Socrates in Thessaloniki: The Sephardic translation of Mendelssohn's Phaedo
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.025.1241Keywords:
dialogue, philosophy, Judeo-Spanish, newspaper, translationAbstract
This is an edition and study of a fragment of Moses Mendelssohn's dialogue Phaedo (Phädon), translated into Judeo-Spanish and published in the Saloniki El Lunar in 1865. Judah Nehama, the creator of this journal, is probably also the author of the translation. The fragment under study, which contains only the beginning of Mendelssohn's work, is itself based on Plato's Phaedo; its theme is the immortality of the soul and it is constructed as a conversation between Socrates and his disciples on the day of his death. We analyse the context and the reason for the translation of this work by the Jewish-German philosopher into Judeo-Spanish, and we study the style and language with which the philosophical dialogue is adapted.
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