this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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In case people are wondering: it's indeed a german joke.
It's a pun. "meet" and "hit" are using the same word in german
That joke used to work in English.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/meet
It still can mean collision or fight, but the context needs to be very clear. Two armies meeting on the battlefield, for example. Or two hunters met in combat.
That's why translation can be so hard, especially for poems, songs, comedy etc. Double meanings, metaphors, rhymes etc are often lost when translated.
In some cases you can replace a pun with another pun that works in the target language.
In other cases, where you're translating a religious text, doing something for scholarly reasons, or you otherwise think your audience would really like to know what's going on in a text you have to add a translation note.
I only understand train station.
So it's a misstranslated joke then. With that information it's kinda funny or at least it makes sense.
More like untranslatable, as the context just doesn’t work in English. You either have something that doesn’t make sense or - if you use the other meaning - a statement with no humor. The pun is completely dependent on the German phrasing.
treffen.