私を殺さないものは私を強くする watashi o korosanai mono wa watashi o tsuyoku suru What Does Not Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger
私を殺さないものは私を強くする (watashi o korosanai mono wa watashi o tsuyoku suru) renders Nietzsche's maxim from Götzen-Dämmerung (1889), what does not kill me makes me stronger. This short Japanese form is in print by 1967, and it says strong where every Japanese translation of the book read here says stronger. This study follows the line into English from 1896 and into Japanese from 1913.
Abstract
私を殺さないものは私を強くする, what does not kill me makes me strong, renders the eighth of the Sprüche und Pfeile, the maxims that open Nietzsche's Götzen-Dämmerung (Leipzig, 1889): Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens. – Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. This study follows the line into English, where the first translators of 1896 and 1911 keep its heading and the quotation books drop it, and into Japanese, where Nietzsche's own retelling of it reached print in 1913, the oldest translation of the book read here printed it with a misprint in 1926, and the line was quoted as the German Nietzsche's thought by 1931. It finds that every Japanese translation of the book read here says stronger, より or いっそう, and that the short form on this scroll, which says strong, is in print by 1967.
Overview
The sense. A maxim of four words in German with a heading of four more: from the war-school of life. Nietzsche's line is about the self that survives a blow and is the stronger for it, and the heading names the setting, life as a school of war [1][2].
The words. 私を殺さないもの is the thing that does not kill me: 殺す to kill, negated, in a relative clause on もの, thing. は marks it as the topic. 強くする is makes strong: the adjective 強い made a verb with する. The German stärker is a comparative, stronger, and the Japanese translations carry it with より, more, or 一層 and いっそう, still more; this sentence has neither, so it says makes me strong [3][4].
The text in English. The first English, Thomas Common's of 1896, says What does not kill me, strengthens me, and Anthony Ludovici's of 1911 says That which does not kill me, makes me stronger; both print the heading as From the military school of life [5][6]. Walter Kaufmann's What does not destroy me, makes me stronger is the rendering the Yale book of quotations prints, and it notes that the line is popularly rendered as "Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger" [7]. The Oxford dictionary of proverbs lists What doesn't kill you makes you stronger as an English proverb, with Nietzsche's German set beside it under Cf. and its first English example from 1997 [8].
The historical record
1889. Nietzsche. Götzen-Dämmerung oder Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt, Leipzig, C. G. Naumann, 1889, per its title page [1]. The eighth of the Sprüche und Pfeile, in the Kröner text of 1922: Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens. – Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker [2]. The heading is part of the maxim.
1896. Thomas Common. The first English translation, in Alexander Tille's edition of the works, Macmillan, New York and London, volume XI, p. 98: From the military school of life.—What does not kill me, strengthens me [5]. The heading is kept, in italics.
1911. Anthony M. Ludovici. The Twilight of the Idols, first published 1911, p. 2: From the military school of life.—That which does not kill me, makes me stronger [6]. This is the first English read here to say makes me stronger; kill is Common's word before it.
1913. Abe Yoshishige (安倍能成), この人を見よ. The oldest Japanese of the thought read here is not this maxim but Nietzsche's own retelling of it in Ecce Homo, in the third person, about the well-made man. Abe's translation (南北社, 1913), in the section 余は何故にかく賢きや, p. 23: 苟も彼れを殺さぬ者ならば、却て彼れを一層强くする, whatever does not kill him, makes him all the stronger [9].
1926. Ikuta Chōkō (生田長江), 偶像の薄明. The oldest Japanese translation of the book read here, in Ikuta's ニイチエ全集, volume 9 (新潮社, 1926), p. 7, aphorism 八: 人生の兵學寮から。——私を赦さないところの物は私をより强くする。 The print sets 赦, to forgive, where the sense needs 殺, to kill; the same book prints 殺 elsewhere and the two are distinct in its type, so this reading takes it for a misprint, with the print's own words as they stand. The heading, 人生の兵學寮から, from the military academy of life, and より, more, are both set with emphasis dots [10].
1931. A quotation. A Ministry of Justice translation of an American study of parole in Illinois (司法資料, 司法省調査課, 1931) gives a prisoner's account of a flogging: 「余を殺さざるものは余を强からしむ」と云ふ、かのドイツのニイチエの考が思ひ浮べられたのであつた, there came to mind that thought of the German Nietzsche, "what does not kill me makes me strong" [11]. It is the oldest instance read here of the line quoted on its own, outside a translation of Nietzsche.
1939–1965. The sentence in Japanese books. The National Diet Library's full-text search finds the modern wording, 私を殺さないもの, in 30 items, the oldest dated 1939 [3]. 馬場久治's ニイチェ箴言集 (青木書店, 1939): 私を殺さないものは私をより强くす. Jaspers on Nietzsche in 草薙正夫's translation (創元社, 1943): 『私を殺さないものは私をより强くする』. 秋山英夫's 偶像の薄明 (角川文庫, 1951): 生の兵學校から。——私を殺さないものが、私を一層强くす…. Frankl's 夜と霧 in 霜山徳爾's translation (みすず書房, 1956): そして私はニーチェを引用した。「私を殺さないものは私を一層強くさせる。」 The 理想社 ニーチェ全集 (1965): 人生の士官学校から。——私を殺さないものは、私をいっそう強…. Each keeps stronger.
1967. The short form. Helmut Thielicke's sermons on the Sermon on the Mount, in 山本達司's translation (聖文舎, 1967), quote the line without the comparative and judge it: 《私を殺さないものは、私を強くする》、これはどんな愚物にも言うことができることばである, "what does not kill me makes me strong": a saying any fool could utter [4]. This is the scroll's sentence word for word, with a comma. The same search finds the form without the comma in a book of 1980, and with it in books of 1993, 1997 and 1998, the 1993 and 1997 ones naming Nietzsche [4].
Today. The quotation books carry the English without its heading: Yale gives Kaufmann's sentence and the popular one [7], Oxford makes it a proverb in the second person [8]. The National Diet Library's search, which reads only what the library has digitized, is the instrument for the Japanese here, and nothing in this record says how the line is heard in Japanese today.
A reading
The line travels light. In German it is a maxim with a heading; in the first English and the first Japanese translations the heading travels with it, and by the time it is a proverb in English and a quotation in Japanese the heading is gone and the line stands alone. The Japanese did one more thing: the translations all say stronger, as the German does, and the sentence that is quoted on its own says strong. It is a loss in exactness and a gain in weight, and Thielicke's verdict of 1967, that any fool could say it, is aimed at exactly the bare form. The 1926 misprint, what does not forgive me, stands in the oldest translation read here; the later translations read here print 殺.
Sources not seen
- Götzen-Dämmerung, 1889, at the leaf of the maxim: the title page was seen; the text of the maxim is cited from the Kröner text of 1922 at Projekt Gutenberg-DE. The critical edition at Nietzsche Source did not load for a script.
- Walter Kaufmann's translation, at the page: quoted here from the Yale book of quotations.
- The German of Ecce Homo at the line Abe translates.
- The 1939, 1943, 1951, 1956, 1965 and 1967 books at the page: the pages are not open from outside Japan.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung oder Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt, Leipzig, Verlag von C. G. Naumann, 1889, title page, at Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Götzen-Dämmerung_(1889).gif
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung, Sprüche und Pfeile 8, Kröner, 1922, at Projekt Gutenberg-DE. https://projekt-gutenberg.org/authors/friedrich-wilhelm-nietzsche/books/goetzen-daemmerung/chapter/3
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search for 私を殺さないもの, oldest first (30 items; 1939 馬場久治 訳『ニイチェ箴言集』 pid 1689492; 1943 ヤスパァス 著 草薙正夫 訳『ニイチェ根本思想』 pid 1039076; 1951 秋山英夫 訳『偶像の薄明』 pid 2971900; 1956 フランクル 著 霜山徳爾 訳『夜と霧』 pid 1694411; 1965 理想社『ニーチェ全集』 pid 2983275). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=私を殺さないもの&fulltext=true&sortKey=ISSUED_ASC
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search for 私を殺さないものは私を強くする, oldest first (6 items; 1967 H. ティーリケ 著 山本達司 訳『新しき生命への道』, 聖文舎, pid 2939346). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=私を殺さないものは私を強くする&fulltext=true&sortKey=ISSUED_ASC
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner; The Twilight of the Idols; Nietzsche contra Wagner, translated by Thomas Common, The Works of Friedrich Nietzsche, ed. Alexander Tille, vol. XI, Macmillan, New York and London, 1896, p. 98. Internet Archive casewagnertwili00commgoog. https://archive.org/details/casewagnertwili00commgoog/page/n126
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols, translated by Anthony M. Ludovici, first published 1911, third impression, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1927, p. 2. Internet Archive twilightofidolso0016frie. https://archive.org/details/twilightofidolso0016frie/page/n25
- Fred R. Shapiro, ed., The New Yale Book of Quotations, Yale University Press, 2021, p. 591, Friedrich Nietzsche 25.
- Jennifer Speake, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, sixth edition, Oxford University Press, 2015, s.v. What doesn't KILL you makes you stronger.
- ニーチエ 著, 安倍能成 訳『この人を見よ』, 南北社, 1913, 余は何故にかく賢きや, p. 23. National Diet Library pid 947535, scan 21. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/947535/1/21
- 生田長江 訳『ニイチエ全集』第9編, 新潮社, 1926, 『偶像の薄明』 箴言と飛箭 八, p. 7. National Diet Library pid 958784, scan 8. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/958784/1/8
- 司法省調査課『司法資料』, 米国イリノイ州に於ける不定期刑言渡並に仮釈放に関する調査, 1931. National Diet Library pid 1453067, scan 42. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1453067/1/42