yu✰

Ever since FACE YOURSELF was released, I see many people confused about the title of the intro. 

I’m a native speaker of German, studied languages and my hobby is writing. On the basis of this, I will try to bring some light into the dark.

“Ringwanderung” is indeed a German word but the translations that pop up everywhere (like e.g. “circle hiking”) are somewhat unsuitable.

In general, “Ring” can be translated as “circle” but also as “ring”. “Wanderung”, in it’s most basic meaning, can be understood as “hiking” but that would put too much focus on the fitness activity and neglect the poetic connotation of the word.

The German verb “wandern” is very similar to the English equivalent “to wander”. It has a character of walking around without a particular destination, even to a degree of being lost. It evokes the idea of drifting thoughts, a physical occupation that accompanies a mental activity. Especially as a compound, “Ringwanderung” has an even sublime character to it. There are quite a few of those rather poetic German compounds that cannot be translated directly. Like “Wanderlust” (the desire to undertake a journey) or “Weltenschmerz” (an all-encompassing kind of melancholic pain that affects the human being as a result of the deplorable state of the world itself). “Ringwanderung” conveys the idea of moving in circles, of returning to the starting point after a process of contemplating while moving forward. 

Already the mere sound of the word is complex, its meaning does not unfold immediately and, even to a native speaker, an air of uncertainty about its actual meaning will remain. I would say that there is also a positive connotation to it as it mediates the feeling of completion. So, as much as it could refer to an endless process, to being trapped in overthinking the same thing innumerable times, it could also denote a successful completion of a journey, something that is closed in itself. When I think of the word, a Celtic knot comes to my mind.