An Indian Tale
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Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha in Latin
Siddhārtha, annō 1922 edītus, est fābula vītae cuiusdam peregrīnī, quī viās variās sequitur—per ascēticam etiam per luxum—in spē veritātis universī inveniendī et pācis captandī. ¶Ē sermōne Germānicō conversus, Siddhārtha, Fābula Indica, ad operis modum scrībendī lyricum et magicum, nisi Lutheriānum, cum verbīs Latīnīs capiendam spectat. Scrīptor: Hermann Hesse, (1877-1962), Praemiō Nobeliānō Litterārum annō 1946 laureātus, nōn sōlum hōc opere nōtus est sed etiam librīs inter quōs sunt Demian, Steppenwolf et Magister Lūdī. ¶Interpres: James Rumford, scrīptor et illustrātor librōrum puerīlium, plūribus praemīs laureātus, prīmum lēgit Siddhārtha velut plūrēs aetātis suae annō 1967, tempore Haight-Ashbury et Beatles in Indiā, et memor est huius librī momentī suā in vitā.
Like many of my contemporaries in the Haight-Ashbury days, I read Hesse's book. I came by a copy fortuitously. I had a summer job at the dorms at what was then California State College at Long Beach. Some richer student than I had chucked it in the trash, where in emptying the refuse of the day I spotted it. I pulled it out and on my break began reading it, and finished it that day. My mind was filled with the notions and spiritual mysteries of the book as well as the images and vibrant colors the author invoked. Now almost sixty years later, I still remember the effect the book had on me then and decided to translate it not from the English version I had read that summer but from Hesse's own tongue.
Siddhārtha, Indica Fābula
Publisher: Mānoa Press
Paperback, in black & white.
2021
The illustrations done by the translator were inspired by art deco artists of the 1920s and 30s.
