Fritz Warsow went to Frau Lisa’s side. The warm air shook in the fragrance of the spring flowers, and a little of the moon was already there: a very thin crescent, it hung pallid and milk-white over the jagged tops of the trees. Something safe and calm went out from the retiring day, and the sky was a play of glowing and fading colors. From the courtyard sounded the low of the cows and also now and then out of the stables the whinny of a horse. Everything was silence and peace.
---7---
“Only in the country can one have such a thing,” said Fritz Warsow, and with a sigh of release and relief, this came out of a genuine heart: “Here one is really a man again!”
Frau Lisa was not completely of his opinion; she also loved the country, but she loved it as a person who has not grown close with it: more from a distance, like a pleasant play that one watches for a few hours. But in the soul one is not gripped and deeply moved by it; of his loosened secrets and his deep creative power one has never discovered something, and his breath has not penetrated a heart. She did not contradict, yet she took the next real opportunity to sing in her lovely eloquence a song of praise to the city, that the active powers of men in the gathering with the other are in the happy contest of work and desire more roused than the quiet country.
He let her speak and had his silent pleasure at her effervescent enthusiasm. But he had his mind on other things. As he went all alone through this wonderful evening, he gave himself to the abundance of his impressions and to the gentle magic, and out of each patch, every shrub spoke to him.
As they turned into the park another couple came towards them: Edith at the side of Uechteritz, who talked on the [Stillere] in his cheerful soldierly way. Soon they had changed places, and no one appeared dissatisfied with the exchange. Fritz now went with Edith, and Frau Lisa’s bright laugh sounded to them like bright bird twittering while she lost herself in the depth of the park. At the trunk of an old copper beech whose branches reached low toward the earth,
---8---
Edith stopped: “Is it true, Fritz, really true?”
He understood her immediately. “Yes,” he said, “it is true. Still, I’ve spoken about it with no one. But you want to have a right to hear about it.”
“You’re going?”
“I submitted my application yesterday. First the usual leave for half a year or longer.
Interesting German words I found by happenstance:
- der Zögerer - procrastinator, ditherer [Mostly, I found this interesting because it's related to zögern (to hesitate, to waver) and zögerlich (hesitating, halting).]
- der Frevel - sacrilege; blasphemy [Like I mentioned before, my German-English dictionary doesn't contain etymologies, but I'm wondering if this is related to revel.]
- igittigitt - ugh!; yuk!
My German-English dictionary translates "scheidenden" as "out-going," but since "went out" is the verb in the same sentence, I derived my translation of "scheidenden" from the verb form (scheiden). So I have "went out from the retiring day" instead of "went out from the out-going day," which seems somewhat redundant.
I was a bit dubious about my dictionary's translation of "das Brüllen." It gave only "roar," so my sentence had "the roar of the cows." I looked up "low" in the English section and discovered that it also translates to "das Brüllen." Lowing cows seem more appropriate than roaring cows.
I had a few problems with one of the characteristically-long German clauses. I think my word order is OK, but I'm not sure what "mit den andern" means in this context (I translated it as "with the other," but it doesn't seem to make much sense). I had to supply an "are" for the clause to make sense, and I didn't find a direct translation of "wachrufe," which I translated as "roused."
For the first time, I've run across a word I can't seem to translate. Stillere isn't in my dictionary, and I'm dubious about Google Translate's saying that it's quieter. It's capitalized in the text, so it's a noun, but quieter is an adjective. Even if it's a substantive adjective, it doesn't fit into the context: Uechteritz is talking about "quieter [things]" in a "cheerful soldierly way"?
I'm sort of confused about "Lachen" in "Frau Lisas helles Lachen klang." From the context, it's fairly obvious that it's laugh, but my dictionary says that Lache is a feminine word (a die word) that doesn't have any other endings (the plural is the same form: Lache). There is an-other sense of Lache (pool, puddle) that does have an -n in the plural form (Lachen), but that doesn't fit the context and plurals take die anyway (in this case [nominative] at least). From what the text has, it looks like in 1916, Lache had an -n at the end and was a neuter word (a das word).
In my translation, I've been trying to put the page breaks in places that are comparable to where they are in the original German setting. The break between pages eight and nine is great in that it really does stop between "At the trunk..." and "Edith stopped." The first words on page nine are "blieb Edith stehen." It's weird how that page break is in such an appropriate place.
I was a bit dubious about my dictionary's translation of "das Brüllen." It gave only "roar," so my sentence had "the roar of the cows." I looked up "low" in the English section and discovered that it also translates to "das Brüllen." Lowing cows seem more appropriate than roaring cows.
I had a few problems with one of the characteristically-long German clauses. I think my word order is OK, but I'm not sure what "mit den andern" means in this context (I translated it as "with the other," but it doesn't seem to make much sense). I had to supply an "are" for the clause to make sense, and I didn't find a direct translation of "wachrufe," which I translated as "roused."
For the first time, I've run across a word I can't seem to translate. Stillere isn't in my dictionary, and I'm dubious about Google Translate's saying that it's quieter. It's capitalized in the text, so it's a noun, but quieter is an adjective. Even if it's a substantive adjective, it doesn't fit into the context: Uechteritz is talking about "quieter [things]" in a "cheerful soldierly way"?
I'm sort of confused about "Lachen" in "Frau Lisas helles Lachen klang." From the context, it's fairly obvious that it's laugh, but my dictionary says that Lache is a feminine word (a die word) that doesn't have any other endings (the plural is the same form: Lache). There is an-other sense of Lache (pool, puddle) that does have an -n in the plural form (Lachen), but that doesn't fit the context and plurals take die anyway (in this case [nominative] at least). From what the text has, it looks like in 1916, Lache had an -n at the end and was a neuter word (a das word).
In my translation, I've been trying to put the page breaks in places that are comparable to where they are in the original German setting. The break between pages eight and nine is great in that it really does stop between "At the trunk..." and "Edith stopped." The first words on page nine are "blieb Edith stehen." It's weird how that page break is in such an appropriate place.
