| GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW) | | German term or phrase: | Prospekt | | English translation: | vista | | Entered by: | mill |
| Options:
- Contribute to this entry |
German to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Philosophy | | German term or phrase: Prospekt | This is actually from an essay in an art catalogue, but the context is political/philosophical. The passage in question is metaphorical and concerns the alleged impossibility of a utopia or a different political arrangement of society:
Parallelen, wird uns gesagt, sind Linien, die sich niemals treffen. Egal welcher wir folgen, wir werden nie wieder die andere zu Gesicht bekommen. Zu Gesicht bekommen vielleicht, aber doch außer Reichweite, in gleich bleibender Distanz, als *Prospekt*.
I asked the author what he meant exactly by Prospekt and he wrote:
es ist primaer im Sinne von Ansicht, Aussicht gemeint, was sowohl fuer Landschaften verwendbar ist, als auch fuer eine Buehne. In jedem Fall aber die Distanz des Betrachters betont, vor dem sich etwas ausbreitet. Natuerlich ist mir hier auch die Assoziation zum Warenhausprospekt willkommen. Aber prospect will do, denke ich.
prospect won't do, as the definition of a sketched landscape is obsolete and I, for one, wouldn't get it if I came across it in this context. I thought of vista, but am hoping you might have some better ideas.
Thanks! |
| millKudoZ activityQuestions: 87 (none open) ( 3 closed without grading) Answers: 95
Germany
| Local time: 07:51
|
| | reword | Explanation:
Am I right in understanding this was originally intended to be wordplay with "Prospekt" as in the brochure? If so you'll have to forget that, so perhaps you could reword a little while you are at it.
A prospect is a view, but I can't see quite how you could use it effectively here, in this sentence (werde gerne eines besseren belehrt!).
Parellel lines, we are told, never meet. Whichever one we follow, we will never face the other. We may see it, but always out of reach, never coming closer, a distant vista.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 59 mins (2009-06-08 15:34:38 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
"Three great vistas are the landscape designer William Nesfield's indelible signature on today's Kew." http://www.kew.org/places/kew/pagoda.html |
| Selected response from:
Anne Koth
Germany
Local time: 07:51
| Grading comment decided to go with far-off vista - and I also used your "never coming closer" Thanks very much!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
| |
|
| Discussion entries: 0 |
|---|
Automatic update in 00:
|
8 mins confidence:   | distant horizon//perspective
Explanation:
one senses there should be something better though
You would have to reword and say something about seeing it, always the same way off, a sort of distant horizon
| | | | Login to enter a peer comment (or grade) |
|
25 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +4 | Prospect seems fine to me.
Explanation:
I don't agree that "prospect" in this sense is obsolete or hard to understand.
There ia a well-known and often quoted line frm the hymn "FromGreenland's Icy Mountains": "Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile", which is clear enough. I think also of the misprint in a hotel brochure quoted by Gerald Hoffnung in a radio programme: "There is a French widow in every bedroom, affording delightful prospects."
|   Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:51
Native speaker of:  English
|
| |
| KudoZ™ translation help The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases. See also: Search millions of term translations |
|
| |
