LL-L "Lexicon" 2005.08.29 (08) [E]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: "Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong" <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Language use" 2005.08.29 (06) [E]

Gabriele wrote:
> Let me tell you which word I find hardest to translate from English,
>because it has no "all-inclusive" equivalent in German - it's like the
>Inuit having no word for "snow" in general, just 50 words for all different
>kinds of snow (yes, I know this is not really the case, but it serves well
>for illustration here). The word is "mind". There is Geist, Sinn, Verstand,
>Gemüt, Seele, Psyche, Vernunft, Gefühl, Intellekt, Kopf, Hirn,
Seelenleben,
>Verständnis, along with quite a few other aspects, but a word for "mind" -
>a word that I really like in English - does not exist in German.

 Hi Gabriele, you are right. It is both the bane and the boon of a
translators' life. It is easy to have a catchall term like "mind" at one's
disposal,- and of course English also knows words like brain, intellect,
understanding and smarts etc., just to name a few,- but having to choose
between all the different concepts makes German, or Dutch in this instance
more precise. (btw, think of the difference between "in this instance more
precise" and more precise in this instance")  It is the idioms that floor
me, because they "have attitudes" and those you do not translate with the
help of a dictionary. Those problems you solve by being the writers alter
ego. And yes I am a different person when I speak or write in English than
when I speak or write in Dutch or French.
I hope you have just as much fun being a translator as I do. Jacqueline

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