Lingua, traduzione, redenzione: i casi di Rosenzweig, Benjamin e Celan (con preludio romantico)

This contribution highlights the importance of German-Jewish thought on language (Sprachdenken) and literary translation. It does so by exploring the interconnected concepts of language, translation, and redemption. The redemptive-messianic plan, integral to Judaism, is reinterpreted as a form of secular messianism, influencing the concepts of language and translation. The paper begins with an analysis of the Romantic precursors in the Jena Circle, where the speculative-theoretical aspect predominates and the foundations are laid for subsequent confluences between Romantic and Messianic ideas in the 20th century. It then analyses the reflections on literary translation by Franz Rosenzweig, who distinguishes between Nachdichten (rewriting) and Übersetzen (translating), and by Walter Benjamin, who, in the 1921 essay Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers (The Task of the Translator), explores the notion of reine Sprache (pure language) and the transformative potential of translation. The essay concludes by examining the outcomes of this line of thinking in the linguistic and poetological ideas of Paul Celan, particularly his concept of Atemwende (breath-turn) and the retroversion of language bordering on silence.