Brainy or clumsy?

by admin on August 18, 2006

No Gravatar

Google’s Brainy Quote to day is from Walter Benjamin:

Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom

Er, yes. I’m just wondering, did Benjamin ever write anything in English?

Ken Carroll

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Fu Da-Wei August 18, 2006 at 7:55 am

KEN: Er, yes. I’m just wondering, did Benjamin ever write anything in English?

No … not really. On the other hand, you can’t rally blame the translation. Even among his peers, he had a reputation for being incomprehensible in German as well.

tintin August 18, 2006 at 8:11 am

How ironic – this week’s New Yorker has a profile on Benjamin…

Mike August 18, 2006 at 8:25 am

Ken

I would much rather read and comprehend the deep meaning of one of America’s greatest minds.

# “You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”

# “I didn’t really say everything I said.”
Yogi Berra

It doesn’t hurt my head thinking about what he means. 我明白

Anybody want to translate “Yoggisms ” into Chinese?

Mike in Jubei

Will August 18, 2006 at 10:35 am

我也明白了。我觉得他是说如果要建议人的话,就要给日用的例子。
What he means to say is that if you are going to advise people on something (consel them), you should give them a practical, everyday example of it. Couch it in a life situation.

Carl August 20, 2006 at 3:20 am

I think he’s just stating the obvious: ideas should not be separated from the way people actually live their lives; especially when giving advice.

Were he studying Mandarin, I suspect it would probably be something like “vocabulary [only when] woven into the fabric of real life is language”… hmmm… the sentiment seems familiar…

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: