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Sehnsucht

Chinks in the veil

Postby pb » January 1st, 2008, 3:25 pm

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Linguistic aside on "Sehnsucht"

Postby pb » January 1st, 2008, 4:30 pm

I agree with Salanor that the English "longing" or "yearning" is every bit as good as the German "Sehnsucht". In fact "Sehnsucht" has its own peculiarly German problems:

German is a wonderfully practical "nuts and bolts" language where you can generally coin new words by cobbling old ones together. "Sehnsucht" like "Eifersucht" (jealousy) contains the word "Sucht" which usually means some kind of obsession or addiction. "Sehnen" means "to yearn" and so "yearning" could have become "Sehnung", but for some reason that word never arose. Instead we have "Sehnsucht" which, if one stopped to think about it (and people usually don't) would mean "obsession with longing/yearning" - which has (to me at least) somewhat negative connotations.

If you want some really untranslatable German you could try the old wordplay: "Eifersucht ist eine Leidenschaft, die mit Eifer sucht, was nur Leiden schafft" (roughly: "Jealousy is a passion which keenly seeks that which brings only suffering" - but all the wordplay goes out the window).

If you want to add a touch of exotic mystique to your yearning I could recommend the Welsh "Hiraeth", meaning longing, yearning but also "homesickness". Can't find it in Lewis, but maybe Tolkien uses it?
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Postby galion » January 1st, 2008, 6:50 pm

Last edited by galion on January 4th, 2008, 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby galion » January 1st, 2008, 6:51 pm

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Postby sheeba » January 2nd, 2008, 2:45 am

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Postby pb » January 2nd, 2008, 9:34 pm

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Postby cyranorox » January 15th, 2008, 8:33 pm

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Postby sheeba » January 24th, 2008, 4:27 am

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Postby sheeba » January 24th, 2008, 4:30 am

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Postby cyranorox » August 3rd, 2008, 11:37 pm

On the strength of this thread, I did see The 400 Blows. Not really hoping for that thing, but still...

a fine movie, affecting and serious. but no great changes in consciousness.

The one that did do that thing for me was V for Vendetta. you can't think this more absurd than i do; i was looking for a bit of matinee distraction, had not read the book [far inferior] and graphic comix are not my cup of tea.

Sehnsucht came, and went; while it was here, i made some real strides in life, and can only be grateful for the access.
Apocatastasis Now!
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