There've been posters around town recently for the Dutch release of Toni Morrison's new novel -- here entitled, "Een Daad van Barmhartigheid."  In my own mind, I would try to translate the title as I'd ride past the posters on my bicycle, trying to guess what the book's original title might have been in English (the American author's native language).  "An Act of Mercy?"  "An Act of Compassion?"  I figured it would be something like that...

But then I was reading in the newspaper the other day, and I saw the book's actual (original) tite:  "A Mercy."

In learning this, I was struck by the absolute mess that can be created by translation -- a mess in which it takes 27 Dutch characters (including spaces) to approximate what the American/English title can do in 7 characters.  This is because in the Dutch language, there is no way of referring to the concept of mercy with a definite article.  Mercy is always something bigger, something broad and conceptual (maybe kind of like the English word "compassion," where it would sound weird to say "a compassion").  So aside from having to use the much more clunky Dutch word "barmhartigheid" (14 letters) instead of "mercy" (5 letters) -- the translators also have to include the extra words to indicate that it's a single, simple expression of that quality instead of the broad conceptual thing.

Isn't that crazy?  I am, perhaps, a bit of a nerd for taking delight in these simple observations of linguistic irregularities... but hey -- it brings me joy.

You want to know something else strange, though?  If I were browsing in a bookstore, considering the titles and the cover art and everything -- I would much more readily pick up a copy of the Dutch "Een Daad van Barmhartigheid" before I'd pick up a copy of the American "A Mercy."  For some reason, it looks and sounds like a much more compelling novel to me (even though it's actually the same story!).  Which one would you prefer (assuming you could read both languages)?