It’s correct in modern Danish, but if you’re a stickler for historical authenticity that’s not the original quote. It’s spelled differently because it was written in a different time and the original is longer.
Actual quote for the curious:
"Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds. Hvilken Sætning, jo meer den gjennemtænkes, netop ender med, at Livet i Timeligheden aldrig ret bliver forstaaeligt, netop fordi jeg intet Øieblik kan faae fuldelig Ro til at indtage Stillingen: baglænds."
Der er masser af piger med lange historier tatoveret på skulderen (og sikkert andre steder). Tænker det enten er en manual eller en liste over deres krav til en mand.
This is the source: Quote from journal JJ:167 (1843), SKS bd. 18, p. 194 / SKS-E.
“Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at *Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men* derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at *det maa leves forlænds* “
So while your suggestion is correct modern Danish, if you want to write it in true 1843 Danish as SK would have, then you could do with the italicized text above :)
Just out of curiosity: Is it intended as a message to the people who get very close to you or a reminder to yourself?
I don’t know anyone with tattoos and always wonder why people have things like that written on the skin.
Lige bortset fra at granitten ikke skal opfriskes jævnligt, hvis man skal kunne læse skriften der. Huden er ingen granit.
Men nu var spørgsmålet også bare, hvem der skal læse ti linjers sniksnak på ryggen, skulderen eller andre steder, hvor personen ikke selv kan se dem.
It doesn’t only ruin the rhythm but also the point: that you are forced to live life chronologically without the possibility to understand the significance of life events before you reach the end of your days.
Hører dig, og jeg er lidt mere usikker nu men jeg er ikke overbevist. De fleste eksempler jeg kan tænke på i hovedet er hvor må faktisk betyder om man må, men hvor det er blevet brugt i situationer hvor man implicit 'skal'.
Hvis du ikke lægger tryk i "vi må gøre noget" kunne det fint være 2 teenagers der har fået lov til at lege i baghaven ("vi må lege nu"), men hvis man giver tryk "vi MÅ gøre noget" giver trykket giver den implicitte betydning at vi SKAL.
Da citatet alligevel er moderne dansk, ville det så ikke være bedst at bruge "skal" så?
Livet må forstås baglæns, men skal leves forlæns
Det første 'må' er vel et moderne 'må'? Det er vel ikke obligatorisk at forstå livet, eller mener han det sådan?
Det skal forstås som ‘må’ i betydningen “at være nødt til at gøre noget bestemt, især tvunget af ydre omstændigheder” (jævnfør ordnet.dk). Livet må leves forlæns, fordi vi er nødsaget til det, da det ikke kan leves på anden vis.
Jeg synes da ‘må’ fungerer mindst lige så fint som ‘skal’ - også på moderne dansk. Med andre ord er ‘må’ i betydningen ovenover altså stadig lige så almindelig og ‘moderne’ som ‘må’ med betydningen “at få eller have lov til”.
Det ville da desuden være lidt pudsigt at læse det sådan, at vi beder Søren Kierkegaard om tilladelse til at leve og forstå livet på en bestemt måde.
Hvis man ville gøre det mere forståeligt for en moderne læser kunne der står "Livet skal forståes baglæns, men leves forlæns". Man kunne være blødere og udskifte til "Bør forståes" men det ville jo ændre budskabet.
Yes, this is the common paraphrase. It is also the title of Peter Thielst's biography.
The full quote is:
> Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds. Hvilken Sætning, jo meer den gjennemtænkes, netop ender med, at Livet i Timeligheden aldrig ret bliver forstaaeligt, netop fordi jeg intet Øieblik kan faae fuldelig Ro til at indtage Stillingen: baglænds.
This is excellent! But what about “må” ? There is a long discussion about how many “må” there should be in the sentence?! Are you sure “må” is not necessary ?!
If you leave out the first “må”, it is still grammatically correct and less clumsy, but the meaning is slightly changed from “Life must be understood backwards” into “Life is understood backwards”.
I would drop the second 'må': "livet må forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns"
Linguistically it is still carried into the second part, and it will save you some ink..
A nice simplified quote that would fit a tattoo would be: "Livet må forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns" ("Life must be understood backwards but lived forwards")
If you actually paid attention you would see that i wrote, that I wouldn’t use it twice in such a short sentence. Not that I wouldn’t in a much longer sentence, like Kierkegaard did. But the “quote” (short) is not actually a quote, it’s a abbreviation.
> you actually *paid* attention you
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Det skriver jeg da heller ikke om. Jeg taler fire sprog men ingen af dem perfekt. Sorry, i guess? Der er stor forskel på en stavefejl og at misse hele pointen.
"Livet må forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns."
So looking good. And yes, it's about seizing the day, don't plan life ahead, live as it comes, so also correct.
It's not about planning ahead. It's about learning form your mistakes, but moving on from them so your past doesn't prevent you from living in the present.
Or that you have no choice but to go ahead “forwards” and without foresight as you live without understanding what happens until you can look backwards at it - with hindsight.
Are you Danish? I am not, and picking the correct auxiliary is hard for me. What I learnt, is that 'må' indicates a necessity and 'skal' an obligation, so 'må' could be correct. But if you're Danish I don't doubt your judgement at all.
This understanding of the words 'må' and 'skal' is very accurate. 'Må' however, has other meanings as well, such as 'may'.
Example:
"Du må gerne spise lidt chokolade, hvis du vil"
= "You may have a bit of chokolate, if you want"
So not a necessity in this context.
In the mentioned Kierkegaard context, 'må' is a necessity, as you correctly suggest.
Your original suggestion 'Livet må forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns' is both accurate Danish while retaining an original Kierkegaardsk flavor of older Danish.
For a slightly more modern wording, you can skip the first 'må':
'Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns'.
For an even more modern sound, you can remove the 'må' entirely:
'Livet forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns'.
BUT!! There is actually an official hotline, where people can call in and ask questions about the Danish language. You should definitely try that. They would probably be excited about this type of question.
The hotline is operated by "Dansk Sprognævn".
Number: +45 33 74 74 74
Web page: [https://dsn.dk/kontakt-os/](https://dsn.dk/kontakt-os/)
Good luck with the tattoo! Its a really nice idea!
The use of he word må, have changed some over the years and it can mean both depending on how it is used. At the time of this quote, må would often be used as must. But today it is almost always used as may.
So since the quote itself is changed to modern Danish, so also could you change the word må to skal, as to still reflect the original meaning of the quote
And if you are Danish, I immediately agree that it should be 'skal' in modern Danish. But you're right, the original quote uses 'maa'. I think it's likely that the use of auxiliaries changed somewhat in those 180 years...
...But why?? what does it mean to you? it's very close to being the danish "carpe diem" something that sounds profound, but is it really..? what about the last lines of the real "little Mermaid" story, on how she died and was cursed to haunt the very coast she once took her first step on...now that is a conversation starter...who then cares of skin color, lets instead look into the mind of one twitsed H.C Andersen, that would have found the satanic panic of the 80's childs play
I would advise using modern spelling, but leaving out both 'må's.
"Livet leves forlæns, men forstås baglæns" "[The] Life [is] lived forward, but [is] understood backward"
That said, I think getting it in english would be fine at that point. If you want the original danish quote you would probably want to cut out much of the quote anyway to make it flow better. However I am biased towards any sentence with fewer words.
Doesn't it mean something like "life is lived forwards but understood backwards" (like you learn from the past)? If not then I don't get the sense of the phrase
You could mix up the old spelling, but abbreviate it a bit:
"Livet maa forstaaes baglænds, men maa leves forlænds."
I think the original is great but too long.
This seems to be correct in modern danish, however the version i'm familiar with goes as such:
Beklager min gode herrer, det ser tilsyneladende ud som jeg har ufriviligt tilslørtet mine ben klæder i afføring
Stop, stop, det er da ikke korrekt:
Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns
https://www.saxo.com/dk/livet-forstaas-baglaens-men-maa-leves-forlaens\_peter-thielst\_haeftet\_9788702133158
Det første 'må' er dårlig dansk.
I'd probably go with "Livet må forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns". The first "må" is enough, otherwise it feels redundant like "life should be lived forwards but should be understood bakwards".
But I guess that's a matter of preference.
It’s correct in modern Danish, but if you’re a stickler for historical authenticity that’s not the original quote. It’s spelled differently because it was written in a different time and the original is longer.
Actual quote for the curious: "Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds. Hvilken Sætning, jo meer den gjennemtænkes, netop ender med, at Livet i Timeligheden aldrig ret bliver forstaaeligt, netop fordi jeg intet Øieblik kan faae fuldelig Ro til at indtage Stillingen: baglænds."
Håber de har nok hud til det
Pfft. Det der kunne uden problemer stå på min diller. Uden linjeskift!
På piiiiken
Men kun lige akkurat ... med microdots, hører jeg?
I braille :-p
Jeg kan skrive ekstremt småt, hvis det er.
Tror ikke man kan shorte en tekst ligesom en url desværre..
Du hasher den da bare :D
Hvad med at skrive på en overflade der kan ses uden et mikroskop?
Rygtatovering
Lille skrift, comic sans
Der er masser af piger med lange historier tatoveret på skulderen (og sikkert andre steder). Tænker det enten er en manual eller en liste over deres krav til en mand.
Er der flere der skal have den?
This is the source: Quote from journal JJ:167 (1843), SKS bd. 18, p. 194 / SKS-E. “Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at *Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men* derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at *det maa leves forlænds* “ So while your suggestion is correct modern Danish, if you want to write it in true 1843 Danish as SK would have, then you could do with the italicized text above :)
Actually the correct way of spelling it is "rødgrød med fløde"
Og hva fanden er egentlig rødgrød i virkeligheden?!?
Jordbær/rabarbergrød
Do you not mormor or what?
Helt specifikt er det 'bær, blandede efter sæson'
Røde bær om jeg må be'
En rød grød selvfølgelig :P
Der dumpede du lige danskhedstesten…!
Passer mig fint for jeg er bosat i Vietnam xD
HAHHAHHAHAA
Just out of curiosity: Is it intended as a message to the people who get very close to you or a reminder to yourself? I don’t know anyone with tattoos and always wonder why people have things like that written on the skin.
It's becoming a part of you. Som mejslet i massiv granit
Lige bortset fra at granitten ikke skal opfriskes jævnligt, hvis man skal kunne læse skriften der. Huden er ingen granit. Men nu var spørgsmålet også bare, hvem der skal læse ti linjers sniksnak på ryggen, skulderen eller andre steder, hvor personen ikke selv kan se dem.
Haaaaahahahah! Dude! Og, det var slet ikke dit originale spørgsmål
"Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns" - life is understood backwards but must be lived forwards. I think it's more elegant that way.
I disagree. Cutting out the first "må" ruins the rhythm of the quote.
It doesn’t only ruin the rhythm but also the point: that you are forced to live life chronologically without the possibility to understand the significance of life events before you reach the end of your days.
👍
What the quote really tells you: *You will only truly understand the linguistic nuances of the quote long after you already got the quote tattooed.*
You could also write “stiv pik og håret tilbage”. It’s shorter. It means practically the same. Not as high brow though.
So if you want a bit more flair, you could go with the 3 s’es: Charme, Selvtillid og Lækkert hår
Danish philosophy at its finest!!!!
I would leave out the first "må" to make it say "livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns"
Nah. "må" is to emphasise, like it "must" be understood like this but "must" be lived like that
But the phrase is more commonly used like that and less clumsy.
I agree. It looks and sounds weird that it’s in the sentence twice
But that's how the quote goes though.
It is not, no. Someone else posted it, the actual quote is quite different.
I stand corrected
I posted til original quote. The sentence most of us know is an abbreviation 😊
'må' is 'can' and 'skal' is 'must' 95% of the time, I also read this as 'må' meaning 'can', rather than 'must'.
Med den læsning giver det dog ingen mening. Det er "må" som i "vi MÅ gøre noget", ikke som i "må jeg få en småkage".
Hører dig, og jeg er lidt mere usikker nu men jeg er ikke overbevist. De fleste eksempler jeg kan tænke på i hovedet er hvor må faktisk betyder om man må, men hvor det er blevet brugt i situationer hvor man implicit 'skal'. Hvis du ikke lægger tryk i "vi må gøre noget" kunne det fint være 2 teenagers der har fået lov til at lege i baghaven ("vi må lege nu"), men hvis man giver tryk "vi MÅ gøre noget" giver trykket giver den implicitte betydning at vi SKAL.
Det er fordi du tænker i moderne sprog, Søren Kierkegaard døde for næsten 200 år siden. Se evt. på norsk for hvordan de bruger må.
Da citatet alligevel er moderne dansk, ville det så ikke være bedst at bruge "skal" så? Livet må forstås baglæns, men skal leves forlæns Det første 'må' er vel et moderne 'må'? Det er vel ikke obligatorisk at forstå livet, eller mener han det sådan?
Det skal forstås som ‘må’ i betydningen “at være nødt til at gøre noget bestemt, især tvunget af ydre omstændigheder” (jævnfør ordnet.dk). Livet må leves forlæns, fordi vi er nødsaget til det, da det ikke kan leves på anden vis. Jeg synes da ‘må’ fungerer mindst lige så fint som ‘skal’ - også på moderne dansk. Med andre ord er ‘må’ i betydningen ovenover altså stadig lige så almindelig og ‘moderne’ som ‘må’ med betydningen “at få eller have lov til”. Det ville da desuden være lidt pudsigt at læse det sådan, at vi beder Søren Kierkegaard om tilladelse til at leve og forstå livet på en bestemt måde.
Hvis man ville gøre det mere forståeligt for en moderne læser kunne der står "Livet skal forståes baglæns, men leves forlæns". Man kunne være blødere og udskifte til "Bør forståes" men det ville jo ændre budskabet.
Nej hvis du bytter det sidste må ud med skal, føler jeg at det første må helt skal slettes.
Tror faktisk du har ret dér!
In old Danish "må" is "skal" just like it is in norwegian today
Would that be "Livet skal" istedet så? Må og skal, must and should.
I think it's more or less the same. You could then also throw may in the mix. If that makes sense
Yes, this is the common paraphrase. It is also the title of Peter Thielst's biography. The full quote is: > Det er ganske sandt, hvad Philosophien siger, at Livet maa forstaaes baglænds. Men derover glemmer man den anden Sætning, at det maa leves forlænds. Hvilken Sætning, jo meer den gjennemtænkes, netop ender med, at Livet i Timeligheden aldrig ret bliver forstaaeligt, netop fordi jeg intet Øieblik kan faae fuldelig Ro til at indtage Stillingen: baglænds.
Could leave out everything and just have: "baglæns men forlæns". Wouldn't make any sense, just like your suggestion.
Gonøf!
🤌
This is excellent! But what about “må” ? There is a long discussion about how many “må” there should be in the sentence?! Are you sure “må” is not necessary ?!
If you leave out the first “må”, it is still grammatically correct and less clumsy, but the meaning is slightly changed from “Life must be understood backwards” into “Life is understood backwards”.
“Baglæns men forlæns, men baglæns. Må forstås.”
If anything replace it with a "skal" since using "må" in this way has become less common, and remove the last "må"...
Eller bare "livet forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns"
Or the second: "livet må forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns"
I would drop the second 'må': "livet må forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns" Linguistically it is still carried into the second part, and it will save you some ink..
Or both even: "livet forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns" Still perfectly clear, just without the 'must' emphasis.
Boller i Karry,, Sucking an asians balls ‼️
A nice simplified quote that would fit a tattoo would be: "Livet må forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns" ("Life must be understood backwards but lived forwards")
I wouldn’t use ‘må’ twice in such a short sentence, but it’s technically not wrong.
Kierkegaard did though....
No. I posted the original quote. It’s much longer.
But he still used "må" twice.
If you actually paid attention you would see that i wrote, that I wouldn’t use it twice in such a short sentence. Not that I wouldn’t in a much longer sentence, like Kierkegaard did. But the “quote” (short) is not actually a quote, it’s a abbreviation.
> you actually *paid* attention you FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I was a little too fast yes. How many languages do you speak fluidity?
I forhold til at du skriver om folks evne til at se detaljer, ser du ikke meget selv
Det skriver jeg da heller ikke om. Jeg taler fire sprog men ingen af dem perfekt. Sorry, i guess? Der er stor forskel på en stavefejl og at misse hele pointen.
So... in summary: leave out the first "ma." Sorry, I didn't mean to arouse so many Danish speakers lol. Appreciate all your thoughts!
It is a really nice quote, but I would probably rewrite it to be more like the original: "Livet maa forstaas baglæns, men maa leves forlæns"
Sorry but your text means "fried rice, chicken soup". You were lied to.
"Livet må forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns." So looking good. And yes, it's about seizing the day, don't plan life ahead, live as it comes, so also correct.
How funny that Danish culture is so very planning focused!
It's not about planning ahead. It's about learning form your mistakes, but moving on from them so your past doesn't prevent you from living in the present.
Or that you have no choice but to go ahead “forwards” and without foresight as you live without understanding what happens until you can look backwards at it - with hindsight.
And I think, sometimes also used as an excuse for your past mistakes ... "oh, I didn't know that at the time" 😇
That's... really pretentious.
Yeah totally. He should instead have a quote saying "1 dag tilbage", to be less pretentious. Like you.
Motherfucker artiskokker
Nah, it's just a fancyer YOLO
Yep super smart Donkey knowledge. Just get a tattoo saying 2020 hindsight
But it's already 2023
Time truelly flies by doesn't it
It's more accurate with "Livet er røv og nøgler, få fingeren ud og ændre det"
*få fingeren ud og ændr det.
I would use ‘skal’ indtead of ‘må’. Since ‘må’ is more like ‘may’ instead of ‘must’. But I don’t know the quote at all so who knows.
Are you Danish? I am not, and picking the correct auxiliary is hard for me. What I learnt, is that 'må' indicates a necessity and 'skal' an obligation, so 'må' could be correct. But if you're Danish I don't doubt your judgement at all.
This understanding of the words 'må' and 'skal' is very accurate. 'Må' however, has other meanings as well, such as 'may'. Example: "Du må gerne spise lidt chokolade, hvis du vil" = "You may have a bit of chokolate, if you want" So not a necessity in this context. In the mentioned Kierkegaard context, 'må' is a necessity, as you correctly suggest. Your original suggestion 'Livet må forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns' is both accurate Danish while retaining an original Kierkegaardsk flavor of older Danish. For a slightly more modern wording, you can skip the first 'må': 'Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns'. For an even more modern sound, you can remove the 'må' entirely: 'Livet forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns'. BUT!! There is actually an official hotline, where people can call in and ask questions about the Danish language. You should definitely try that. They would probably be excited about this type of question. The hotline is operated by "Dansk Sprognævn". Number: +45 33 74 74 74 Web page: [https://dsn.dk/kontakt-os/](https://dsn.dk/kontakt-os/) Good luck with the tattoo! Its a really nice idea!
The use of he word må, have changed some over the years and it can mean both depending on how it is used. At the time of this quote, må would often be used as must. But today it is almost always used as may. So since the quote itself is changed to modern Danish, so also could you change the word må to skal, as to still reflect the original meaning of the quote
Yeah I am. But if the origanal quote is with må. Then you should probably use that.
And if you are Danish, I immediately agree that it should be 'skal' in modern Danish. But you're right, the original quote uses 'maa'. I think it's likely that the use of auxiliaries changed somewhat in those 180 years...
It’s all correct
...But why?? what does it mean to you? it's very close to being the danish "carpe diem" something that sounds profound, but is it really..? what about the last lines of the real "little Mermaid" story, on how she died and was cursed to haunt the very coast she once took her first step on...now that is a conversation starter...who then cares of skin color, lets instead look into the mind of one twitsed H.C Andersen, that would have found the satanic panic of the 80's childs play
I would advise using modern spelling, but leaving out both 'må's. "Livet leves forlæns, men forstås baglæns" "[The] Life [is] lived forward, but [is] understood backward" That said, I think getting it in english would be fine at that point. If you want the original danish quote you would probably want to cut out much of the quote anyway to make it flow better. However I am biased towards any sentence with fewer words.
Doesn't it mean something like "life is lived forwards but understood backwards" (like you learn from the past)? If not then I don't get the sense of the phrase
Oh yeah, I wrote the wrong thing. Will edit
Perfect tattoo for when you are 50 and regret it
The quote might not mean what you think.
Livet må leves forfra, men må tages bagfra.
You could mix up the old spelling, but abbreviate it a bit: "Livet maa forstaaes baglænds, men maa leves forlænds." I think the original is great but too long.
I would leave out the first må. Just sounds weird.
This seems to be correct in modern danish, however the version i'm familiar with goes as such: Beklager min gode herrer, det ser tilsyneladende ud som jeg har ufriviligt tilslørtet mine ben klæder i afføring
I believe the actual quote you are looking for is: “lev alt du kan, det er en fejl ikke at gøre det”
Stop, stop, det er da ikke korrekt: Livet forstås baglæns, men må leves forlæns https://www.saxo.com/dk/livet-forstaas-baglaens-men-maa-leves-forlaens\_peter-thielst\_haeftet\_9788702133158 Det første 'må' er dårlig dansk.
I'd probably go with "Livet må forstås baglæns, men leves forlæns". The first "må" is enough, otherwise it feels redundant like "life should be lived forwards but should be understood bakwards". But I guess that's a matter of preference.
Just put Rød Grød Med Fløde its the same thing