[lit-ideas] Re: Mirembe...Ny Times...eternitytime

  • From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 17:57:08 -0800


Peter D. Junger wrote:

> I doubt that that is the implication, since Wittgenstein would
> probably have been thinking "er ist ein Mensch"  or, as people
> would say in New York, "he is a mensch."  "Mensch" can be 
> translated as "human being" but that hardly gets the sense
> of the word, which is probably more like  "humane person" or  
> "warm person" or simply "good person."  But then, of course,
> the word "person," when translated back into German, is a rather
> unflattering word for a woman---a lady of good family might well
> refer to a shopgirl as "diese Person."  
> 
> To translate is, after all, to betray.

No doubt. But in this case, Wittgenstein was speaking English.

Robert

robert.paul@xxxxxxxx
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