This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
  1. KudoZ™ Top
  2. German to English
  3. Philosophy

auf Tod und Leben

English translation: inescapably

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:auf Tod und Leben
English translation:inescapably
Entered by: BrigitteHilgner

17:10 Jul 6, 2012
German to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Philosophy
German term or phrase: auf Tod und Leben
Context is Helmuth Plessner's Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch. You don't actually have to understand the sentence in its entirety to help me, I don't think. He's talking about the essential artificiality of the human; the expression I can't find an English equivalent for points to the total integration of the human into her cycle of life, her organic structure of needs and drives. All of life and all of death are in this cycle.

Mit der erzwungenen Unterbrechung durch gemachte Zwischenglieder hebt sich der Lebenskreis des Menschen, dem er als selbständiger Organismus von Bedürfnissen und Trieben *auf
Tod und Leben* eingeschmiedet ist, in eine die Natur überlagernde Sphäre und schließt sich dort in der Freiheit.
mill2
Local time: 11:42
inescapably
Explanation:
irrevocably
Selected response from:

BrigitteHilgner
Austria
Local time: 11:42
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone who answered. This fits best - Brigitte's right that it's not so much about life and death as it is about irrevocability. Thank you!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +3in life and in death
Horst Huber (X)
4come hell or high water
Ramey Rieger (X)
3inescapably
BrigitteHilgner
3for eternity
Michael Martin, MA
3from the cradle to the grave
Wolf Draeger
2(natural) survival instinct
Monique Dressel


  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
come hell or high water


Explanation:
till death do us part

perhaps too idiomatic?

Ramey Rieger (X)
Germany
Local time: 11:42
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

20 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
inescapably


Explanation:
irrevocably

BrigitteHilgner
Austria
Local time: 11:42
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone who answered. This fits best - Brigitte's right that it's not so much about life and death as it is about irrevocability. Thank you!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

21 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
in life and in death


Explanation:
I sense the idea is that of a near seamless continuity, where death is a phase of life, a concept also known to the Taoists (Daojia) in China. Otherwise I might expect "Tod oder Leben".

Horst Huber (X)
United States
Local time: 05:42
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  franglish: death as a phase of being, I'd say
1 hr
  -> Thank you!
neutral  Bernhard Sulzer: there's no continuity in Plessner's concept; death and life are two separate anchoring entities of the life cycle
6 hrs
  -> Thank you! The asker, though, is speaking of a cycle.
agree  Salih YILDIRIM: Fits better.
1 day 19 hrs
  -> Thank you!
agree  Harald Moelzer (medical-translator)
1 day 19 hrs
  -> Thank you!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

32 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
for eternity


Explanation:
to be shackled for eternity to..

Michael Martin, MA
United States
Local time: 05:42
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 28
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
from the cradle to the grave


Explanation:
Meaning humans are bound to their needs and impulses from the moment they enter this world to the moment they leave it.

I find it interesting that the GER reverses the expression; could it be that the writer is emphasising the destructiveness of man's vaunted independence and "free will" by inverting the life cycle (from the grave to the cradle, as it were)? Would this inversion need to be replicated in the translation?

Wolf Draeger
South Africa
Local time: 11:42
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Bernhard Sulzer: death is, just as life, something Plessner sees everybody connected to, at any time, not necess. as elements in a long "natural" progression from birth to death. That's why death is mentioned first, IMO.
1 day 1 min
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 days 21 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
(natural) survival instinct


Explanation:
referring to the whole term "von Bedürfnissen und Trieben *auf
Tod und Leben*"

I understand this short excerpt as a statement that culture ("die Natur überlagernde Sphäre") is different from nature in which the actions of humans (as of all other animals) are mainly determined by their survival instinct (including reproduction, hunting for food, ...)

Monique Dressel
Local time: 11:42
Native speaker of: German
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

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:
ProZ.com term search
Search millions of term translations
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search