Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds — J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer famously quoted this from The Bhagavad Geeta in the context of the nuclear bomb. The way this sentence is structured feels weird to me. “Now I am Death” or “Now I have become Death” sound much more natural in English to me.

Was he trying to simulate some formulation in Sanskrit that is not available in the English language?

  • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    where you’d use “be” instead of “have” for the present tense, if the main verb denotes a change of state (such as “become”).

    But in that example isn’t the “am” replacing the “have”?

    I have become death

    I am become death

    • mick@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Yes. The conjugates for “to be” are: I am, You are, He/she is, etc.

    • Lvxferre
      3·
      1 year ago

      But in that example isn’t the “am” replacing the “have”?

      Historically the language replaced “be” with “have”. Then Oppenheimer (or whoever translated his Gita) re-replaced it back with “be”, to sound ancient.