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- German word order
German word order
"Die Menschen leben nicht davon, dass sie fuer sich selbst sorgen. Sie leben von der Liebe, die im Menschen ist. In wem Liebe ist, in dem ist Gott
."
The word structure in yellow is pretty weird. Can someone explain why the grammar structure and the translation?
Thanks
9 Comments
2273
Well, this second example is a pretty old sentence. The word order is because of the rhetorical parallel construction. Though being a bit weird this would be possible for poetic purposes even today.
Normal word order:
In wem Liebe ist, in dem ist Gott. -- God is in everyone who loves.
The German is literally "by that they care for themselves" rather than "by caring for themselves".
Good German style tends to use verbs rather than nouns -- includings gerunds such as "caring" which are noun forms of verbs.
Also, German gerunds can't really take objects the way English ones can, so the equivalent would be leben nicht vom Fürsichselbstsorgen (or Für-sich-selbst-Sorgen or something like that) which is clunky.