No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world · 1 year ago

Why is “Now I Am Become Death” phrased so awkwardly in English?

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Why is “Now I Am Become Death” phrased so awkwardly in English?

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No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world · 1 year ago

Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds — J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer famously quoted this from The Bhagavad Geeta in the context of the nuclear bomb. The way this sentence is structured feels weird to me. “Now I am Death” or “Now I have become Death” sound much more natural in English to me.

Was he trying to simulate some formulation in Sanskrit that is not available in the English language?

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- Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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  1 year ago
  It’s not awkward? Because that’s subjective, for me it’s awkward to read.
  
  Or is it not correct? Because yay then, I guess.
  - Fuck Lemmy.World @lemmy.world
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      Okay great haha

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