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edenfallingNote to self re: "Knives"
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
Translation: He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Translation by Hollingdale
The translation could stand some fiddling for better flow; it's a pity that English doesn't allow/force you to swap verb positions around in sentences in quite the same way German does.
Also, I think "take care" would work better than "look to it," even if the second is a more literal translation. Hmmm. Then again, I expect people translating philosophy are more concerned with accurately conveying the ideas rather than making everything flow in the new language. (Even if flow does help keep people reading, and even if it's easier to understand ideas when you're not simultaneously trying to decode tortured sentence structures. Bah.)
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
Translation: He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Translation by Hollingdale
The translation could stand some fiddling for better flow; it's a pity that English doesn't allow/force you to swap verb positions around in sentences in quite the same way German does.
Also, I think "take care" would work better than "look to it," even if the second is a more literal translation. Hmmm. Then again, I expect people translating philosophy are more concerned with accurately conveying the ideas rather than making everything flow in the new language. (Even if flow does help keep people reading, and even if it's easier to understand ideas when you're not simultaneously trying to decode tortured sentence structures. Bah.)
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Date: 2005-06-15 11:48 pm (UTC)I have stopped reading fanfic for a while because after a bit i got bc t readign tolkie nand starte t if about his commas.yes, tolkien's commas. I was weakl ystartign to debate wit hafuckign LINGUIST AND SPECIALIST I NEGLISH LANGUAGES wh oalso might have far more knowledge than m about archaic writing sytles...about his commas!
and ths also remidns me of a very meta hp article in a newsaper I read last year wher I hadto g about it the math way before I new what it meant. So many grammar trics and clauses and abuse of parentheses. the info sut gt lost on me with that. I also always thought it was because I'm not a native speaker and so I'm not used to the wel language, I wasn't born with it. Well it comes natural enoug hto me (so muc hahtf somon easks me what a word mans I cn harldy translate it for real thogh I know exaclt what it means). But I'm glad I'm not the only one. Goign bac to the writign style of mythos. I have noproblem following the silmarilion for instance. I expected I'd et lost i nthe sentencesther too. Perhasp its' real ya matter of word order and phrasing.