Usually I stay clear of connotation-rich German words that have no real equivalent in other languages. Their purpose is to obfuscate. But there is one that describes the eurozone’s crisis management rather well. It is überfordert. The nearest English translation is “overwhelmed”, or “not on top of something”, but those are not quite the same. You can be overwhelmed one day, and on top the next. Überfordert is as hopeless as Dante’s hell. It has an intellectual and an emotional component. If you are it today, you are it tomorrow.
一般我都对那些含义丰富、在其它语言里找不到确切对应的德语词避而远之。这些词的目的就是把人搞糊涂。但有一个词，用来描述欧元区对危机的处理可谓相当贴切：überfordert。与之最相近的英语是“overwhelmed”（被压垮），或者“not on top of something”（不能掌控局面），但这些都不很贴切。你可以今天被压垮，明天又站起来。而überfordert就像但丁笔下的地狱，让人看不到希望。它既有理智，也有情感的成分。若你今天überfordert，明天也逃脱不出。