Onthouden: 2de (of 3de?) betekenis

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1

to keep (something) from (someone) —?

M’n verjaardagsvers van vader is te mooi dan dat ik je dit gedicht kan onthouden.
— Anne Frank 13 jun 1943

The poem father wrote for me for my birthday is so nice I couldn’t keep from sharing it with you —?

Really, the grammar of the last part of this sentence is too much for me. How would I ever learn to form such a construction? (Rhetorical question)

The first part I completely understand:
Op mijn verjaardag kreeg ik van mijn vader een gedicht, speciaal geschreven door mijn vader voor mijn verjaardag.

But the second part raises too many questions:
Het is te mooi dan dat ik je dit gedicht kan onthouden.
It is too nice for me to keep it from you —?

  1. Is the use of ‘dan’ essential to the grammar of this sentence?

  2. Since the poem (het vers) is already mentioned in the first part of the sentence, is it necessary to mention it again (dit gedicht) in the second part? (The actual poem of course is included in the diary entry.) I guess what I’m asking is: Does grammar (or clarity) prohibit you from simply using ‘dit’ instead of ‘dit gedicht’? :
    Het is te mooi dan dat ik je dit kan onthouden.

  3. Is it more common to say that something is:
    ZO iets dat ik je het NIET (meer) kan onthouden?
    For example,
    Dit gerecht is zo gemakkelijk dat ik je het recept niet kan onthouden.
    This dish is so easy to make I can’t keep from sharing the recipe with you —?

  4. Is ‘te mooi’ used here in much the same way as ‘te gek’? So nice. So cool.

  5. What about:
    Dit is te gek dan dat ik je dit kan onthouden.
    or something similar?
    (This is so cool I’ve got to share it with you.)

Sorry, my questions are rarely ever simple.

2

Common nowadays would probably be like: zo mooi dat ik het je niet (meer) kan onthouden. This is year 1943 vs 2015, dutch changes over the years and this appears to be an old story to me.

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Niek,
Thanks!

When I try to go back and read stuff like this, I sometimes forget that it’s no longer current. Every time I think I’m up to the challenge, I come across text like this that is so tedious that I feel like it’s taking me backward in my language learning instead of forward. Thankfully not all of it. Some of it I can read without a hitch. But anyway…

After noodling with Google for a while I finally found several current examples with “dat ik het je niet wil onthouden.”

So I think a more current styling might be something like:
Ik vind het zo’n mooi gedicht dat ik het je niet wil onthouden.
I think it’s such a nice poem I want to share it with you. (lit.: I don’t want to keep it from you.)

Anyway, I think I grasp the expression better now. It’s one of those “negative that expresses a positive” expressions. (There’s probably a better term for this, but I can’t think of it right now.)

<< Het gedicht dat ik van mijn vader kreeg op mijn verjaardag, is zo mooi dat ik het je niet wil onthouden. >>

Thanks again!
Veel succes met je Pools.
— Bruce

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