Sunday, May 15, 2016

Translated from the German: “For Me, ‘Home’ is the Land, in Which the Language Spoken, is the Language I Dream in” (Poster/Updated)

By Nicholas Stix

(Update, 10:02 p.m.: I couldn’t determine the speaker’s identity via google.de, or even Twitter, but the original poster was kind enough to inform me that it is “FPÖ-Bundespräsidentschaftskandidat @norbertghofer” (Austrian Freedom Party Federal Presidential candidate Norbert G. Hofer).)

This poster has me wondering. Once I became fluent in German, and spoke only German, what language did I dream in? I can no longer recall. I may no longer have been aware of language in my dreams, just as I was no longer consciously aware of language, when I saw American pictures dubbed into German. I would watch the pictures in a zone something like deep rest (when you can’t sleep), from which I would emerge, only when the theater’s lights came up again. I seem to recall “hearing” the actors’ words in English, but without needing to consciously translate them.

In any event, the poster makes the most powerful distinction I’ve yet seen, between real and counterfeit citizens.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Borders, language, culture. Michael Savage.