So I signed up to do this book review, and I put the due date in my calendar. Last Monday, the little reminder box popped up and I realized I hadn't even started on it. Classes and all, you know? Too busy, so I just ignored it for a few days, feeling like a total heel because I didn't even write the journal to say I was going to be late with it. I'm usually much better about asking for extra time, or begging off entirely--whatever works. Anyway, I sat down yesterday and began to crank it out, somehow totally not needing all those little stickies I put on various pages; mostly working from memory and general impressions. I finished it this afternoon and, with a guilty sigh of relief, I went into my old emails to figure out where I'm supposed to send the finished copy. And lo! there, in our earlier correspondence, the editor had told me I could turn it in a week after the official due date if I needed to do so. And I had replied to him that I would need to do so. It seems I know myself better than I thought.
I also set a reminder for today telling me to blog. And I did. See how conscientious I am? I'm trying.
It has three very different basic English equivalents: intellectual, mental, spiritual. It's up to the reader to decide, based on context, which of these is the best fit. Often I can't make up my mind. It's annoying, but it also reminds me why I like the German language. The implication is that the intellectual and the spiritual are closely related...
Phewww. I just finished translating this 104-word sentence from the 1959 documenta II catalog (p 13). Would you like to give it a go? The only thing that kept me sane was remembering my slightly wacky, ex-CIA-officer translation instructor reassuring us that it's ok to break up a big sentence into smaller sentences. Especially clunkers like this:
Weil diese Bilder aber aus der Mitte des zeitgenössischen Welt- und Daseinserlebnisses stiegen, weil sie in eigentümlicher Spiegelung den unanschaulichen Entwürfen der Wissenschaft und den Tatsachen des modernen Lebens mit ihren verborgenen Wirkkräften in Welle, Kraftfeld, Umlauf und Geschwindigkeit und den neuen Erlebnis- und Erkenntnistatsachen von Raumgestalt und Kosmos und der Strukturen, die den Stoff begründen und zusammenhalten, antwortende und anschaubare Vorstellungsbilder entgegenhielten, die das alles in dichterischer Verwandlung in sich enthielten, deshalb konnte die sie ershaffende Kunst im letzten Jahrzehnt zu dem bestimmenden Stilausdruck unserer Zeit werden und diese große Faszination in die zeitgenössische Gesellschaft hinein und insbesondere auf die jungen Generationen ausüben.
Bitte bitte, Herr Haftmann, sprechen Sie sich ruhig aus. I've got all day.
[ps: does anyone have a good equivalent for "unanschaulich?"]
Put it on your calendar now: March for Freedom of Choice on April 25, 2004. Hope to see you all there.
Thanks for the heads up, Libby.