, including swinging Indian clubs, was a favorite form of exercise for such organizations.

  Yellow cross: another name for mustard gas, first used in World War I.

  Young Volk (Jungvolk): Nazi youth organization for ten- to fourteen-year-olds.

  ŻOB (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa): "Jewish Combat Organization," an underground movement formed in the ghetto in 1942-1943.

  * * *