the connection between “excellence” and “the end of the road”… in Hebrew
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סוֹף הַדֶּרֶךְ
When I hear the English expression, the end of the road, the first thing that comes to my mind is the song by Boyz II Men. In English, the end of the road connotes the end of a relationship or process, sometimes the end of a life.
But when I hear its literal translation into Hebrew – סוֹף הַדֶּרֶךְ – I think of excitement, enthusiasm and achievement. That’s because סוף הדרך is used on the streets and in the homes of Israel today to refer to something excellent, even though an earlier coining of the expression by Leah Goldberg was closer to its English counterpart.
– I think of excitement, enthusiasm and achievement. That’s because סוף הדרך is used on the streets and in the homes of Israel today to refer to something excellent, even though an earlier coining of the expression by Leah Goldberg was closer to its English counterpart.
For example:
הַגְּלִידָה הַזֹּאת – סוֹף הַדֶּרֶךְ.
This ice cream – great stuff (literally, the end of the road).
Why סוף הדרך to express excellence? Because reaching the end of the road – the end of a process – is an achievement.
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