That’s a new word for me. I learned it on Tuesday afternoon while meeting with my professor. He’s German, you see, and so could translate for me what Woods did not translate when he produced the English version of Joseph and His Brothers.
Schadenfreude is this: the pleasure one takes in the misfortune of another. Not easily translatable. We don’t have a word for this in English. Not one word. No.
What we do have is photos of Britney Spears suffering her latest misery and ignominy on the covers of magazines in the checkout aisle of the grocery store. Or photos and headlines relating how Jennifer Aniston just can’t seem to get herself happily married ever after. Or television shows on which people air their dirty laundry and other people watch because…. Why? Why do they watch? Why?
But that’s just popular culture stuff. We don’t have this in Real Life, do we? You’ve never– have you?– felt pleasure in the disappointment of another, or the failure of another, or (horrors!) in the unhappiness of another. Heavens, no.
We don’t need a word like this. Not in English.
“Love doesn’t delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.” I Cor. 13.
