This Month's Installment
First, a few notes: it wasn't until this post that I realized that - since August 2015 - I've been describing these monthly installments as "weekly installments." Obviously, I didn't notice this when I started doing it, and then routine just took over.
Lately, I've been splitting some sentences into clauses or phrases. The last sentence here isn't complete, so my translation may change when I get to the rest of it.
As always, the italicized things are what I'm unsure about:
Taken by the amount, a kindly disposition has a far better effect than intellectual merits; these shut out, that draws in. Hans Warsow was still innocent enough to believe that in life, it depended first on a serious will and the strength of ability. The people want to be caressed; the look must be warm, and that hand that touches them must be soft. And Hans Warsow's look was not always warm, and the hand that he offered not always soft.
For all that, he wasn't allowed to complain: a very big part, not only of the St. Nikolaus congregation, but also of the whole city, stood by him indefatigably. He gave priority to his sermons above everything else; he searched it for its official acts. He tried hard to come into a personal and social intercourse with it. This was, of course, not easy because during the day he workt in the community, and his evenings were devoted to intellectual studies that he
---32---
did not neglect at all, or he was occupied with the preparation for the second edition of his work about East Prussia, which had met with a growing approval in the province and even beyond it.
Hans Warsow allowed himself a rest in the middle of all of his concentrated work: now and then he travelled to Bärwalde. Of course it was always a long trip, but it paid its rewards. As soon as he breathed the air of Bärwald, all of the places on the height, and walkt in field and forest that held the most beautiful memories of his childhood, then he felt fine and was sincerely happy and young.
There stood the proud, old manor, its earlier part reminiscent of a distant past, the left far-reaching wing and the upper floor built later. But only the knowing eye could distinguish the old and new periods here because an understanding architect from Königsberg had managed the renovation and added to the [Vorhandenen] uniformly. And everything was lookt after and maintained with painstaking care.
Before him, facing the courtyard stood on both sides of the open, wooden veranda two enormous, ancient poplars, that a number of storms ruffled and many lightning bolts hit and that nevertheless rose strong and [trutzig] with leafless tops into the sky, as if they were put down as two protecting giants to guard the Bärwald manor against the hostile elements of the heavens and of the earth. Across from them was a big oval plaza planted with all kinds of bushes and young trees, under which the
---33---
well-kept lawn gleamed; to the right of him, divided with a wide drive strewn with gravel, the manorial coach house with the steeple on top
Interesting Words I Happen to Come across
- die Melisse - balm [I found this interesting because it's pronounced the same as the name Melissa. I did some research, and according to a book I have, the name Melissa means honeybee (it's listed under Greek and Latin and has the same meaning for both). I feel they're related (if only tenuously), but my field of knowledge doesn't encompass that.]
- das Pipapo - und das ganze Pipapo - and all the rest (of it), and all that nonsense
Grammatical Minutiae
I couldn't find Wollen in my dictionary (not as a noun, anyway). I'm pretty sure it's related to the verb wollen, so I translated it as will. Such a translation required that I change the definite article in the text ("es... das ernste Wollen... ankomme") to an indefinite article ("it depends... on a serious will").
I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't use the same parallel structure in "warm muß der Blick sein und weich die Hand, die sie berührt." That relative clause ("die sie berührt") causes problems in English, so the best I could do is "the look must be warm, and that hand that touches them must be soft."
I'm also mentioning this sentence so I can bring up the fact that the tense changes here. In the midst of all of this past tense, there's a sudden change to present tense. I think this sentence is just a continuation of the previous sentence (the end of which was also in present tense). Taken together, theses sentences explain Hans Warsow's philosophy, and - assuming it's a philosophy he still holds - it makes sense for them to be in present tense. However, before his philosophy is introduced, there's a present tense sentence espousing the opposite value. So...?
I just wanted to make a note of that tense change lest anyone think I've not been paying close enough attention.
Translating "Da stand das alte stolze Herrenhaus..." proved interesting because of the order of adjectives. (Brief side-note: Herrenhaus wasn't in my dictionary, but Herrenhof was listed as manor. Since they're similar, I just used manor.) "Das alte stolze Herrenhaus" is "the old, proud manor," but those adjectives have a different order in English, so it becomes "the proud, old manor."
That same sentence has the word "mahnend," which took some searching to translate. It's a participial of the verb mahnen, to remind. My dictionary also mentions that it's usually accompanied with a prepositional phrase starting with an. Here, it's "an eine ferne Vergangenheit." Translating this as "reminding of a distant past" seemed clumsy, so I changed that participial into the regular adjective reminiscent, so the whole phrase becomes "reminiscent of a distant past."
A later sentence describes "der Kutschstall" as "herrschaftliche," which my dictionary translates as "manorial," so my translating Herrenhaus as manor seems accurate. However, Kutschstall wasn't in my dictionary. Since Kutsche means coach (in the sense of carriage) and Stall means stable, I translated this as coach house.
I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't use the same parallel structure in "warm muß der Blick sein und weich die Hand, die sie berührt." That relative clause ("die sie berührt") causes problems in English, so the best I could do is "the look must be warm, and that hand that touches them must be soft."
I'm also mentioning this sentence so I can bring up the fact that the tense changes here. In the midst of all of this past tense, there's a sudden change to present tense. I think this sentence is just a continuation of the previous sentence (the end of which was also in present tense). Taken together, theses sentences explain Hans Warsow's philosophy, and - assuming it's a philosophy he still holds - it makes sense for them to be in present tense. However, before his philosophy is introduced, there's a present tense sentence espousing the opposite value. So...?
I just wanted to make a note of that tense change lest anyone think I've not been paying close enough attention.
Translating "Da stand das alte stolze Herrenhaus..." proved interesting because of the order of adjectives. (Brief side-note: Herrenhaus wasn't in my dictionary, but Herrenhof was listed as manor. Since they're similar, I just used manor.) "Das alte stolze Herrenhaus" is "the old, proud manor," but those adjectives have a different order in English, so it becomes "the proud, old manor."
That same sentence has the word "mahnend," which took some searching to translate. It's a participial of the verb mahnen, to remind. My dictionary also mentions that it's usually accompanied with a prepositional phrase starting with an. Here, it's "an eine ferne Vergangenheit." Translating this as "reminding of a distant past" seemed clumsy, so I changed that participial into the regular adjective reminiscent, so the whole phrase becomes "reminiscent of a distant past."
A later sentence describes "der Kutschstall" as "herrschaftliche," which my dictionary translates as "manorial," so my translating Herrenhaus as manor seems accurate. However, Kutschstall wasn't in my dictionary. Since Kutsche means coach (in the sense of carriage) and Stall means stable, I translated this as coach house.
