# of dreadfully wearisome



## AskLang

Hello again,

I hope you could help me with the translation of the following sentence into Tagalog:

"other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome"

Many thanks!


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## DotterKat

*"other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome"

*To me, the above sentence expresses apathy or indifference (at best) or even disgust (at worst) that some people feel at what they judge to be the plebeian aspirations that other people have.

The following suggestions are not word-for-word but try to preserve the thought and the style of the sentence:

Ang panga-pangarap ng ibang tao, na kadalasan ay lubhang pangkaraniwan, ay *marimarim*.
*Nakayayamot* isipin ang kababawan ng adhikain ng ilang tao.
Ang kahamakan ng mga pangarap/layunin ng ilang tao ay *lubhang kasuklam-suklam*.

..... and many other variations.
The English sentence you provided and the Tagalog suggestions I gave all obviously sound like something a very arrogant and condescending character in a novel might say. I cannot imagine anyone actually talking like this in real life, but it is an interesting grammar exercise anyway!


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## AskLang

Thanks for your suggestions DotterKat. I wouldn't have thought of them for an equivalent of this sentence.

Can this sentence also be an equivalent of it?

Ang *panaginip *ng ibang mga tao ay *lubhang nakapanghihina*.


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## DotterKat

"Ang *panaginip *ng ibang mga tao ay *lubhang nakapanghihina*."                                                                                                                                

In English, "dream" can mean the phenomenon that occurs when a person is asleep or a hope or aspiration of that person. In Tagalog, I tend to think of "panaginip" as the sleep phenomenon and "pangarap" (or adhikain or layunin) as a wish, hope or aspiration. However, I know that "panaginip" is sometimes used to mean "pangarap", but not vice-versa.

As for *lubhang nakapanghihina*, though technically correct, I would consider this one of the pitfalls of translating word-for-word. I think that taken as a whole, *other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome*, expresses not a physical weakness at the thought of the lowly aspirations that other people have but more of a boredom or ennui bordering on disgust at the everyday nature of the dreams of the "common man".
When seemingly contradictory words combine (like "pretty bad", "splendid isolation" or "magnificently poor"), the intended meaning cannot be translated verbatim and remain true to the original thought.
On the other hand, seemingly complementary words, like *dreadfully wearisome* have to be taken in the context of entire sentence to derive the true meaning.

For all the reasons above, I would say that "Ang *panaginip *ng ibang mga tao ay *lubhang nakapanghihina*" is technically corect albeit not the best translation for the original English text.


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## AskLang

Thanks again, DotterKat.

Your explanations helped a lot!

Best wishes.


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