Originaltext - Dänisch - Det jeg hørte, gjorde mig til døden.

And one request for a bridge to you, dear Ernst.

CC: Bamsa

Hi dear Aneta

literally it is "What I heard made me to death" But I don't understand exactly what the requester mean by "gjorde mig til døden" "made me to death" Maybe Helferlein can tell me the meanig of this proverb?

Thank you, dear friend!
It is a kind of metaphor I guess, but ok, let's wait for the requester's explanation.

Thank you for taking your time with my little problem here! :-)

You're absolutely right, it was ment as a methaphor.

Actually, I'm a little in doubt about the correct way of saying it in english.
So I'll try to explain:

Det jeg hørte, gjorde mig til Døden!

What I did in Afghanistan, made me to Death...Death, as in the The Grim Reaper: Link

(I don't know if you just use the noun 'death' in Latin or if there is some other word for it?

I can see three ways in writing it in english but I have no clue about wich one is more correct than the other. (Maybe someone can help?):

1: What I heard, made me to Death. (seems best)
2: What I heard, made me the Death.
3: What I heard, made me to the Death.

Do you mean: "What I heard led me to death"?

No no!

Ehm, I'll see if I can explain it...

Det jeg hørte, gjorde mig til døden.

"Because of what I heard, I became Death"

"The things I heard, made me become death"

Damn, I find it quite hard to explain...
Always enjoy a little challenge though... :-)

Did it make more sense now?

so not "made me to death" but "made me death" or "made me dead"?

Hi Aneta. I think that what is closest to Helferlein's sentence is: " "Because of what I heard, I became Death" as he says himself.
Do you agree Helferlein??

But... can't you just call him "Grim Reaper" ?
("Liemannen" in Swedish... don't know if it's the same in Danish)

According to this site his Latin name is "Atra mors"

Yeah, I think that is the best one:
"Because of what I heard, I became Death".

Explaination:
Because of what I heard, I became the Grim Reaper...the personification of the word 'death'....But I don't know how you would say it in latin - if they just use the word death or if they have a word for the personification, such as The Grim Reaper?

And Aneta - no, I think you misunderstood it.
I'm not dead... :-)
Did the explaination above make any sense? :-)

Thank you all for the explanations. I think I catch the sentence now.

You mean "the Grim Reaper" - personification of "death". In Polish it would be kostucha

Any abstraction which Romans personified saved the same name, but usually was typed with a capital letter. For example "Pax" - personification of "the peace", "Gloria" personification of "the glory" etc.

So, I would type simply "Mors" as a personification of "the death"

"Atra mors" means "the black death" and can be mixed with plague once called this way. So, I'd rather not use it, though of course ancient writers used the label in a bit diferent context...

Ok. I'll try to translate it now.

Hi again, Helferlein!

I thought it over and decided to change my translation. It is now closer to your previous English version: "What I heard, made me the Death".
It sounds better in Latin to me.

I thank you for your time - I'm truely happy about the translation!
You're the best...! :-)

My pleasure, Helferlein.