nichtsein

Updated: May 26, 2025

and the opening words of Hamlet's soliloquy with the German: "Sein oder Nichtsein, das ist hier die Frage." Of the former pair he greatly preferred the English, of the latter the German. Sometimes we discussed at great length the exact English equivalent of some German or French word. I remember one which he came back to again and again, the word leichtsinnig.

Alleyne Ireland - An Adventure with a Genius