Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Translating

For well over twenty years I've had this little dish on my dresser. It probably was a personal cigarette dish at one time but I've used it for pins, earrings a loose button or whatever.  I was drawn to this dish at an estate sale and probably paid less than a dollar for it.  I thought about selling it but there is a little thing that frustrates me. It is hand made because on the back it says "Handgemalt"  German!  On the front is a saying that I haven't been able to translate until maybe today. Now I had 4 years of German and it really hasn't done me much good unless I had to translate German birth or death certificates in my old line of work.  This has stumped me until Google.  The saying is "Liebe Kann man nicht belchreiben, Liebe muss man praktilcht treiben."  That's a mouthful.  So today when I was supposed to be putting away the winter clothes (I hate that job) I instead got on google for a half hour.  I tried and tried and finally found a couple translations.  It could mean "Love can not describe you, love you have to drive virtually " or "Love can not be described, Love you virtually must drive! " pretty close.  Either way I can't find who said it but it is everywhere on German pages. You would think at one point someone would give the person credit who said it. I guess it is like our "you can't cry over spilt milk". Nobody knows who said it but it continues to be said.  Back to Liebe kann man nicht....  I'm not sure what the person intended who origianlly said it but I have my idea of what it means.  Love isn't something that can be put into words, it is an emotion within, a strong feeling if you have it. Also, love can't exist unless you put your whole body and soul into making it work, making it grow and tending to it like a delicate plant.  Just this old Prussian's interpretation.  I think I'll put my little dish back up on my dresser. I'm not ready to let it go just yet.

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