Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds — J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer famously quoted this from The Bhagwat Geeta in the context of the nuclear bomb. The way this sentence is structured feels weird to me. “Now I am Death” or “Now I have become Death” sound much more natural in English to me.

Was he trying to simulate some formulation in Sanskrit that is not available in the English language?

  • Fonzie!
    1•1 year ago

    It’s not awkward? Because that’s subjective, for me it’s awkward to read.

    Or is it not correct? Because yay then, I guess.