Kerker der Endlichkeit!
H.U. von Balthasar, Das Herz der Welt (1954)Prisons de la finitude!
Prisons of finitude!
Scientific Method
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About Mad Beppo
Why art thou sad, my Beppo?"
Mad Beppo (aka the Professor) is neither sad nor mad. He delights in French, poetry, film, and Baroque music. More about Mad Beppo…
The opening words of H. U. von Balthasar’s 1954 Das Herz der Welt, a lyrical meditation on the Eucharist. The German noun Kerker could be either singular or plural, but the immediately following lines make plural the better choice. —For the French version, the big question is: should one place a definite article before finitude or not? Without it (de finitude), you have a mere complément de nom, with essentially adjectival force. In contrast, I think the second noun needs more oomph, a greater impress of anxiety or distress. —To my mind, the German phrase is very striking (mainly because the formulation is so unusual); the French (with the added la), almost as good; the English, however, with its two un-native words, I find comparatively insipid. But there’s no other way to put it in English! Curious…