Vorwort des Alchimist
Hallo,
I came across a sentence in the foreword of the book "Der Alchimist" by Paulo Coelho that I have much trouble with. Here it is.
"Warum aber ist es so wichtig, daß wir unseren persönlichen Lebenstraum verfolgen, wenn wir deshalb mehr als andere leiden müssen? (Hier fangt die Problematische Teil an) Aus dem einfachen Grund, daß, wenn wir die Niederlagen erst verwunden haben - und das tun wir immer -, wir von einer größeren Freude und von größerem Selbstvertrauen erfüllt sein werden."
I tried translating it in two different ways. The first is "For the simple reason that when we wound the defeats - and we always do -...", but that makes very little sense. How do you want to wound a defeat ?
The second is "For the simple reason that when the defeats wound us - and we always do -...", but there's also a problem there because if the defeats were to do something to us, the resulting pronoun for the 4th p.p. would be in the dative case, and should be "uns" (which is not, it is still wir). Also, in part of the sentence, the subject would be the defeats, then right after the subject would switch to "wir" in the -und das tun wir immer- part.
Can someone shed some light, please ? I would be very grateful as me and my friends are quite stuck with this one.
JM
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 1
2
1. "verwunden haben" ist nicht "verwundet werden" (being wounded), sondern es ist die Vergangenheit von "etwas verwinden" (keine englische Übersetzung /surmonter qc.).
Das ist so ähnlich wie "etwas überwinden", "etwas überstehen" (to overcome sth. /to survive sth. /dépasser qc.).
Umgangssprachlich auch "etwas verdauen" (to digest sth. /digérer qc.). Oder "darüber (hin)weg kommen" (to get over sth /accepter qc.).
2. (Kein Problem, weil "verwinden" Aktiv ist.)
D., für den solche Texte zu schwer sind.
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