Subject: RE: New Book: Folk Song in England
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 05 Jul 18 - 03:43 AM

Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen...
Don't have German Jack - do I have this right ?
"If you have something to say, say it clearly - if you can't do that, don't say it"
Google is a crappy translator
Jim

Pretty much, Jim - it's the last line of Ludwig Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", usually just known as the "Tractatus", and is usually translated as: "What can be said at all, can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

Not sure why Jack decided to quote the original, knowing that many mudcatters won't know German, when the English translation is (fairly) well known, and I'd be very surprised (and impressed!) if he'd read the Tractatus in the original German! There's another Wittgenstein quote which might be apposite: "When we can't think for ourselves, we can always quote"!

The word "Klugscheißer" springs to mind!