Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2025 August 12

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August 12

Gauss zum Gedächtnis

This is the title of a book written by Gauss's contemporary Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen. How would you translate the title? Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:1288:7780:BADE:EA31 (talk) 05:53, 12 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  Resolved

Ah never mind, there is an English translation of the whole book, titled "Gauss, a memorial" which works for me. I'll add a link to Waltershausen's biography. Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:1288:7780:BADE:EA31 (talk) 06:37, 12 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

More literally; "Gauss in Remembrance". [1] 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 11:44, 12 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that sounds good too. I got "Gauss in memory" as a machine translation but wanted to check with humans. 2601:644:8581:75B0:90F2:5EEC:2BFD:58B4 (talk) 16:12, 12 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If I encountered this phrase in a text I was translating from German, I'd put "in memory of Gauss", especially if it was the dedication at the beginning of a book rather than the title of the book. You often see books dedicated "Meinem Vater zum Gedächtnis", "Meiner Mutter zum Gedächtnis" and so on. —Mahāgaja · talk 13:15, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think that the name Gauss in the German title is in the dative case, which does not exist in English, making a perfectly literal translation impossible. (To Gauss in remembrance sounds somewhat pathetic.) But merely adding a colon, Gauss: in remembrance, makes the almost literal translation (IMO) quite acceptable. Compare the book title Robert Bingham Downs, 1903–1991: in remembrance.^[2]  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:13, 18 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]