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Old 10-25-2015, 01:28 PM   #2707
bfisher
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Quote:
Originally Posted by doubleshuffle View Post
Non-native speaker comprehension question: If things recur twice, doesn't that mean they happen three times?

If so, the translation of the Marx quote is wrong; in the German original Marx uses the verb sich ereignen, which means occur or happen.

But perhaps I don't get the meaning of recur right, so please enlighten me.

I'm not trying to nitpick, but by a weird coincidence I read someone misquoting Marx in German to the same effect just five minutes ago, so I'm curious.
Yes, it may possibly be mistranslated. The translator's note says "D.D.L. New York, Sept. 12, 1897"; I don't know if it was a case of a native English speaker with an imperfect understanding of German or of a native German speaker with an imperfect understanding of English. Nevertheless, I do think that the translator captured Marx's wit, which is the main thing.
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