Dec 16, 2009 10:29
14 yrs ago
Czech term

nástroj k přetváření poměrů

Czech to English Social Sciences Religion sociology of religion, Czechoslovakia
Dear colleagues,
once again, I have encountered a phrase during my translation, on which I would like to know your opinion. It is taken from another article on sociology of religion that I am currently translating. The phrase is an excerpt from a text by famous Ivan Sviták that is cited in this article. The whole citation is as follows:

"Theoretiku, [...] chceš ze svého myšlení udělat nástroj k přetváření poměrů?“ Pak musíš „vymanit theorii z poplatnosti propagandě. Proces vymanění ze subjektivismu osob i tříd je vždy dramatickým procesem srážek idealisovaného myšlení s vědou, jež je již svou povahou nepřátelská všem ilusím, demaskujíc je.“

It is quite a challenging citation to translate and I am afraid that I am not much of a philosopher ... thus I struggle to understand what the author meant by "nástroj k přetváření poměrů". The word "poměr" can have many meanings in Czech and one needs to be able to understand in what sense it was used here to be able to choose the right one. It would help if one could view the rest of the text by Ivan Sviták on the internet however, this is unfortunately not possible thus I am hoping that some of you might be familiar with his work and thus able to interpret the sentence correctly.

Thank you ever so much for your help with this, I really appreciate it!!!

Myska

Discussion

Jana Bedanova Dec 16, 2009:
okolnosti I would say that "circumstances" is not a very a good idea... it sounds rather as "okolnosti"
myska (asker) Dec 16, 2009:
What about "circumstances" Thank you wo much to all of you, for you suggestions and points of view. It is a real shame that one cannot access a wider context that would perhaps enable us to understand the author better. I find the whole excerpt (paragraph) very challenging to translate. It is almost a philosophical point of view and nothing is ever easy with philosophy.
This is in fact an opening paragraph to the rest of the article - not very encouraging for a translator :o)
Nevertheless, the issue I would like to raise here is the following. I have been tempted to translate it as "an instrument for transformation of circumstances"... what would you think about that? You see, the word "poměry" can in its plural form also mean "circumstances, conditions, situation" as my Fronek's dictionary puts it.
I will look forward to your opinion.

Proposed translations

1 hr

a way of reforming relationships

Declined
I can understand why you're pulling your hair out with this one...I'm not Czech, so I'm at a natural disadvantage in truly grasping it, but I think my suggestion captures what this person meant...
...it does beg the need for a bit more context, but my gut instinct here pushes me past the ambiguity ( and I get in trouble for that sometimes too :) )
Example sentence:

Theoretiku, [...] do you want to turn your thinking into a way of reforming relationshps?“

Peer comment(s):

neutral Pavel Slama : not private relationships
1410 days
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1 hr

a tool to change a system

Declined
Word "poměřů" in this meaning is a class system, I think.
Something went wrong...
4 hrs

into an instrument of transforming attitudes

Declined
Th. ...do you want to turn your way of thinking into an instrument of transforming attitudes?

as I'd say
Something went wrong...
+1
9 hrs

a system reforming instrument

Declined
"Theorist, would you like to turn your thinking into a system reforming instrument? Then you should..."
Peer comment(s):

agree Sarka Rubkova
1 day 12 hrs
diky
Something went wrong...
9 hrs

a vehicle for change of relations

Declined
I thought that this "poetic" term might fit the sentence....
Something went wrong...
1410 days

tool for transforming [social/class] conditions

x
Something went wrong...
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