Deep Spirits

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”

Oscar Wilde










“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

Maya Angelou

mirjana wrote:"Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours."
— Hermann Hesse

"Du bist für diese einfache, bequeme, mit so wenigem zufriedene Welt von heute viel zu anspruchsvoll und hungrig, sie speit dich aus, du hast für sie eine Dimension zuviel. Wer heute leben und seines Lebens froh werden will, der darf kein Mensch sein wie du und ich. Wer statt Gedudel Musik, statt Vergnügen Freude, statt Geld Seele, statt Betrieb echte Arbeit, statt Spielerei echte Leidenschaft verlangt, für den ist diese hübsche Welt hier keine Heimat."


Mirjana, in English it's a nice quote, but in German it is sheer perfection.
I thought it was interesting how they translated "echte Arbeit". Literally it means "real work", yet the English version says "creative work".

Also, the English quote didn't include this line, which is a pity, so I'm adding it.
"Du bist für diese einfache, bequeme, mit so wenigem zufriedene Welt von heute viel zu anspruchsvoll und hungrig, sie speit dich aus, du hast für sie eine Dimension zuviel."

Sabina wrote:

mirjana wrote:"Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours."
— Hermann Hesse

"Du bist für diese einfache, bequeme, mit so wenigem zufriedene Welt von heute viel zu anspruchsvoll und hungrig, sie speit dich aus, du hast für sie eine Dimension zuviel. Wer heute leben und seines Lebens froh werden will, der darf kein Mensch sein wie du und ich. Wer statt Gedudel Musik, statt Vergnügen Freude, statt Geld Seele, statt Betrieb echte Arbeit, statt Spielerei echte Leidenschaft verlangt, für den ist diese hübsche Welt hier keine Heimat."

- Hermann Hesse, Der Steppenwolf

Mirjana, in English it's a nice quote, but in German it is sheer perfection.
I thought it was interesting how they translated "echte Arbeit". Literally it means "real work", yet the English version says "creative work".

Also, the English quote didn't include this line, which is a pity, so I'm adding it.
"Du bist für diese einfache, bequeme, mit so wenigem zufriedene Welt von heute viel zu anspruchsvoll und hungrig, sie speit dich aus, du hast für sie eine Dimension zuviel."

"...you have a dimension too many for it."

Thank you Sabina. It is great that you pulled our attention to the beauty of translation.
The art of translation is as old as written literature. The word translation derives from the perfect passive participle of the Latin word transfero(I transfer or I carry). The translator's role serves as a bridge for "carrying across" values between cultures, or between languages. The text that is translated is called the source text, and the language that it is translated into is called the target language.
If really good, translation is an art. That is why Roger Bacon wrote that if a translation is to be true, the translator must know both languages, as well as the science that he is to translate.
English poet and translator John Dryden (1631–1700), adopted the distinction drawn by the ancient Greeks, between metaphrase,(“literal” translation word –for-word) and paraphrase(saying in other words). Trannslation is for him a blending of these two phrases in selecting the equivalent expression in the source language.
“When words appear... literally graceful, it were an injury to the author that they should be changed. But since... what is beautiful in one language is often barbarous, nay sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words: 'tis enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.”

The comparison between the source text of Hess and the translation is a very good example for these words.