Well, this is interesting. I’m reading this book in English, for I couldn’t find a Dutch copy. Therefor I guess it is not translated in Dutch at all. Now I find something in it, which is about translating. I wrote something about it in Dutch, because you have to know Dutch to understand what I mean. But hey, I started to write about this book in English….. So, what do I do now? Write this article in English or in Dutch? Well, I’ll have a go at it in English.
Mitchell writes (at page 59):
Of course, as a native English (or American) speaker, he is only focused on the English word ‘drawing’. But in other languages, there is another double meaning in the word which is translated for ‘drawing’. In Dutch (my native tongue) ‘drawing’ = ‘tekenen’. There is no such meaning as ‘to pull’ in this word. But it can mean ’sign’ or ‘mark’. So then the whole idea changes. I even looked it up in other languages; in German translated ‘drawing’ is ‘zeichnen’. The word ‘zeichen’ (’mark’, ’sign’) is used for words as Zeichenblock (=’pad’).
[ interesting sideline: 'das Wild zeichnet' = 'game leaves a bloodtrail' kinda poetic, sorry to say for the game itself ofcourse ]
Spanish: ‘tekenen’ = ‘dibujar’ (as ‘to depict’), ‘marcar’ or ’señal’ (as ‘to mark’).
It’s the same in French; in Turkish ‘çizmek’ (’drawing’) could also mean ’stripe’, ’scrape’, ‘design’, ’scratch’ a.o..
Perhaps another book must be written: What do pictures say?