true wretchedness

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Mher

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Hi, friends. As I understand, the passage between the dashes is another way to say "true wretchedness."
If yes, can I replace the dashes with "or"?
"The true wretchedness, indeed — the ultimate wo — is particular, not diffuse."
My version: Indeed, the true wretchedness or the ultimate wo are particular, not diffuse.
Do they convey the same meaning?
(http://poestories.com/read/premature)
 

teechar

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True wretchedness, which is the ultimate woe, is particular, not diffuse.
Non-defining relative clause.
;-)
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Again, my same question: What are you trying to do? You're rearranging, but you're not paraphrasing. For instance, "indeed" is not a paraphrase of "indeed." It's just repeating it in a different place.
 

Mher

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Again, my same question: What are you trying to do? You're rearranging, but you're not paraphrasing. For instance, "indeed" is not a paraphrase of "indeed." It's just repeating it in a different place.
Dear Charlie, at present I am translating this story into Armenian. I want Armenians to get to know Poe better. My honest aspiration is to convey the mood of Poe stories to Armenian readers as perfectly as possible.
What do you think about rephrasing? Can I rephrase my sentences instead of paraphrasing? ;-)
 

Mher

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True wretchedness, which is the ultimate woe, is particular, not diffuse.
Non-defining relative clause.
;-)
Dear teechar, could you, please, paraphrase the sentence? It sounds like a tautology. I cannot link these two expressions anyhow. :-(
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Dear Charlie, at present I am translating this story into Armenian. I want Armenians to get to know Poe better. My honest aspiration is to convey the mood of Poe stories to Armenian readers as perfectly as possible.
What do you think about rephrasing? Can I rephrase my sentences instead of paraphrasing? ;-)

Oh! Now I get it.

No, you don't need to rephrase everything. It looks like you're just trying to get Poe's meaning.

Thanks for explaining.
 

Tdol

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Dear teechar, could you, please, paraphrase the sentence? It sounds like a tautology. I cannot link these two expressions anyhow. :-(

Hoew about:

True wretchedness is the ultimate sorrow and it is specific.
 
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