Friday 24 September 2010

Lady Gaga's feelings

English translation follows the German text.

"Sometimes I feel like I live in Grand Central Station", singt Lady Gaga in ihrem exzellenten Lied "Telephone". Dieser Satz bedeutet ca. "Manchmal habe ich ein Gefühl, als würde ich am Grand Central Station (ein Bahnhof in New York) wohnen". Ich denke, viele von uns haben so gefühlt, wir hätten es aber wahrscheinlich anders ausgedruckt, wenn wir einem davon erzählen gewollt hätten. Ich war nie am Grand Central Station in New York und daher würde ich dieses Gefühl nie so beschreiben. Ich würde eher sagen, ich habe ein Gefühl, als würde ich am Lime Street Station wohnen, da Lime Street Station der größte Bahnhof ist, dem ich in meiner Kindheit öfter begegnet bin. Lime Street Station ist jedoch wesentlich kleiner als Grand Central Station (ich gehe zumindest davon aus, Belege habe ich nicht). Heißt das, dass ich nicht in der Lage bin, ein Gefühl auszudrucken, das beschreibt wie es ist, an einem Bahnhof zu sein, oder da zu leben, der größer ist als Lime Street Station? Ich kann mich schon vorstellen, wie Lime Street Station zu erleben wäre, wenn er doppelt so groß wäre und doppelt so voll mit hektischen Leuten. Der Spruch, "Manchmal habe ich ein Gefühl, als würde ich an einem Bahnhof leben, der zweimal so groß ist und entsprechend zweimal so voller hektischer Leute ist wie Lime Street Station" ist ziemlich umständlich und außerdem zu lang für ein Tweet, das bekanntlich eine Maximumcharakterzahl von 140 erlaubt. Aus diesem Grund, und allein aus diesem Grund, beneide ich Lady Gaga.


"Sometimes I feel like I live in Grand Central Station", sings Lady Gaga in her excellent song "Telephone". [the following sentence has been removed because it just explains what the previous sentence means in German, which is a waste of time and space in the English translation - it does however include the information that Grand Central Station is a station in New York, so that will be mentioned separately] Grand Central Station is a station in New York. I think many of us have felt like that, we would probably though have expressed it differently if we had had wanted to tell anyone about it. I was never at Grand Central Station in New York and, therefore, I would never describe this feeling in that manner. I would be more likely to say, I feel like I live in Lime Street Station, because Lime Street Station Station is the biggest station which I frequently came across in my childhood. Lime Street Station is, however, much smaller than Grand Central Station (I would assume at least, I don't have any proof). Does that mean that I am not capable of expressing a feeling which describes how it is to be, or to live, at a station that is bigger than Lime Street Station? I am able to imagine how it would be to experience Lime Street Station if it was twice as big and twice as full of hectic people. The expression, "Sometimes I feel like I live in a station which is twice as big as and correspondingly is twice as full of hectic people as Lime Street Station", is quite clumsy and on top of that, it is too long for a Tweet, which has a wel known maximum character limit of 140. For this reason, and for this reason alone, I envy Lady Gaga.

5 comments:

  1. I thought if she was English she would have said 'Picadilly Circus'.

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  2. I had considered this. However, having done my research and discovered that Lady Gaga was born in New York and also that Grand Central Station is in New York, I assumed that she must be speaking out of actual experience, rather than in the more figurative/speculative manner in which a British person might say "Picadilly Circus", even if he's never been there. Even for those people who have been there (such as myself), Picadilly Circus isn't necessarily the busiest place I've ever been to, so if I were to use the expression it would be because if its establishment as a simile, rather than anything based on reality. I like to think Lady Gaga's grip on reality is more concrete.

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  3. Isn't it Beyonce who actually sings the words 'Grand Central Station' though? She's from Texas.

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  4. I did check that and I think I thought it was Lady Gaga.

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  5. I have since watched the video and it turns out it is Beyonce. And she is indeed from Texas.

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