filth and dirt

"filth and smut"?

(2) The State and Municipalities have a responsibility to combat degrading and obscene literature.

I've found that there's even an official translation of our Constitution. Sadly, it's not half as nice in style as the original. Same goes for the Spanish and the French versions.

As for your suggestions: The "filth and smut" one might be appropriate, the one with dirt, I think, doesn't meet the style of the original. And style is what matters here ;-). I'd love to see a native speaker judge "filth and smut". Nevertheless, thank you two for your thoughts!

Best regards,
Angus

I would say "smut" expresses disapproval rather than condemnation.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1370&da...

Nur als Beispiel. Ich denke schon, dass es um genau das, nämlich um "Schundheftchen" im Sinne von Pornographie, geht. "Bekämpfung", wie in der Textvorlage verwendet, ist auch nichts anderes als "active dissaproval", "condemnation" wird da gar nicht verlangt.
Ich bin recht sicher "smut" in Publikationen des 19. Jhdts. im Bezug auf "Schmuddelhefte" gelesen zu haben. Ob das allerdings ausreicht, und ob der Ton des Originals entsprechend wieder gegeben wird, gilt es zu klären.

"smut" is frequently used in connection with pornography, "dirty" jokes etc. so it works well here (btw: related to Middle High German smutz/en -OED).

Schund could be translated as "dross" here - (morally or religiously) worthless things

...smut and dross... ?

Okay, good ideas so far: filth, smut, dross, dirt.

In my opinion, not the word "Bekämpfung" but "Schund" itself expresses condemnation, at least a mild form of it. Yet I do think that "smut" is a good word for it, because a 19th century term for kinds of pornography, as amazombi said, is quite a good explanation for "Schund" as well.

Next thing is, both Schmutz and Schund can refer to pornography, but also to other matters. In this sentence, I understand "Schund" to mean pornography only and "Schmutz" to refer to more things that shall not be covered by the Freedom of Speech/Press. This question thus goes to the other native Germans: Do you understand the same?

If so, then "(morally or religiously) worthless things" (= dross) would be a nice paraphrase for "Schmutz" (though Schmutz apparently has the same linguistic root as smut).

As I see it now, I'd use filth or dross for Schmutz and smut for Schund. I'm still hoping for native English speakers to judge the style :-).