Page talk:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/82

Ihr,ihr, Sie, sie

Novalis plays against the two forms here, remaining ambiguous between a more distanced form of address and a more intimate form of address. Capitalized "Sie" is the formal second person, you; lower case "sie" is her. " "Ihr" and "ihr" are the respective possessive pronouns. As many of the uses of Sie, sie, Ihr, and ihr begin a sentence, the meaning of each is ambiguous. Here Novalis plays the ambiguity of second and third person throughout the work. For the most part, the translation chosen here began with third person, as the lower case "ihr" predominates. Most conjugations are in third person as well, but the constant recurrence of mid-sentence capitalization of "Sie" maintains the ambiguity.

Punctuation

Throughout this work, Novalis ends most statements with a period. However, word order and the use of interrogative words make it clear that many are questions. However, as per Wikisource standards, no punctuation was changed as the statements can be clearly interpreted from context.