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Wu Ting
How would you interpret this sentence?
How would you interpret the fourth sentence “Suffer and eat your heart out, watch the screen and suffer”?
Does it mean he suffered and ate his heart out for watching the screen?
Or does it mean he suffered and ate his heart out because his was in a cauldron of boiling water.
Thank you.
PS: the excerpt is taken from “Katzenstein” written by an Israeli author, Etgar Keret. And I’m reading an English translation.
the context:
In Hell, they put me in a cauldron of boiling water. My flesh smoldered and burned, my skin was covered with blisters, and the pain was so bad I couldn’t stop screaming. They had these giant screens where you could see everything that was going on in Heaven. Suffer and eat your heart out, watch the screen and suffer. I think I spotted him there for a second, playing golf or cricket or something. There was a kind of close-up of his smile, and right after that they showed this couple making love.
Aug 12, 2019 4:04 AM
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Answers · 3
"eat your heart out" is idiom, which means something like "be jealous". It's normally used as a taunt, but is perfectly understandable here.
The repetition of 'suffer' is just used for emphasis, I think.
August 12, 2019
"Suffer and eat your heart out, watch the screen and suffer."
1) "Suffer and eat your heart out,"
In the context you've provided, this means that you should suffer and feel regret (eat your heart out) because you can not be in what's being shown on the screens (Heaven).
2) "watch the screen and suffer."
This connects with the 1st clause. This clause means that you must keep on watching and feel jealousy that you can not be there (Heaven).
"Suffer and eat your heart out, watch the screen and suffer."
More simple, yet identical sentence:
"Suffer and feel regret, watch the screen and envy (be jealous)."
August 12, 2019
That's not something you'd really hear in English but it could be interpreted as him suffering and his heart being eaten from the inside out because of the suffering. As a simple interpretation I would say the suffering is making his heart hurt, but if you're talking more advanced, I would probably think that the heart being swallowed up is more like it being swallowed up from the inside, I'm not sure if that makes any more sense, but that's how I'd interpret it. Also, the heart is more of a figurative thing more than a physical thing in case I didn't make that clear. Hope this helps
August 12, 2019
