FEAR AND TREMBLING REPETITION

FEAR AND TREMBLING

REPETITION

by S0ren Kierkegaard Edited and Translated

with Introduction and Notes by

Howard V. Hong and

Edna H. Hong

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

co I

Copyrighl ~ 1983 by Howard V. HOIIll Publisllfd by Pri,IC"o" Ulliversily Prm, 41 William Slr curtseyed to her as young us did she stand at the head d-it was only a moment, the bridegroom came-but

~t, and I go at things only note that the hero obtains lment. Therefore he is un­ s not irresponsibly bound let place, he has the divine lore correctly, against him; inionated sagacity as fickle lrse, makes him just as un­ more so, because he is the hat the augurs predicted a :ion is whether this disaster ting him it will also affect uld he do now? (1) Should thinking: Maybe the dis­ r, and in any case I have :ared to make myself un­ )r otherwise even this brief sible but definitely is not, gainst the girl. In a sense,

Problemal

I

the augur's pronouncement is in! but also to all and does not ev to the divine. He can do what predicted will happen. He does tion to the divine either by do· does not become the object of The outcome will be just as un the hero, and there is no secret decipher. If he wants to speak, he can make himself understan it is because in the capacity of wants to be higher than the uni self with all sorts of fantastic id forget this sorrow etc. But if th declared to him by an augur, ifi quite privately, if it had entered to him, then we are in the pres· is any at all (for my deliberation not speak, however willing he would not enjoy his silence but this indeed would be the assur his silence would not be due to as the single individual in an ab but to his having been placed absolute relation to the absolute. would also be able to find inn noble silence would always be the ethical. It would be altoget sometime attempt to begin w ended-in the illusion of rna this, it would be working ha for this is the only power that its battle with the ethical. Qu state her love for Essex by si was a heroic act, even though sentment involved because he is known, he had in fact done ing had held it back. It is said,

1mbling

land the separation is to be because it, too, results from :at difficulty in the dialectics , is supposed to strike only they do not achieve a com­ Ig, whereas heaven separates Ise they are equally close to here, then there would have )es not use any visible force p to them, it is conceivable , to defy heaven along with

leak. His heroism, then, es­ , the esthetic magnanimity, ever, cannot easily be imag­ le vanity that is implicit in y must be clear to him that ~he reality of this heroism is Id canceled it; for otherwise :specially in our day, which ill in the forgery that does t lies between. still get no further than the ~r all, possible that it could c. Everything depends upon room stands to the augurs' ray or another will be deci­ lcement publici juris [public ivate matter]? The scene is :nt is understandable by all. not only can understand the to understand that an augur the single individual. Thus

passion against passion provides a minutiae within the same passion. a girl, after having fallen in love, a sin and prefers a heavenly love, lCtic, because her life is in the idea.

Agnes has won, and the m can she be his; he cannot because he is indeed only a of changing'" the merman also changed Agnes a littl~ entirely without guilt, sin . game-playing and an ins seduction in which the gil, cent. To modernize my idi, is a woman who demands that can always be sure 0 mermen discover this kin them like the shark after say-or perhaps it is a ru circulate--that so-called tion. No, existence is mor, only one means, and that' * The legend could be treated has seduced many girls before,' He is no longer a merman, or, if who for some time now has sat grieved. But he knows-as the I, by the love of an innocent girl. does not dare to approach them. he has already seen her many captured by her beauty, her quiet sadness, not wild desire. And whispering of the rushes, she s dreams; she is lovelier than any guardian angel who inspires the courage, approaches Agnes, wins Agnes is not a quiet, tranquil g' sad sighing of the waves gave h, raged more violently. She wan into the infinite with the merm merman. She disdained his hu sea roars and the waves froth, a and plunges into the abyss with full of lust, because in this girl he tired of Agnes, but no one has mermaid who lured men with h,

'rembling

md sat for ten days with one nd not saying one word, and d be a subject for a poet who .people; otherwise, it can best th whom the poet frequently

ch along the lines of the de­ le legend about Agnes and the ~ducer who rises up from his seizes and breaks the innocent : in all her loveliness and with : to the soughing of the sea. pretation 26 until now. Let us las a seducer. He has called to words has elicited what was lhe found what she was seek­ Or as she stared down to the willing to go with him. The \gnes throws her arms around soul, she gives herself to the lding on the beach, crouching unge down with his bootymore, not fearfully, not de­ ad luck, not intoxicated with in absolute humility, like the elf to be, and with this look o him in absolute confidence. oars, its wild voice is stilled; merman's strel!gth, forsakes l-and Agnes is still looking nan breaks down. He cannot ce, his natural element is dis­ lee Agnes. He takes her home y wanted to show her how 1m, and Agnes believes him. sea is wild, but not as wild seduce Agnes, he can seduce lke any girl infatuated-but

Problema

designs his deception, the less A suffering from him; she will u will not be without effect-that i of tormenting him. With the assistance of the dem would be the single individual was higher than the universal. quality as the divine, namely, t able to enter into an absolute rel ogy, the counterpart to that par has, therefore, a certain similari Thus, all the anguish the mer proof that his silence is justified. that he can speak. So if he spea, hero, in my opinion a grandiose, haps few who grasp what consti then have the courage to divest he can make Agnes happy by his age, humanly speaking, to crush like to make just one psychologic selfi.sWy Agnes has been develo deception will be. Indeed, it is n life the demonic ingenuity of a Agnes, humanly speaking, but extraordinary from her, for a de • Esthetics sometimes treats a similar way. The merman is saved by Agnes, happy marriage! A happy marriage-that to speak at the wedding, I think it would the cloak of love over the merman, and superficial to believe that marriage is lilt, sold in whatever condition it is when the ics just sees to it that the lovers find eac about the rest. If only it would see what time for that and promptly proceeds to Of all the branches of knowledge, estb who has really loved it becomes in one, never loved it is and remains a pecus [du

an consciousness and an preexistence,31 in pped. There is noth­ he step he now takes e seducer is crushed, lcence, he can never es struggle over him: epentance alone gets repentance get him, y repentance and he

Agnes unhappy, for :ven when he seemed concealed it, she still :hed to show her the Ie, in his passion the nhappy, for he loved md in addition had a I repentance probably hment, and the more

Ilent, he perhaps will ust as in a sense one -Ie knows that Agnes ay from Agnes, then ? The merman is too sion will arouse her cite all the dark pas­ ler, to make her love pride. He 32will spare contradiction in the ever so much more 1 people. The more 11 be deceived (for it nk that it is easy to found, and it is easi­ all the more terrible nore ingeniously he

Problema III

pline, but if it affirms sin, then it has Philosophy teaches that the immedial This is true enough, but what is not t the immediate,33 any more than fait diate. 34 As long as I move around in thes easy, but nothing of what has been ham, for Abraham did not become way of sin-on the contrary. he was " chosen one. The analogy to Abraha parent until after the single individu position where he is capable of fu now the paradox repeats itself. Therefore, I can understand the man, whereas I cannot understand cisely by way of the paradox that point of wishing to realize the univer and is initiated into all the anguish of a demoniac and as such is destroye but does not sagaciously think that in the bondage of repentance he can' he no doubt finds peace but is lost comes disclosed, if he lets himself he is the greatest human being I ca esthetics that thoughtlessly supposesl oflove by having the prodigal be lov' thereby saved; it is only esthetics t and believes that the girl is the her merman. The merman, therefore, without, after having made the infi ance, making one movement more: of the absurd. He can make the under his own power, but he also U: for it and therefore cannot possibly power and grasp actuality again. If; sufficient passion to make either skulks through life repenting a little will come out in the wash, 'then hl"! l

g

leople, and in his own th a person. I apex. If he is rescued re are two possibilities. hiding, but not depend as the single individual demonic, but he finds that the divine will save !'\ges would make the ;)f thinking the merman nastery.) Or he can be nterpreted to mean that 'om becoming a seducer :ue attempt that always y in the merman's life), saved insofar as he be­ 1\gnes. He must, how­ other words, when the Ile outside the universal, ring come as the single . the absolute. Now here hat says more than has Sin is not the first im­ I sin, the single individ­ n of the demonic para­ , a contradiction on the md itself from a person ldispensable condition]. phy were also to think o want to act according ge kind of comedy out completely futile disci-

my reference to the question

'rk is centered on Abraham, tegories-that is, insofar as I ethics founders precisely on I expression, but precisely as

this is of small concern in, has attained the highest, been so much at the mer is inconceivable that it h generatio aequivoca [self-pr given birth to its hero, 1 the dreadful theatrical pie laugh and forget that it . other value does existence one has already attained And what higher move that entering the monaste wretched worldly wisdo in the place of honor, tha ing that they have perfo them from even attemp . made the monastic move the movement of the abs stand what the absurd is? a way that they have ren everything? How many a what they are able to do And is it not true that if t are most likely to be fo part among women? The clairvoyance, just as a d understanding himself, fo the comic. If this were ac then the theater perhaps one's dying for love is m haps be more salutary fo among us, if the age we so that for once it could power of the spirit, the c the better side of itself, j, through laughter. Should the ridiculous Erscheinung der to fmd something to

, Trembling

ld in this way he can very easily others achieve it as well-that , into thinking that things hap­ in a game in which everything t is amusing to think how odd nortality of the SOUP6 can be so rhen everyone can achieve the as actually made just the move­ bts. The conclusions of passion l-that is, the only convincing here more affectionate and loyal r it excludes no human being, o one, for in the world of spirit himself. It is everyone's opin­ ted to make a judgment about to enter a monastery is not the therefore believe that everyone Iters the monastery, is greater 1s who found rest in a monas­ nave sufficient passion to think lves honestly? The very idea of Ie this way, of taking the time lee every single secret thought, lways make the movement by est in him, he may in anxiety 'Orth-if in no other way, then lotions hiding in every human :h others one so easily forgets, ed in so many ways, get the this thought alone, conceived ~lieve, chastise many a man in :eady attained the highest. But

this, and yet, oddly enough, even in less reflective paganism the two au­ ~w of life, yvG>th OQVT6v [know your­ t, by penetratingly concentrating on ~rs the disposition to evil. I scarcely agoras and Socrates.J7

Prohl

long as eyes can see] (cr. Lo has become unhappy in love, that; Sarah was that before sh to fmd the person to whom" unspeakably grievous not to girl gives herself, and then i free. But Sarah was never frl herself. It is grievous if a gi but Sarah was deceived befo of sorrow will come as a marrying her! What weddiJ als! No girl has been as defr defrauded of the highest blis c, by even the poorest of m sured, unlimited, unbound, there should indeed first be heart and liver of the fish on must the mother take leave herself is defrauded of eve mother of the most beautifi prepared the chamber, an wept, and she received her to her: My child, take hea may exchange your sorro-..1 And now comes the time we can read at all through, shut and they were togethc said: Rise up, sister, and w mercy upon us (8:4). If a poet read this sto hundred to one that he wo young Tobias. The heroic life in such obvious dangl again, for the morning aft, Send one of the maids to can bury him and no one courage would be the sub' Tobias behaves gallantly i

g :ter would remind it of

plot is wanted, because : in motion, one could :.38 The young Tobias . of Raguel and Edna. She has been given to he bridal chamber. For for the comic effect is of a girl's seven futile e was very close to it, his examination seven :ot lies elsewhere, and lrtant and in a certain Ise the young Tobias's because he is his par­ le appalling aspect ob­ lis must be put aside. 'een in love, who still her prodigious, enor­ ~briefzum GlUcke" [full ,] to love a man with .than anyone else, for loves her will kill her lave read about many found a grief as pro­ ut if the unhappiness ill to be found. If ex­ that which could have o know that he could omable grief that no unt of time can cure--­ r existence did every­ ly much in his simple 6d~ 'EQwta eqlUyev ij

I! ~A.brW, I could have imag­ Ile, and if I had been laged it, but no poet

iVords more closely, I\braham to manage ove, the distress and icular to the silence: >elf-contradiction to : him out of the par­ ~e decisive moment Ilullifies all that pre­ Isaac in the decisive ; would simply be a en he ought to have Iless then would be y and concentration land but had shoved e actual agony was y speaking thus, he :lox, and 7°if he ac­ I have had to change otherwise he could lot even be a tragic

l preserved, and in­ :an also understand First and foremost, m he says what he form of irony, for md still do not say e belief that Abra­

provided by the death lad to consummate the '0 he said: It is better to

1,71

Once when the price of spices in had a few cargoes sunk in the s price. This was an excusable, per tion. Do we need something si . Are we so sure that we have ac there is nothing left for us to d, ourselves into thinking that we h ply in order to have something t the kind of self-deception the pres it be trained in a virtuosity alongl stead, adequately perfected in the ~ rather, does it not need an honestl and incorruptibly points to the t that lovingly maintains the tasks, • pIe into wanting to attain the hi, ' the tasks young and beautiful and; to all and yet also diffIcult and ins (for the noble nature is inspired 0 ever one generation learns from a' the essentially human from a pre each generation begins primitivd what each previous generation ha ther, insofar as the previous gen task and deceive themselves. The sian, in which one generation pe and understands itself. For exampll to love from another, no genera· other point than at the beginning more abridged task than the pre desires to go further and not stop generation did, this is foolish and But the highest passion in a p~ generation begins at any other poUl

Ia>~in this way, br:aham did; but i oflittle impor­ ld only marvel. liet on the tragic 1him. And that e jury that every ion-it gave the ::mld understand e remained true eds no tears, no love. Indeed, so ould not be the himself did not :ognizes distress

lingle individual e relation to the

ter) does not come to a S1 be indignant if anyone would resent it if someo in love; for, he would a still. I have my whole li does not go on to some' then he has another expl: 4"One must go furthe to go further is an old obscure, who deposited books in Diana's tempI mor in life, and therefo goddess), Heraclitus th through the same river t disciple who did not re ther-and added: One c ditus, to have a disciple Heraditean thesis was a denies motion, and yet t ciple of Heraclitus who aditus had abandoned.

* KaL t~a['l,

1to~a\lOii

!?On

ImEL)(a~OIV

[He compares being cannot go into the same river 158. ** cr. Tennemann, Gesch. d.;

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ill over again; the next gen­ the previous one, that is, if nd did not leave it high and S, of course, something that the generation does indeed D do with the fact that the ~ task, unless this particular it, presumptuously assumes it who rules the world and me weary. If the generation ronder, then, that all exist­ surely is no one who found ailor who, according to the tile alive and contemplated t. As long as the generation which is the highest, it can­ i always adequate for a per­ vacation have already played It. and impatiently ask: Can't -does this show that these d more advanced than the : previous generation who t all day long? Or does it ren lack what I would call ng to play? I person. There perhaps are ) not come to faith, but no also are many in our day ide. I dare to refer only to he has a long way to go, ive himself or what is great )d disease one may wish to : life has tasks enough also Ile to faith, and if he loves : wasted, even if it is never /\Tho perceived and grasped bas come to faith (whether 11 and simple does not mat­