And language --- We had already discussed in previous lectures how mastering a language can help with this. Or, put in other words, how non-native speakers may have a disadvantage. There are some things that only make sense in the original language.

In "A History of the Wolrd in Ten And A Half Chapters" by Julian Barnes, the editor of the Spanish translation had to actually make a note to explain the meaning of this paragraph and how it made more sense in English:

"Love and truth, that's the vital connection, love and truth. Have you ever told so much truth as when you were first in love? Have you ever seen the world so clearly? Love makes us see the truth, makes it our duty to tell the truth. Lying in bed: listen to the undertow of warning in that phrase. Lying in bed, we tell the truth: it sounds like a paradoxical sentence from a first year philosophy primer".

The editor had to clarify that in English "lying in bed" meant being in a horizontal position and also not telling the truth. Without that clarification (and maybe even with it) the sense of a couple of powerful paragraphs are lost for the non-native speaker.

Source author: Desirée Colomé Menéndez dcolome@sre.gob.mx