Disappointingly, it proved impossible to translate accurately into English. There were many passages where a faithful rendering would either have introduced false and confusing overtones, or else have preserved no more than a feeble echo of Anders's idiom. The only solution was to try and think out the author's ideas again in ENglish in the hope of arriving at a consistent style. This has necessitated as much adaptation as translation, and the translators would like therefore both to acknowledge gratefully the generous permission they have received to take liberties with the German text, and to make clear that they are now responsible for any inadequacies of expression which may have come about through their efforts at re-phrasing Günther Anders's meaning.