Here’s the start of a German sentence I’m working on right now:
Die überwältigende Musik in Kombination mit kurzen, pathetisch vorgetragenen Deklarationen von hehren Zielen …
And here’s how the best free machine translator renders it into English:
The overwhelming music combined with short, pathetic declarations of noble goals …
But according to dict.cc, “pathetisch” could be translated as solemn, emotive, histrionic, pathetic, lofty, dramatic, impassioned, melodramatic, emotional, or declamatory. Sounds like we need an actual human to reflect on the context here and make an informed choice.
To my surprise, Beethoven’s Pathetic Sonata turned out to be pretty good.
lol
Pathetic in English means pitiful, an object of pity. Pathetisch in German means solemn, emotive, lofty etc. Hmm. Does that tell us something about Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards too much emotion? (A sign of weakness?) Just a thought.