zum Beispiel

English translation: for instance

12:47 Sep 25, 2001

German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary

German term or phrase: zum Beispiel

From Salinger's Zooey. He's getting advice in a letter from brother Buddy.

"I do think your case is a lot different from mine. Anyway, I don't think I'm really on Bessie's side. If it's Security you want, or that Bessie wants for you, your M.A. will at least always qualify you to pass out logarithm tables at any dreary boys' prep school in the country, and most colleges. On the other hand, your beautiful Greek will do you almost no good at all on any good-sized campus unless you have a Ph.D., living as we do in a brass-hat, brass-mortarboard world. (Of course, you can always move to Athens. Sunny old Athens.) But the more I think of it, the more I think to hell with more degrees for you. The fact is, if you want to know, I can't help thinking you'd make a damn sight better-adjusted actor if Seymour and I hadn't thrown in the Upanishads and the Diamond Sutra and Eckhart and all our other old loves with the rest of your recommended home reading when you were small. By rights, an actor should travel fairly light. When we were kids, S. and I once had a beautiful lunch with John Barrymore. He was bright as hell, and full of lore, but he wasn't burdened down with any of the cumbersome baggage of a too formal education. I mention this because I was talking to a rather pompous Orientalist over the weekend, and at one point, during a very deep, metaphysical lull in the conversation, I told him I had a little brother who once got over an unhappy love affair by trying to translate the Mundaka Upanishad into classical Greek. (He laughed uproariously —you know the way Orientalists laugh.)

I wish to God I had some idea what will happen to you as an actor. You're a born one, certainly. Even our Bessie knows that. And surely you and Franny are the only beauties in the family. But where will you act? Have you thought about it? The movies? If so, I'm scared stiff that if you ever gain any weight you'll be as victimized as the next young actor into contributing to the reliable Hollywood amalgam of prizefighter and mystic, gunman and underprivileged child, cowhand and Man's Conscience, and the rest. Will you be content with that standard box-office schmalz? Or will you dream of something a little more cosmic —**zum Beispiel,** playing Pierre or Andrey in a Technicolor production of War and Peace, with stunning battlefield scenes, and all the nuances of characterization left out (on the grounds that they're novelistic and unphotogenic) ..."

Jon Zuber (X)

English translation:for instance

Explanation:
or e.g.

Selected response from:

shasas
Germany
Local time: 07:00

Grading comment

Thanks to Mats and Sharon for letting me know what the phrase means. I think in this context "for instance" sounds just a little better. By the way, I didn't realize it was something so elementary.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +3

for example

Mats Wiman

for instance

shasas

Jon, for example, he's a puzzle....

Maya Jurt

Answers

5 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

for example

Explanation:
or in abbreviated form:
e.g. (exemplia gratiae)

13 years in Germany + professional experience

Mats Wiman
Sweden
Local time: 07:00
Native speaker of:

Swedish
PRO pts in pair: 1498

7 mins confidence:

for instance

Explanation:
or e.g.

shasas
Germany
Local time: 07:00
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in pair: 306

Grading comment

Thanks to Mats and Sharon for letting me know what the phrase means. I think in this context "for instance" sounds just a little better. By the way, I didn't realize it was something so elementary.

7 mins confidence:

Jon, for example, he's a puzzle....

Explanation:
He certainly knows what "zum Beispiel" means. Does he ask for a translation of the whole text? If yes, let me know, I'll do it for free, but not on this site.

Greetings

Maya

Maya Jurt
Switzerland
Local time: 07:00
Native speaker of:

German,

French
PRO pts in pair: 545

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English translation: for instance

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