Translator's Preface
This
volume
presents
new
English
translations of all
of
the
documents
in
Volume
5
of
The
Collected
Papers
of
Albert
Einstein. We do
not
include
here the editorial
notes
or
annotations found
in
the
documentary
edition,
although
footnote numbers
have
been
included, directing
the reader
to
the annotations
found in
the
documentary
edition.
Thus
this
translation should
be used
only
in
conjunction
with
the
documentary
edition.
As with
the translations of earlier
volumes in The Collected
Papers
of
Albert Einstein,
our
aim in
the translation of Volume
5 has
been
to
produce
an
accurate and
readable
English
text.
But where
necessary, style
has
been
sacrificed
to
literalness
to
enable
readers
not
fluent
in
German
to
make
an
independent
scholarly
evaluation of the text.
A
volume
of
correspondence presence
special challenges
in this
regard.
As
far
as
possible, we
have
tried
to
preserve
the sometimes
telegraphic
and
idiomatic
style
of
the
original
documents,
this
especially
in
the
case
of the
more
personal
letters.
Thus,
we
have
occasionally
replaced
untranslatable German
and idiom
with
rough
English
equivalents.
Where that
could
not
be
done,
we
have
provided
a
plainer
translation
that
preserves something
of
the
sense
of
the
original.
It
proved necessary
to
provide
a
rather
plain
translation
also in
the
case
of
a
few
pieces
of
highly stylized
official
government
correspondence,
especially
those
pertaining to
Einstein's
appointment
in
Prague,
where
perfect
English
equivalents
of
Austro-Hungarian
bureaucratese
were
not to be found.
As
far
as possible, we
have also
tried
to reproduce abbreviations, repetitions, grammati-
cal
errors,
and
misspellings.
In translations
of
letters,
the
openings
and
complimentary
closes
present
an
unusual
challenge,
since it
is
often
impossible
to find
literal
period
English
equivalents
for
formulaic
German
originals.
If the
resulting
English seems
sometimes stilted
and not
idiomatic,
it
is
because
we
have
tried
always
to preserve
the
sense
of the
original, being
particularly
sensitive to
the
manner
in which
different formulations
may signal
subtle
differences of
status
and
prestige,
a
matter of
no
little
importance
as
Einstein himself
moved
up
in
the
professional
world
during
the
period
covered
by
this
volume. Hence
such translations
as
"Highly
esteemed Professor"
for
"Hochgeehrter
Herr Professor."
In
personal correspondence
we
have
tried,
similarly,
to
preserve
the
note
of
intimacy or
affection
implied
by
such devices
as
the
use
of
diminutives.
The
Maschinchen
mentioned
in
several
documents refers
to
an
electrostatic induction
machine
that
was
invented
by
Einstein
for
measuring
small
quantities
of
electricity.
The
translations of
Doc.
3
(from
Latin)
and Doc. 490
(from
Dutch)
were
taken
from
the
documentary
edition.
We
thank the staff of
the
editorial
offices
of
the
Einstein
Papers
in
Boston for
their
cooperation
when
called
upon.
Alice
Calaprice,
Senior Editor
at
Princeton
University
Press,
has
provided
invaluable assistance in
ways
too
numerous
to
mention.
She
is to
be
thanked, in
particular,
for
her
patience
and
industry.
Last but
not
least
we
are
grateful