this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
725 points (99.1% liked)
Greentext
6325 readers
1373 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
In case people are wondering: it's indeed a german joke.
It's a pun. "meet" and "hit" are using the same word in german
That joke used to work in English.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/meet
It still can mean collision or fight, but the context needs to be very clear. Two armies meeting on the battlefield, for example. Or two hunters met in combat.
That's why translation can be so hard, especially for poems, songs, comedy etc. Double meanings, metaphors, rhymes etc are often lost when translated.
In some cases you can replace a pun with another pun that works in the target language.
In other cases, where you're translating a religious text, doing something for scholarly reasons, or you otherwise think your audience would really like to know what's going on in a text you have to add a translation note.
I only understand train station.
So it's a misstranslated joke then. With that information it's kinda funny or at least it makes sense.
More like untranslatable, as the context just doesn’t work in English. You either have something that doesn’t make sense or - if you use the other meaning - a statement with no humor. The pun is completely dependent on the German phrasing.
treffen.