By I saw something on Instagram about translation that reminded me of two funny language failures on my part when speaking German. The first was in Austria. I was lost and was trying to say ‘Excuse me, do you know where…’ . I must have learned ‘Excuse me’ (Entschuldigung or Entschuldigen Sie) and ‘By the way’ (Ubrigens) in my German class at the same time and flip flopped their meaning. You can imagine the confusion of me going up to someone and saying ‘by the way, do you know where Avenariusstrasse is?’ to complete strangers. Eventually an Austrian corrected me. I was quite embarrassed. But not as embarrassed as I was with my other major oopsy.
I was going to the movies with my German friends in Nuremberg. It was summertime and I said ‘I am hot.’ The proper way to say this in German is ‘Bei mir ist es heiss.’, which is ‘To me it is hot.’ I didn’t say that. I said ‘Ich bin heiss.’ How could that make such a difference? well…the way I said it translated to ‘I am horny.’ My friends turned beet red and quickly corrected me, explaining the difference. Then I turned beet red.
…which brings me to a much more intellectual (and religious) lost in translation of Jesus’ last words ‘I am finished’. The word Jesus said was ‘tetelestai’. You can find the instagram reel here or you can read an article I found here for more info. Our English translation doesn’t explore all the contexts tied to this word. It isn’t as simple as ‘I’m done.’ The meanings vary from ‘I successfully completed the work I came to do.’ to a more transactional iteration (because the phrase was used in the marketplace) ‘The debt is paid.’.
For me, those two translations reflect more on what Jesus did (and does) for me. And you. Every day.
