Rereading Orwell’s Politics and the English language, I found myself cackling to his rendition of Kohelet:
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
I take the above example of language vampirism quite seriously and try to reflect on it when my academic writing veers towards jargony word vomit.
It’s also worth reflecting on the sheer simplicity of the Hebrew text.
שַׁבְתִּי וְרָאֹה תַחַת-הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ, כִּי לֹא לַקַּלִּים הַמֵּרוֹץ וְלֹא לַגִּבּוֹרִים הַמִּלְחָמָה וְגַם לֹא לַחֲכָמִים לֶחֶם וְגַם לֹא לַנְּבֹנִים עֹשֶׁר, וְגַם לֹא לַיֹּדְעִים, חֵן: כִּי-עֵת וָפֶגַע, יִקְרֶה אֶת-כֻּלָּם.
Qoheles can’t be bothered with vainglorious speech. We shouldn’t either.
Published on October 28th, 2019 by David Kraemer