All German original manuscripts of Arthur Koestler’s first two novels (The Gladiators and Darkness at noon) were lost during World War II. A MS of each was recently recovered, allowing for the first time a comparison with their initial English translations, for almost 80 years the basis of all other translations. Both novels will be published in German and in a new English translation that allows comparison with the original English editions. This article provides context for the first translation of Der Sklavenkrieg by Edith Simon (1917–2003), through correspondence with Simon’s younger sister Inge Simon Goodwin (1923–2014), and Simon’s daughter, Antonia Reeve. It also briefly addresses some editorial changes in the table of contents for The Gladiators, anomalies within Simon’s rendition of descriptive prose, and an example of Simon’s skills as translator of Koestler’s imaginative prose. These are preliminary observations only, in anticipation of the novel’s retranslation and republication in 2018.

中文翻译：

---

Der Sklavenkrieg如何成为角斗士：对伊迪丝·西蒙翻译亚瑟·科斯特勒小说的反思

第二次世界大战期间，亚瑟·科斯特勒（Arthur Koestler）的前两部小说（《角斗士》和《午间的黑暗》）的所有德国原始手稿都丢失了。每种材料的质谱图最近都得到了恢复，这使得它们与最初的英文翻译首次进行了比较，近80年来，所有其他译本都是以此作为基础。这两本小说都将以德语出版并以新的英语翻译出版，从而可以与原始英文版本进行比较。本文通过与西蒙的妹妹英格·西蒙·古德温（1923-2014）和西蒙的女儿安东尼·里夫的往来信件，为伊迪丝·西蒙（1917–2003）首次翻译《 Der Sklavenkrieg》提供了背景。它还简要介绍了《角斗士》目录中的一些编辑更改，这是西蒙翻译描写性散文中的反常现象，以及西蒙（Simon）作为科斯特勒（Koestler）富有想象力的散文的翻译技巧的一个例子。这些只是初步的观察结果，预期该小说将于2018年重新翻译并重新出版。