On the Importance of Writing with My Own Voice
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Dieser Beitrag ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar.
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Two weeks ago I shared a blog post called Speak Your Truth with Your Own Voice.
I felt like sharing a little bit about how this may show up in practice while creating my blog posts.
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Bilingual Authenticity
Personally, I often notice how important it is for me to speak with my own, authentic voice, when I work on the English translations of my blog posts (in the case of the German version coming through, first). As I am not a native speaker I sometimes ask my US-American husband, Kim, for advice.
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Approaching My Own Expression
Perfectionist that he is, he always has a lot of helpful suggestions. However, at times those suggestions include changes that would not reflect my own voice, anymore. We then discuss a lot and, perfectionist that I am I ask a lot of questions (which he patiently answers) until I find a way to express my voice in English that feels authentic to me, even if that sometimes means to sound “German” or to make up a new word.
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It seems that the courage to let something look imperfect sometimes exactly provides the crack that allows authenticity to come in.”
-Stefanie Neumann
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Are you ready to shine a bright light of awareness on the path of beingness, today?
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Much love,
Steffi
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This post was inspired by Cathie Barash’s article Stay True to You on The Cathie Barash Blog.
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Steffi, I have some questions. My dictionary translates two words simply as “sunset:” “Sonnenuntergang,” which seems rather utilitarian, and “Abendrot,” which seems more descriptive, with its reference to color. Is this an example of the “direct and clear” attribute you referred to? Is “Sonnenuntergang” used for any generic reference to the sun’s going down? Is “Abendrot” appropriate only when the evening sky is red? or can it be used in a poetic sense?
Hej Christine,
that is indeed a good example and also a good question!
“Sonnenuntergang” refers to the sun setting and the time of sunset. It can, of course, also mean the colours seen in the sky during a sunset.
Abendrot is, in my opinion, more descriptive like you say and precisely describes the red colours in the sky at the time of the sunset (whereas “Morgenrot” would refer to the colours during sunrise). The word “afterglow” (for “Abendrot”) maybe describes this best in English, although it, of course, is not solely referring to the setting sun.
Naturally, the word “Abendrot” is often used in poetry. But I believe only, when at the same time referring to the red sky. Otherwise one would maybe say something like:
“die sinkende Sonne” (the sinking sun) or Abenddämmerung (dusk) and I am sure there are more creative descriptions than that.
(In German the word Dämmerung means both: dusk and dawn.)
I hope this info is helpful for you!
Much love,
Steffi
Yes, indeed, you’ve helped a lot! 🙂
But I can’t help feeling saddened by the evidence of how far English has strayed from its Germanic roots, because English speakers have no equivalents to words like the wonderfully evocative Morgenrot and Abendrot. And there are even writing critics who insist that English should be further emasculated, by the elimination of adverbs and other parts of speech, and idiomatic expressions and other forms of descriptive usage.
German is not an easy language for a non-native to learn (I doubt that I’ll ever master the irregular verbs!), but every language surely was inspired by the Power who guides the universe, who understands every spirit’s cry, and to whom all the different tongues must sound like music.
Christine –
I am glad to read that my little excursion was of help for you and what you wrote about all different tongues sounding like music to the universe is stated so beautifully!
I understand how you feel about the “emasculation” of the English language. (Actually, some try to do this to the German language, as well, but I refuse to limit my expression of language this way.)
I have to say, though, that the English language has it’s evocative moments, too, where German language lacks equivalents. I only begin to discover this because most English speakers and writers do not use the full range of this beautiful language, not even native speakers. And as English is spoken and written as an international language by many non-native speakers (like me) also, who naturally tend to use it a little more limited than one would use their native tongue, it easily is forgotten how various the English language can be.
I also often notice this when I compare American English and the enormous variety of British and Irish English (including countries that in some way belong to the British Empire). It seems, in Europe every English speaking village has it’s own version of this language… The expression of the language may seem limited if one only looks at one version or dialect but when one looks at all of them together, a different picture emerges.
I particularly love the regional language spoken in Scotland – Scots in all its variety. It reminds me of the Low-German language spoken here, in North Germany. Both languages are very evocative and idiomatic, in my opinion, and I find it impossible to stay in a bad mood when listening to or trying to speak either of them.
“Dämmerung”, in fact, is a beautiful example. A minute after I answered your comment, yesterday, a blog post from somebody I follow arrived in my inbox with the word “Twilight” in the title. So, in English you have the descriptions dusk and dawn as well as twilight which, according to my husbands research, means the soft sunlight that reaches the earth already before the sun actually rises over the horizon or still after the sun already went below the horizon. I cannot think of a German equivalent and to my knowledge we simply call all of this “Dämmerung”. Although, I have to correct myself slightly as you can call “Twilight” also “Zwielicht”, which is a pretty accurate translation…
Regarding the difficulty of learning those languages: believe me, I have not yet mastered all the irregular verbs in English, either – and probably also not all the German ones. 😉
Much love,
Steffi
Hi Steffi! I really appreciate your dedication to authenticity, and being true to yourself! Your genuineness comes through in everything you communicate which is a real blessing! Keep shining your light, and inspiring many wonderful conversations! Blessings, Cathie
Hi Cathie,
Thank you for taking time to read and for sharing your kind, encouraging comments!
Thank you, also, for noticing and living authenticity as well as genuineness, yourself. I agree, it is a blessing to meet people who are able to give and receive this. 🙂
Let’s both continue to shine our lights!
Much love,
Steffi
I think your English is perfectly fine. I feel exactly like you but still we get across what we want to get across.
Hello Dear Ute,
Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comment!
Oh, I imagine that you perfectly understand my awes and woes with both languages…! ❤
You are right, we can make ourselves understood. It may be challenging at times but it also opens new perspectives – at least that is how I experience it. This is the fun part!
Much love,
Steffi
Please don’t be concerned about sounding “German” in your English usage! You speak my language so much better than I speak yours, anyway, that for you to allow your authentic ethnicity to shine through honors your majestic language’s heritage and compliments my understanding. ❤
Hi Christine,
Thank you very much for stopping by as well as for your kind comment.
You are right, our ethnicity, in many cases, is part of our authenticity. An aspect that we often overlook, especially in Germany.
Actually, I believe that every language has a majestic beauty as it mirrors the culture of the people who speak (or spoke) it.
For example, there are ways of expression in English that are so charming and for me feel spot on for certain situations or feelings – much more than any of the available German expressions.
One example would be: “Feeling blue”. That is exactly the colour I see when I feel that way. In German we have the expression “being blue” which means to be very drunk. For me, that state never had much to do with the colour blue…
Another example is the use of humor in Great Britain and Ireland. The way you can play with words. This hardly works in German and I often am in awe whe I read, let’s say, Terry Pratchett. The same language quality sometimes drives me crazy, when I am writing about serious topics and I wish to express something very precisely. It seems to me that the English language always leaves a “back-door” open. In German we tend to be much more direct and clear in certain situations. (And I tend to be direct and clear even for a German…) 😉
Much love,
Steffi
It’s the lack of the German voice that disappoints me about the two English translations of “Im Westen nichts Neues” that I own. When I read that book in German (with my dictionary and grammar close at hand, of course!) I am struck by how much authentic feeling is lost from the story because the translators left out German idiomatic expressions, and used English slang. They even inserted passages that don’t appear at all in the original. Interpolation has no rightful place in either translation or interpretation, and those who put their own ideas into another writer’s work are presumptuously assuming the role of co-authors.
As I have not read the book in either language I personally cannot say anything about this particular case. However, I absolutey understand your point and have experienced this phenomenon both ways, in translations from German to English as well as the other way round.
In fact I experienced it more the other way round (from English to German) as not only many authors I like originally write in English language but also the movies in Germany usually are dubbed with German voice-overs.
I agree with you. It can feel quite annoying if the shadow artist of a translator is taking over and trying to turn a piece of art into their own unwritten story; or worse, if the translator’s work is being utilized to twist and bend the statement of a book or movie to politically conform with certain opinions.