“This is the story of over 100 years of Audi innovation. The story of doing things that have never been done before. And doing them until they’re perfect. [...] It’s the story of doing the impossible, and it still holds true today. The inspiring words that help tell this story are from the poem, “It Couldn’t be Done” written by the late poet Edgar Albert Guest.” Quelle: YouTube

Audi USA hat einen neuen Werbespot gestartet, in dem die Bilder der Firmengeschichte mit den Worten des Gedichts “It Couldn’t Be Done” von Edgar Albert Guest unterlegt werden.

Someone said that it couldn’t be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

Vokabeltipps:
to chuckle: schmunzeln, kichern
to scoff: spotten
to assail sb: jdn angreifen, überfallen
to buckle in: anschnallen
to tackle sth: etw. anpacken/angehen

via: markenfaktor.de

Im New Yorker ‘Metropolitan Museum of Art’ ist derzeit u.a. die Ausstellung “Photography and the American Civil War” zu sehen. Im Video der New York Times mit dem Titel “Civil War 2013: Photographs From the Grisly American Conflict” erzählt der Kurator des Museums, Jeff L. Rosenheim, etwas über die Hintergründe einiger Bilder der Ausstellung.

Auf der Met-Website heißt es u.a.

Photography was invented just twenty years before the American Civil War. In many ways the war—its documentation, its soldiers, its battlefields—was the arena of the camera’s debut in America. “The medium of photography was very young at the time the war began but it quickly emerged into the medium it is today,” says Jeff Rosenheim, curator of the current exhibition Photography and the American Civil War (on view through September 2), and author of its accompanying catalogue.” Quelle: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vokabeltipp:

Das Adjektiv “grisly” wird vom OALD definiert als “extremely unpleasant and frightening and usually connected with death and violence” und kann auf Deutsch u.a. mit “grausig” oder “entsetzlich” übersetzt werden.

“Every time I go down to Devon, she wants to go on a bender with me on the first night.” Quelle: Guardian

Das Substantiv “bender” wird vom OALD definiert als:

“a period of drinking a lot of alcohol or taking a lot of drugs” Quelle: OALD

Entsprechend kann man “to go on a bender” auf Deutsch mit “auf Sauftour gehen” o.ä. übersetzen.

In der YouTube-Beschreibung zum Trailer des neuen Films von Will Smith, After Earth, heißt es:

“A crash landing leaves teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his legendary father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape.” Quelle: YouTube

Das Substantiv “cataclysm” [ˈkætəklɪzəm] wird vom OALD definiert als “a sudden disaster or a violent event that causes change, for example a flood or a war”. Auf Deutsch kann man den Begriff u.a. mit “(verheerende) Katastrophe” übersetzen.

Entsprechend kann man das Adjektiv “cataclysmic” mit “verheerend” übersetzen.

Das Adjektiv “pernicious” wird vom OALD definiert als “having a very harmful effect on somebody/something, especially in a way that is gradual and not easily noticed” und kann auf Deutsch entsprechend mit “schädlich” oder “bösartig” übersetzt werden.

“Rich Ricci and the pernicious symbolism of the greedy banker” Quelle: Guardian

“Your father is a very duplicitous man”
Quelle: Boardwalk Empire, Season 2, Episode 1

Das Adjektiv “duplicitous” wird vom OALD definiert als:

“dishonest behaviour that is intended to make somebody believe something which is not true”

Auf Deutsch kann man “duplicitous” entsprechend u.a. mit “doppelzüngig” übersetzen.

Die heutigen Vokabeltipps stammen aus dem US-Polizeithriller “End of watch” mit Jake Gyllenhaal und Michael Peña.
Der Begriff “end of watch” hat zwei Bedeutungen. Zum einen wird damit das Ende einer Schicht bezeichnet, zum anderen wird er verwendet, wenn ein Polizeibeamter im Einsatz ums Leben kam.

“In law enforcement, “end of watch” has two meanings; it commonly refers to time to go off duty at the end of shift (some agencies call shifts “watches”). Also, if an officer is killed in the line of duty, the date of his death is referred to as his end of watch.” Quelle: imdb.com

Im Video sieht man das Intro des Films, der mit folgenden Worten beginnt:

“I’m the police. And I’m here to arrest you. You’ve broken the law. I did not write the law. I may even disagree with the law. But I will enforce it. No matter how you plead, cajole, beg or attempt to stir my sympathies, nothing you do will stop me from placing you in a steel cage with grey bars. If you run away, I will chase you. If you fight me, I will fight back. If you shoot at me, I will shoot back. By law, I am unable to walk away. I’m a consequence. I am the unpaid bill. I am fate with a badge and a gun. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed. I think. I love. And yes, I can be killed. And although I’m but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me. They will lay down their lives for me. And I them. We stand watch together. A thin blue line. Protecting the prey from the predators. The good from the bad. We are the police.”

Vokabeltipp:
to cajole sb: jdn beschwatzen, jdn überreden

“to make somebody do something by talking to them and being very nice to them” Quelle: OALD