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could to... only at... and only as long as...

English translation: see rephrasing

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09:24 Nov 22, 2009

English to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / sentence understanding

English term or phrase: could to... only at... and only as long as...

Here the sentence I confused like this:" It could continue to operate, in my view, only at considerable psychic cost to them, and only as long as they refused to acknowledge what at some level they must have known."

What the whole sentence mean?

Thank you!

macky KudoZ activity Questions: 278 (2 open) (8 without valid answers) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 3
Local time: 03:48

English translation:see rephrasing

Explanation:
I can imagine that it is a difficult (although entirely correct) sentence. Here is my attempt to make it clearer:

I think that it could only continue to operate by costing them a lot of psychic stress/trauma/problems and even then only if they refused to accept something that, at some level of consciousness, they already knew.

In other words, continuing is subject to two constraints: (a) they accept the psychic trauma, and (b) they ignore what their subconscious tells them.

Hope that helps.

Selected response from:

Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 20:48

Grading comment

Thank you for help!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +5

see rephrasing

Sheila Wilson

3 +1

I understand it to mean as follows:

Jack Doughty

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

18 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

I understand it to mean as follows:

Explanation:
In my opinion, it could only consider to operate at considerable cost to their mental perception abilities, and could only do so while they refuse to recognise what they must surely have known at some level of perception, even if not consciously.

Not all that sure about "psychic", here are some definitions of the word.

Definitions of psychic on the Web:
* affecting or influenced by the human mind; "psychic energy"; "psychic trauma"
* a person apparently sensitive to things beyond the natural range of perception
* outside the sphere of physical science; "psychic phenomena"
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2009-11-22 10:41:49 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Should read: "In my opinion, it could only continue to operate..."

Jack Doughty
Local time: 20:48
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

see rephrasing

Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 20:48
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Thank you for help!

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could to... only at... and only as long as...

English translation: see rephrasing

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could to... only at... and only as long as...

English translation: see rephrasing

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KudoZ™ translation helpThe KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

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