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(a) German Editions:
1933 Sándor Ferenczi Int. Z. Psychoanal., 19 (3), 301-4.
1934 Sándor Ferenczi G.S., 12, 397-9.
1950 Sándor Ferenczi G.W., 16, 267-9.
(b) English Translation:
‘Sándor Ferenczi’ 1933 Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 14 (3), 297-9. (Tr. unspecified.)
The present translation is a new one by James Strachey.
Sándor Ferenczi was born on July 16, 1873, and died on May 22, 1933. Freud's previous tribute to him, to which he refers here (Freud, 1923i), appears in Standard Ed., 19, 267.
We have learnt by experience that wishing costs little; so we generously present one another with the best and warmest of wishes. And of these the foremost is for a long life. A well-known Eastern tale reveals the double-sidedness of precisely this wish. The Sultan had his horoscope cast by two wise men. ‘Thy lot is happy, master!’ said one of them. ‘It is written in the stars that thou shalt see all thy kinsmen die before thee.’ This prophet was executed. ‘Thy lot is happy!’ said the other too, ‘for I read in the stars that thou shalt outlive all thy kinsmen.’ This one was richly rewarded. Both had given expression to the fulfilment of the same wish.
It fell to me in January, 1926, to write an obituary of our unforgettable friend, Karl Abraham. A few years earlier, in 1923, I could congratulate Sándor Ferenczi on the completion of his fiftieth year. To-day, scarcely a decade later, it grieves me that I have outlived him too. In what I wrote for his birthday I was able to celebrate openly his versatility and originality and the richness of his gifts; but the discretion imposed on a friend forbade my speaking of his lovable and affectionate personality, with its readiness to welcome everything of significance.