venerdì 13 novembre 2015

Edizioni inglesi, edizioni italiane


All'inizio di questo blog segnalai che a mio avviso era preferibile leggere l'originale edizione inglese de L'inconoscibile Gurdjieff anziché la versione italiana. Recentemente, ho pensato lo stesso per altri libri. 

Come ho scritto nei giorni scorsi, Tu l'amerai di T. Tchekovitch è la versione italiana del libro intitolato Gurdjieff: A Master in Life. I due libri sono quasi identici, ma la versione inglese ha delle frasi in più che spiegano meglio il Lavoro interiore (forse aggiunte in un'edizione successiva?).

Gli appunti di Diana Huebert, a cui ho accennato ieri, riportano questo aneddoto che sarebbe stato narrato da Fritz Peters. Non ricordo di averlo letto nei libri gurdjieffiani di quest'ultimo, nemmeno in inglese. Potrebbe essere stato eliminato in edizioni successive (ipotesi corroborata dal fatto che persino questi appunti privati rimproverano Peters per aver riferito in modo incompleto l'episodio). Lo riporto in inglese:

Some members did not survive the shocks and turned from Gurdjieff forever as a teacher. Others were so badly shaken in the upheaval that it was some time before they were able to confront the weakness which Gurdjieff had attempted to expose and uproot with such force.
Fritz Peters has recounted the story of one couple who followed Gurdjieff to New York shortly after his last visit to Chicago, giving up their jobs and uprooting their lives to continue their work in closer proximity to the Master. Their young daughter of fourteen accompanied them and it is quite possible that their move was prompted in part in order that she at an impressionable age would have this early exposure to Gurdjieff and his work.
Mr. Peters did not relate certain facts bearing on the case. But Gurdjieff was aware of the innermost weaknesses and immaturities of their individual natures which had caused each to take a lover although ostensibly holding the marriage intact. Thus when Gurdjieff suggested in dead seriousness and with all the innuendo and subtlety of which he was capable that their daughter become his mistress, they being blind to their own inner state were dealt a blow in the area of the erotic by means of the daughter. Their prurient horror of this base suggestion shattered their faith in Gurdjieff as a teacher which was echoed by another couple, members of our group, who were aunt and uncle to the young girl. To my knowledge, the parents were unable to face their reflection in the mirror and never returned to group work after their hasty departure. The second couple I learned later had become members of the theosophical society.

Da ultimo, segnalo che Gurdjieff e le donne della Cordata di W.K. Patterson (Ladies of the Rope) ha un complemento molto interessante nel libro uscito tre anni dopo, The Women of the Rope, non tradotto in italiano. Esso è la raccolta integrale degli appunti di Kathryn Hulme e Solita Solano, presentata senza commenti.

Le fronde onde s’infronda tutto l’orto
dell’ortolano eterno, am’io cotanto
quanto da lui a lor di bene è porto.

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