| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: his parentage is, so also are his fortunes. In the first place he is
always poor, and anything but tender and fair, as the many imagine him; and
he is rough and squalid, and has no shoes, nor a house to dwell in; on the
bare earth exposed he lies under the open heaven, in the streets, or at the
doors of houses, taking his rest; and like his mother he is always in
distress. Like his father too, whom he also partly resembles, he is always
plotting against the fair and good; he is bold, enterprising, strong, a
mighty hunter, always weaving some intrigue or other, keen in the pursuit
of wisdom, fertile in resources; a philosopher at all times, terrible as an
enchanter, sorcerer, sophist. He is by nature neither mortal nor immortal,
but alive and flourishing at one moment when he is in plenty, and dead at
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: clearer and more complete. To be sure, I can also say "The farmer
brings grain and no (kein) money, but the words "kein money" do
not sound as full and clear as if I were to say, "the farmer
brings allein grain and kein money." Here the word "allein" helps
the word "kein" so much that it becomes a clear and complete
German expression.
We do not have to ask about the literal Latin or how we are to
speak German - as these asses do. Rather we must ask the mother
in the home, the children on the street, the common person in the
market about this. We must be guided by their tongue, the manner
of their speech, and do our translating accordingly. Then they
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: to the sky, a long, lean, timber wolf.
He had made no noise, yet it ceased from its howling and tried to
sense his presence. Buck stalked into the open, half crouching,
body gathered compactly together, tail straight and stiff, feet
falling with unwonted care. Every movement advertised commingled
threatening and overture of friendliness. It was the menacing
truce that marks the meeting of wild beasts that prey. But the
wolf fled at sight of him. He followed, with wild leapings, in a
frenzy to overtake. He ran him into a blind channel, in the bed
of the creek where a timber jam barred the way. The wolf whirled
about, pivoting on his hind legs after the fashion of Joe and of
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