The winner of our contest, Dr. Suzanne Klingenstein of Boston writes:
1. The name of the book that first translated tohuvabohu with 2 Ws:
Buber/Rosenzweig, Das Buch im Anfang.
2. W words: “Wirrnis und Wüste”
3. The poem Alter may be alluding to: Wallace Stevens, “The Planet on the Table”
The decisive hint where to look for the translation was that you HAVE a first edition of it. Since I bought a copy from Ken in February 2006, it could only be Buber/Rosenzweig. I sure hope I’m not wrong.
She wasn’t.
And, as promised, she won a first edition of the book in question, Das Buch im Anfang (Schocken, 1925), translated by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig. In fact, the winning words, “Wirrnis und Wüste” appear only in the first edition. After Rosenzweig’s death in 1929, Buber changed “Wirrnis und Wüste” to “Irrsal und Wirrsal.”