Marx-Engels Correspondence 1884
Source: Marx Engels On Art and Literature, Progress Publishers, 1976;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.
Dear Bernstein,
One thing you can be sure of: I wish for no better translator than you. In the first folio, in endeavouring to reproduce the sense correctly and accurately, you somewhat neglected the syntax — voilą tout. In addition, I wanted to render Marx’s peculiar style, to which you are unaccustomed; hence the numerous alterations.
If, having once conveyed the sense in German, you read through the manuscript once more with a view to simplifying the syntax, and at the same time remember to avoid wherever possible clumsy, schoolmasterish syntax, which continually places the verb right at the end of the subordinate clause (and which we have all had crammed into. us), then you will encounter little difficulty and will yourself put everything in order.