eli5: can someone explain the phrase is “I am become death” the grammar doesn’t make any sense?

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Have always wondered about this. This is such an enormously famous quote although the exact choice of words has always perplexed me. Initially figured it is an artifact of translation, but then, wouldn’t you translate it into the new language in a way that is grammatical? Or maybe there is some intention behind this weird phrasing that is just lost on me? I’m not a linguist so eli5

In: 1806

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s is technically correct, just very archaic.

Of course, Robert Oppenheimer said that in 1944, but he was quoting the [Bhagavad Gita](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita) which is many centuries older, so he (or the translator of whatever English edition he was quoting) chose to translate it into archaic English.

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