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German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
German term or phrase:Geistesakrobat
Description of the inhabitants of Theresienstadt ghetto, written in the 40s - therefore politically incorrect by today's standards, which of course needs to be respected in the translation...
Die Ghetto Bewohner stetzen sich aus allen Bevoelkerungsrassen...Von einer weissen Negrin, Zigeunerinnen...Von mongolisch-slawischem Maennertyp bis zum koerperlich degenerierten Geistesakrobat...
I believe (this may be wrong?) that the Geistesakrobat is a person (typically for this text, a man) capable of what we would call now 'intellectual' feats - then probably 'mental' feats - multiplying large numbers without pen or paper for instance.
The term savant is too modern, and also implies the idiot savant for most readers. There must have been an equivalent Victorian term which would fit here nicely...?
The Greek word sophis meant a wise man in the good sense, but it came to mean a man with a clever mind and cunning tongue, a mental acrobat, a man who with glittering and persuasive rhetoric could make the worse appear the better reason.
Boethius (480-524), awaiting assassination in a tyrant's dungeon amid the ruins of the classical world, is nevertheless a mental 'acrobat' (one who goes to heights, and depths) who can relate his inmost longings to 'the highest height of heaven' and find there (illic) stars of justice and love eternally triumphant over hate.
Yes, I did mean maintaining the incorrectness...
The term sophist does not seem to reflect the public performance facet of Geistesakrobat; so far, 'mental acrobat' seems the best - thank you very much for your interest and help, everybody.
Would it be more helpful to consider "körperlich degenerierten Geistesakrobat" as a unit? It ought to convey a negative stereotype (be "politically incorrect"), which probably ought to have a Jewish connotation (try Google "körperlich degeneriert", for example), and work with Slavic bestiality in the complementary pair offered here.
That's just my two bits and under the assumption that "respect" means maintaining this "incorrectness" and not "correcting" it in the translation.
"Sie waren solche Geistesakrobaten, dass selbst Jesus Christus mitsamt seinen Aposteln nicht genug Verstand aufgebracht hätte, um mit diesen modernen Theologen zu streiten."
übersetzt als:
"They were such mental acrobats that even Jesus Christ himself, along with all his apostles, could not have mustered enough intellect to argue with these modern theologians."
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Answers
12 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
mental acrobat
Explanation: Might be what you're looking for.
The Greek word sophis meant a wise man in the good sense, but it came to mean a man with a clever mind and cunning tongue, a mental acrobat, a man who with glittering and persuasive rhetoric could make the worse appear the better reason.
Boethius (480-524), awaiting assassination in a tyrant's dungeon amid the ruins of the classical world, is nevertheless a mental 'acrobat' (one who goes to heights, and depths) who can relate his inmost longings to 'the highest height of heaven' and find there (illic) stars of justice and love eternally triumphant over hate.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +3