Bad translation

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

It seems odd to suggest that the OED should recast its definition because of one apparent solecism.
------Original Message------
From: Jonathan Lighter
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Subject: [ADS-L] Bad translation
Sent: Oct 2, 2010 3:11 PM

The OED implies there's nothing funny in this translation by W. J. Johnson
of lines from _The Sauptikaparvan of the Mahabharata_ (OUP, 1998), p. 5:


Close by the camp they crouched, not far at all,
Bruised and tenderized by blades, all seeping wounds.


Maybe it sounds different in Britain. To me, however, one can only
"tenderize" steaks and the like. I don't know what the Sanskrit suggests,
but the incongruity would lead me to recast the OED's treatment of
"tenderize" into two defs.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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