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Heavenletter #4721 The Terrain of Yourself

Posted October 3rd, 2013 by Normand Bo...

Dear Gloria,
in http://www.heavenletters.org/the-terrain-of-yourself.html
parag. 1

"To what do you make yourself accountable? To the world? To yourself? To Me?" Is the "what" equivalent to "whom" here?

parag. 5
"You are a commuter, beloved. You scale the heights. You hit the lows. You speak to life, and you are a maker of life."

The general definition of a commuter is 1. One that travels regularly from one place to another, as from suburb to city and back.
2. An airplane or airline that carries passengers relatively short distances and often serves remote communities and small airports.

I have a hard time to render this idea of commuter especially with the idea that "you scale the heights. You hit the lows… What is the connection?

parag. 11
"You win. Life gets down on its knees for you and yells, “Uncle.” Can you give us alternative interjections?

Thanks

‹ Heaven #4727 In God You Trust Hurray, we are blessed with a new translator! ›

I love how you take a clear

On October 3rd, 2013 Gloria Wen... says:

I love how you take a clear concise intelligent look at each Heavenletter. You don't slough off anything! You give me a good work-out, and I try to see as you do. You are very incisive, dear friend.

Paragraph 1: Let's take a look. The world is a what, of course. Yourself? Me? would technically be whom. That can't be argued. What would a grammarian do in this case -- maybe say:

To what and to whom do you make yourself accountable?

It's possible that would work very well in French.

In English, it feels right to me as it is, smoother, perhaps.

Paragraph 5: A commuter is someone who travels back and forth, yes. And so we, human as we are, commute from the high's to the low's and back again.

Paragraph 11: In saying Uncle in English in this manner, as you are well aware, we're saying: "I concede. I give in. You win." How would it be said in French?

Thanks for your questions, Normand!

I just love your answers.

On October 3rd, 2013 Normand Bo... says:

I just love your answers. Pretty incisive too… :)

Parag. 1 : yes, I did what a grammarian would have done: I translated by "To what and to whom". Because in French, when we speak of the world (outside a geographical or geological context), we are referring mostly to people. So it requires the "whom" in French, in the context of this HL.

Parag. 5: I would never have thought of commuting up and down. That's a good one. I love it. It made me laugh!

Parag. 11: "Uncle". In French, we have a variety of ways of saying that: "Tu as gagné/Je te le concède/..." But nothing of the type "Uncle".

Thanks for your answers, Gloria.