Brainstorming about history, politics, literature, religion, and other topics from a 'gypsy' scholar on a wagon hitched to a star.
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Monday, June 02, 2014
Translating "übersetzen"
As an aside, I must confess that I do, in fact, have some experience with translation . . . from German into English!
The German word for "translate" is "übersetzen," which even to English speakers who've never studied German looks like "over-set" -- the German word itself echoing "translate" as "transfer," i.e., "carry across."
I am able, undoubtedly, to carry a book (or any relatively light object) across an indeterminate distance and "set" it "over" there. I can therefore translate German into English (though, oddly enough, not English into German, despite the books being no heavier).
My wife, however, reminds me that "übersetzen" as "translation" is a verb with an inseparable prefix, thereby remaining 'übersetzen' rather than "setzen" some object "über"!
The connection between the abstract and concrete meanings, is therefore, potentially overdrawn . . .
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