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> First, please don't give German lessons if you don't speak German. I did not claim to speak German. (I can understand German when read or speaken slowly to,
by w00pla 17y ago
> First, please don't give German lessons if you don't speak German.
I did not claim to speak German. (I can understand German when read or speaken slowly to, btw). Also note that your German "translation" is not a translation at all, but a paraphrase of the paragraph in English. The words "thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society" never occurs in the German sections.
The correct translation for "diese passive Verfaulung der untersten Schichten der alten Gesellschaft" is "the passive rotting bottommost section of the old society".
Don't give German lessons if you do not speak German.
Also note that Marx de-humanises the people (by calling them "rotten".
- Locke1689 17y agoAlso note that your German "translation" is not a translation at all, but a paraphrase of the paragraph in English. Given that different languages have different semantics all the best translations are paraphrases. Though perhaps you didn't notice the footnote. That is Moore's translation, not my own. Once again, you are wrong. You are literally correct, but Moore's translation (edited with Friedrich Engels) is semantically correct. If I had translated it myself I would have said something like "the passively rotting lowest strata left of the old society," which is probably a little closer to your own rather than Moore's, but for the most part I think Engels knew what he was saying, given that he helped write the original German and all. I do speak German, btw. Also note that Marx de-humanises the people (by calling them "rotten". Yes, Marx was a bit of a jerk, thank you.