Month 33: Pages 47-48

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

"Hopefully you will now pay a little more attention to your pastor."
     Fritz wasn't so sure: was it an honest opinion that spoke out of the words of the other brother

---47---

or hidden teasing?  He wanted to take it as the former.
     "And I am grateful to you," he replied, "that you have suggested this visit to me.  It will not have been my last."
     It was the only thing that Fritz spoke on the trip.  From then on, he was silent until they arrived home. 

[Adl.] Malkitten, 15 September 1913

     Dear Hans,
I would like to inform you to-day that after much consideration I have decided to give up my position here.  My two boys, who have well cut off in a just-held test, are going to high school now, and with a little girl of only six years old beginning again - I have little inclination - although one asks me about it urgently.  Generally, my initial experience and repeatedly exprest opinion of you has been right: my talents and abilities are suited more for the wifely practice than for the pedagogical field.  The successes that I gained here lay more in the talent and the diligent striving of my pupils than in me.
     Your letters, dear Hans, always give me a warm pleasure.  Alone I always have the feeling, as if near all of your joy, to work again in our beloved East Prussia, yet even a thin string sounds in them.

Grammatical Minutiae

This month's installment includes the beginning of a letter, which is exciting because it reveals the temporal setting of the novel (15 September 1913).  However, it's also frustrating because I have no idea what "Adl. Malkitten" means.  I'm assuming that "Adl." is an abbreviation, but I don't know of what.  Because it's alongside the date at the beginning of the letter, I'm assuming that Malkitten is a location, but I couldn't find an existing Malkitten, so either it's no longer extant or it's completely fictional.

The last sentence from this month's installment gave me some trouble, and I'm not sure it makes much sense.  There's an "ihnen" in the original text, but I don't know what its antecedent is.  It's plural, but there aren't any plural nouns in that sentence.  It might refer back to "deine Briefe" from the previous sentence, but there's quite a bit of space between them.

Month 32: Pages 46-47

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

It was written in his features.  She liked men who could be both serious and happy, each in its time.
     He, however, lookt in her eyes with pleasure.  Under the thick blond hair that almost nestled into her eyebrows, they sometimes shone like the cornflowers in the quiet field.  It was

---46---

the health, country and the rural purity that he found and loved in the fresh character of this girl.
     Hans was keen to get going.  The cab was already at the door.  The uncle, of course, already lay in bed.  But Hutemach, who never went to sleep before everyone in the house was, would wait for them.  Fritz could no longer resist his hint; he finally rose to his feet and said goodbye to the priest and his wife with warm words of thanks.  Now he also shook Hanna's hand.
     "To better neighborliness from to-day on!  Right?  And if your duty" - he put a soft tone on this word - "takes you to Bärwalde once again, then don't forget that an old, frail man lives there in the manor house, for whom a happy word and face brings a little sunshine into his darkness.  And - this, of course, just by the way - also a younger man, for whom a little cheering up after the hard drudgery in the field certainly couldn't hurt.  Or is that too insignificant for Samaritan action?"
     "I will write it in my workbook as a visit, maybe I won't forget it then."
     "Approval and farewell!  Or hopefully till we meet again!"
     "I am glad that my brotherly warning has fallen on such fertile soil," Hans said as they both sat in the small cab, leaning close against each other, and the gentle mare took a few bold jumps in anticipation of the familiar stable, which she usually didn't do.

Grammatical Minutiae

I don't think that "nestled into" is the best translation of "schmiegten" in this context ("hair that almost nestled into her eyebrows"), but it's the only translation my dictionary supplies, so it's what I have to go with.

I've italicized "brings" above, not because I think I translated it wrong but because I don't understand how it's supposed to be parsed.  That clause is "dem ein frohes Wort und Gesicht ein wenig Sonnenschein in sein Dunkel bringt."  I can translate each word, but either I have the cases wrong or there's a subject-verb disagreement in the text because when I translated it as a whole, I got: "for whom a happy word and face brings a little sunshine into his darkness."  There's a plural subject ("ein frohes Wort und Gesicht"/"a happy word and face") but a singular verb ("bringt"/"brings").  I'll admit that what I have isn't the smoothest translation, but I'm not sure how to improve it because I'm confused about the subject(s).

Month 31: Pages 45-46

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

     After dinner, they went into the living room, and the conversation turned itself to less important things.  Some innocent happiness was in the air and on the faces.  Fritz had started a little banter with the pretty Hanna, in which her Samaritan function again played a

---45---

rôle.  And she answered him so quickly and with such good wit, that this humorous duel gave him a growing joy.  Both their eyes shone with a pleasure for fighting.  The entrance of the serious men, who didn't immediately know how to find themselves in the changed atmosphere, disturbed them little; they barely paid attention to it and continued making jokes in the nonchalance of their youth.
     Their cheerful sense even passed over the worries and sorrows of the old woman, who sat in the corner of the ancient sofa with her tired head leaning on a cushion.  Only now and then a short, compassionate look from the youthful eyes of the girl flew over to her.  Why did she make so many heavy thoughts for herself?  Life was so beautiful and rich!  One just had to see it properly and approach with good confidence.  Her fate too had really been no easy thing.  Orphaned and destitute from early childhood on, only to obtain the charity of grandparents - not everyone would take it so calmly.  But she had never lost courage.  And if she sometimes had to stand there totally alone, she didn't want to be afraid of the struggle.  If the grandmother still thought about Fritz's serious words earlier in the garden?  But she had been right, she already believed him well enough to know: he really hadn't meant any harm.  He also belonged to the strong and courageous, who, when it depended on it, would yield to no enemy.

Grammatical Minutiae

The first sentence in this chapter (chapter seven) has a singular indefinite pronoun as the subject.  It's "nach dem Abendessen ging man in das Wohnzimmer...."  To translate this literally as "After the dinner, one went into the living room..." seemed a bit too formal and stiff, so I changed it a bit to get "After dinner, they went into the living room...."  As far as word-for-word translation, it's not strictly accurate, but I think it provides a better sense of what's going on.

My dictionary tells me that the phrase "ich habe es nicht böse gemeint" means "I didn't mean any harm," although it literally means "I didn't mean it badly."  In the novel text, however, it appears as "er hatte es so böse nicht gemeint" (my emphasis).  The so modifies an adverb in the German, but in the translation my dictionary provides for this phrase, there is no adverb.  Instead, it's become a direct object ("any harm").  In order to retain something of the original sense, I translated this as "he really hadn't meant any harm."  Hopefully, the intensification of so comes across in really.

Month 30: Pages 44-45

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.  I was able to finagle my clauses so that the end of this month's installment is also the end of chapter six.

     He could not continue talking.  His words had fallen like a spark of fire in the small gathering.  "War!?" cried Hans.  "How do you get to war all of a sudden?"
     "War!" the pastor said at the same time, and - his hands instinctively folded in his manner - he added: "God in mercy keep us from it!"  The pastor's frail wife, however, had become deathly pale, 

---44---

a stuttering twitch ran over her bloodless lips, she wanted to say something, but the word died away before she could utter it.
     Hanna noticed it and caressed her hand reassuringly:  "Don't bother, Grandmother.  The captain is inclined to be very belligerent to-day; he has been since his entrance, but he means no harm."
     "I don't at all know why the government gets so excited about my word.  We certainly cannot always stay in peace, and being prepared means everything here.  Or did we want to hide from ourselves that we are surrounded all around by a world of enemies, who wait only for the given moment while we are still here lulling ourselves to sleep in the most delightful dreams of love and fraternization?"
     "If the war comes, it comes from God, and we have to get used to it," opined the old priest.  "To think about it now is possibly a little premature."
     "I don't even know how you suddenly come up with these thoughts, Fritz," and with a quick, rebuking look, Hans pointed out the pastor's old wife; fear peered out of every feature of her wilted face.
     Now Fritz saw what he caused.  "You're right," he said, relenting, "it was just a silly idea that this peaceful evening gave me.  Since we like to live and think in opposites."

Fun Word I Happened Upon

• der Gurtmuffel - seatbelt offender; ein ~ sein to hate wearing seatbelts [der Muffel by itself means something like stick-in-the-mud]

Grammatical Minutiae

I had to change the word order a bit in the clause "Die schwächliche Pastorsfrau aber was totenbleich geworden."  Pastorsfrau is one word in German, but it becomes two in English: pastor's wife.  I couldn't keep the adjective where it was because that would result in "the frail pastor's wife," which could be incorrectly understood as "the wife of the frail pastor."  Instead, I worded it as "the pastor's frail wife."  Mostly I'm noting this just because I think it's interesting; it doesn't really require a grammatical explanation.
The same situation also showed up in a later sentence.

Although it's not the context in which I'd usually use the word, I followed my dictionary's suggestion to translate "kriegerisch" as "belligerent," because they have the same core, as it were.  Kriegerisch is related to der Krieg (the German word for war), and belligerent comes from bellum (the Latin word for war).

I translated "meinte" (in "meinte der alte Pfarrer") as "opined."  My dictionary suggests translating meinen as to think, to believe, or to mean.  To say is listed at the bottom, and that's the sense here, but since meinen is obviously related to die Meinung (opinion), I felt opine was appropriate.  Opine is translated as meinen in the English to German section of my dictionary.

Wohl can be translated so many different ways that I don't know whether I have the correct sense in the sentence "Jetzt an ihn zu denken, ist wohl ein wenig verfrüht."  I translated this as "To think about it now is possibly a little premature," but probably or truly might work instead of possibly.

Month 29: Pages 43-44

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

     And when in this moment, a bottle of red wine appeared on the table, he couldn't refrain from telling the story about old Karenke and the ten bottles of Onkels though without in any way connecting it to Hanna's good work.  The priest and his wife laughed, but she understood his intention very well.  However, she didn't let herself lose her composure in the least; yes, from her eyes a quick, battle-brave look met him, a look that said, "Just wait!  Perhaps my hour is coming too; then we'll get even!"  That was just what he liked.  He wanted to embarrass her, and she pickt up the gauntlet. 

---43---

     The evening came creeping on soft feet.  The sun sank lower, out of the valley rose the gold and hung itself in glistening chains on the white-gray cloud bank that lined the horizon.  Once more the sun reached through with crimson hands and lookt on the earth with fiery eyes.  The sparrows chirpt even more quietly; the doves too had gone to bed on their [Schlag] in the hayloft.  It had become very quiet in the world; a faint wind came from the meadows and carried over autumnal scents.  Deep evening-peace covered the parsonage, its garden, and its farmstead with broad, shadowing pinions; from the church across the way, the evening bells rang a few times, then they fell silent.
     "Wonderful," Fritz said then.  He had indulged himself until then in silent devotion of this celebratory evening mood while the others carried on a casual conversation around him.  "When one sits here like this in the middle of this [Pfarridnlle] this evening, which fills the world with its Sabbath calm, then for one it's as it always has to stay on earth, as it could never become different.  And when one then thinks about it, how all of a sudden going to war over these peaceful valleys, how it can wake us all up out of the carefree calm of the peaceful delight of nature!"

Interesting Words I Happened Upon

• der Wolkenkratzer - in English, it's skyscraper, but in German, it's cloudscraper
• das Sechseck - octagon, but literally, "six-corner"
• die Blessur - wound, which I found interesting because the French word for wound is la blessure.  According to Wiktionary, German borrowed the word from French.
• das Durchschlagpapier - carbon paper, but since durchslagen means variously to go through, to pass through, the show through, to come through, it's literally something like "to-pass-through paper."

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I think there are some Biblical references in the clause "Tiefer Abendfriede deckte das Pfarrhaus, seinen Garten, seine Gehöfte mit weiten, schattenden Fittichen," which I've translated as "Deep evening-peace covered the parsonage, its garden, and its farmstead with broad, shadowing pinions."  It has some resemblance with Psalm 91:4: "He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler" and Psalm 17:8: "Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings."  I have Martin Luther's translation of the Psalms, so I lookt up these verses and found some of the same words from the novel text (in bold).  Psalm 91:4:  "Er wird dich mit seinen Fittichen decken, und Zuflucht wirst du haben unter seinen Flügeln.  Seine Wahrheit ist Schirm und Schild."  Psalm 17:8:  "Behüte mich wie einen Augapfel im Auge, beschirme mich unter dem Schatten deiner Flügel."

I wasn't surprised that I didn't find "Pfarridnlle" in my German dictionary.  I don't know if I'm reading the type font wrong (which has happened before) or if it's a typo or if something else is going on.

Month 28: Pages 41-43

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

     With warmth, Hans returned the greeting of his former teacher.  The quick walk through 

---41---

the fresh autumn air had woven a brownish shimmer around his pale face; his eyes shone youthfully.  Now he sat with both ages under the dense pipe-leaf arbor as he so often did in earlier years, and memories from past times came alive.
     A young girl appeared and brought the coffee.
     "Hanna Teichgräber, Theo's daughter, who now lives with us as my and the grandmother's faithful assistant," introduced the old gentleman.  And Hans' eye lingered with pleasure on the lovely vision, whose well-built body came in the simple linen dress with the white apron at the right length, while the yellow-blonde hair was combed to both sides over her forehead.  A trace of purity and freshness lay on the rosy face, spoke from the velvet-blue eyes, in which - compared to someone of so few years - were strength and determination.  The freshness of the swelling life that the maturity pushed against breathed around the whole figure.
     The golden sunlight lay full and soft on the pipe-leaves and now and then forced itself an entrance into the silent dark of the arbor.  Outside a few doves flew here and there and bathed the bright [Schwingen] in the air; in the fruit trees chirpt the sparrows so much louder than the day inclined itself.
     Wonderfully, this image full of quiet calm and still, cherished peace touched Hans' soul.  He thought about the inner struggles, the draining uneasiness that he suffered through recently.  This contrast, however, was not reconciled to him; he knew that his life would still face many a difficult struggle.  At the same time, he felt within himself strength and courage to take it on. 

---42---

     A slight autumn fog crept over the earth; the air became even more pure, but at the same time also cool.  The priest suggested a walk with Hans when one heard the approach of a carriage.
      "The Bärwald taxi!" cried Hanna, and a peculiar vehicle rolled up: a single gray-upholstered seat with a high back on a strange, ornate, yellow-painted wheeled frame.  On it lay, stretched out at length, Fritz Warsow, and with a casual hand he drove the gentle mare that one groomed to harness in front of this vehicle.  Even two, possibly three, people could travel on the taxi; as far as space is concerned, they had to sit on both sides, back to back, and be very slim and little, and the third perhaps in front in order to hold the lead.  But now Fritz was the absolute ruler and made himself comfortable.
     The old priest wanted to introduce again, but Fritz interrupted him:  "I have already had the pleasure to welcome the kind young lady on one of her Samaritan errands in Bärwald."

Interest Phrase I Happened Upon

fertig ist die Laube! - literally, this is "the arbor is finished!" but my dictionary translates it as the phrase "and Bob's your uncle!" so I'm assuming it has the sense of "well, there you have it!"

Grammatical Minutiae

Minutia, really, since there's only one:

I couldn't find a translation for "sammetblauen" as a whole, but I recognized "blauen" as an inflected form of blau, which is blue.  I did a bit of searching and found that der Samt is the word for velvet.  I'm not completely confident on this, but I think "sammetblauen" means something like "velvet-blue."

Month 27: Pages 40-41

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

The lush yellow-gold of the dough with the many dark spots of the large and small raisins tempted even the finest taste; because no one was as good at [Glumse] cakes as the pastor's wife; for a long time she'd had this calling in the whole area.  In a silver can, an old heirloom of the priest's family that has survived for centuries, the [Schmandt] gleamed.  The coffee was not there yet; it would be prepared only when the visit was drawing near.
     The priest sat in a comfortable garden chair and read the newspaper that had just arrived.  He was a man of medium size and muscular build.  On the stocky [Kumpfe] sat a big, angular head with white - but still very thick - hair, a firm mouth, and small, mouse-gray eyes that dreamed under bushy brows.  Earlier they had certainly flashed; now they had become stiller - a true authentic scholarly head with a penchant for pensiveness, but not without inclination to action.  In the stubbornness of this seventy years, still fresh moves, the expression of a maturity and clarity; the one to look at him 

---40---

thought that it was won only after many a hard battle.
     His wife lookt much older and more worry worn than he, although she was ten years younger.  She had a small, delicate face and a tired sound in her voice; she still suffered from the early death of the only, hopeful son.  The oppositions of life that made him strong and firm had broken her.  A foot pain that had appeared a year ago forced her to use a cane for help while walking; nevertheless she was constantly active in her housekeeping.
     "Well I knew that Hans wouldn't forget his old teacher," the priest said as he put forth cigar and newspaper.  "How often have we sat here and discussed all sorts of theological and philosophical questions!  Even then he had the distinct nature of a lecturer.  That he has completely passed over to priestly service really surprises me."
     "It hasn't been a big jump for him," replied his wife, who - with events as with people - tried to bring out the littlest bit of good.
     "Don't say that.  He has a large and educated audience in Rodenburg, where he can work much good in the congregation."
     "Eventually he will take over Bärwalde and become your patron."
     "I couldn't think of a better - but isn't someone coming there?  Right, he is it!  Welcome and greetings in God, my dear Warsow!  You don't even know how very happy you make the old man through your visit!"

Interesting Word I Happened Upon

• eckig - my dictionary translates this as rectangular or angular, but since die Ecke is the word for corner, it's literally something like "corner-y.

Grammatical Minutiae

I couldn't find Kumpfe in my dictionary or even on the internet.  Judging by the context, I think it means something like shoulders, but I'm not confident enough about that to actually stick it in my translation.

Both recht and echt have so many meanings that I don't know if I captured the correct sense in my translation.  The original has "ein rechter, echter Gelehrtenkopf," which I've translated as "a true, authentic scholarly head."

The same goes for Zug in a later sentence.  It's plural in the text ("Zügen"), and I translated it as "moves," but I think characteristics might also work.  In that same sentence, there's the word "Geklärtheit."  I couldn't find this in my dictionary, but I'm pretty sure it's related to Klarheit (which I did find), so I translated it as "clarity."  It's paired with "Reife," which my dictionary translates as "maturity," so my English translation of this word pair rhymes.

I took a bit of liberty with "dennoch war sie von unaufhaltsamer Tätigkeit in ihrer Wirtschaft."  Literally, it's something like "nevertheless she was of unstoppable activity in her housekeeping."  Initially, I was going to change this to "she was constantly occupied."  Tätigkeit can mean occupation, so this was just shifting the parts of speech a bit.  I'd incorrectly translated dennoch as therefore, and when I remembered that it actually means nevertheless, I lookt at what I had again and realized that it didn't sufficiently portray movement despite the foot pain mentioned in the previous clause of the sentence.  So I amended it to "nevertheless she was constantly active in her housekeeping."  There's still a bit of shifting with regard to parts of speech, but it retains the same meaning while also implying motion.

I disregarded grammar for sense with the clause "die bei den Ereignissen wie bei dem Menschen immer das weniger Gute hervorzuheben suchte," specifically the "weniger Gute."  "Weniger" is the comparative adjective, so it's "less good" or "lesser good," but with "hervorzuheben suchte" ("tried to bring out"), I think it's meant as "the littlest bit of good," which has a superlative adjective.  I think I have the sense correctly (that the priest's wife is an optimist), but I'm unable to explain the grammar here.

Month 26: Pages 38-40

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

She lost her parents early, so the two old folks brought her to them at Pronitten."
     "Ah, I know already!  The daughter of Theo, the 

---38---

doctor.  He lost his wife to a lingering illness, accused himself that he had treated her wrongly, and then soon died himself.  The old man had gotten over it with enough difficulty; only his childlike faith helpt him through it."
     A short pause.
     "But why do you call her the Little Red Riding Hood from Samaria?"
     Fritz laughed.  "Because I met her one afternoon here in our little village with a red cap on her blonde hair and a big basket in which she brought a bottle of wine and other tonic for old Karenke."
     "Was he sick?"
     "Yes, very sick.  Quite often he lookt so deeply in the glass that Beelzebub and other devils raged in him."
     "No, captain, you must always have your teasing!" said Hutemach, and to Hans, explaining: "The little Teichgräber child didn't want to go to him at all, but rather to his wife, who has been badly suffering for a long time and whom Pastor always visits when he comes to Bärwalde."
     "But the bottle of wine should have been for him, with that he cured himself from the gutrot!  That's a fact.  By the way, the little one has caused something good with that because since then old Karenke has become distinguished and drinks only red wine.  And he prefers Onkels Marke.  Or am I speaking a falsehood again?"  And with a triumphant look to Hutemach, whom, in all friendliness, he often gave a hard time:  "Then why did you fire Marie, his daughter, who was so good a chambermaid, just like that one day?  Because in the old man's parlor Mr. Borowski has found empty bottles of the brand that's there on the table.  But 

---39---

it means nothing to the Samaritan service of young ladies."
     Now even the old Bärwald resident laughed.  And nothing pleased Hutemach more than when he did that.  He could still laugh so heartily and with such childlike cheer. 

     In the arbor of the Pronitt parish garden, thickly overgrown with pipe-leaf, the coffee table was set.  A bowl piled high with freshly baked [Glumse] cakes stood in the middle of the table, framed by two old-fashioned vases of autumnal flowers.

Grammatical Minutiae

My dictionary translates schleppend as sluggish, slow, labored, and various other similar words, but none of them fit the context in which it's used in the text:  "einer schleppenden Krankheit."  I translated this as "a lingering illness."

Two months ago, when I ran across "Teichgräber," I translated it literally as "pond-digger," but after running into it again for this month's installment, I realized that it's actually a surname.  It appears as "Die kleine Teichgräber," which is literally "the little Teichgräber" and which I've translated as "the little Teichgräber child."

I kept "Onkels Marke" in German because I'm pretty sure it's a specific type of wine.  Translated, it's "uncle's brand."

I translated "Stubenmächen" as "chambermaid," although my dictionary notes that this is obsolete.  I'm not sure if the "obsolete" qualification applies to the text I'm translating because it's from 1916.  The rest of the sentence suggests that "Stubenmädchen" is an occupation from which Marie was fired, so "chambermaid" seems to make sense.

I took some liberties with the sentence "Er konnte noch so herzlich und kindlich froh lachen" because I couldn't really think of a way to render "kindlich froh" adverbially in English.  Instead, I put that part as a prepositional phrase and added "such" to retain the "so" in the original, which I'm assuming modifies both "herzlich" and "kindlich froh."  So I ended up with "He could still laugh so heartily and with such childlike cheer."

It occurred to me only after I'd pasted in this month's installment that I haven't been very consistent with place names.  I have both "Pronitten" and "Pronitt," although it's the same place.  I think I've been equally inconsistent with "Bärwald"/"Bärwalde."

Month 25: Pages 37-38

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

     "You see, Fritz," Hans remarkt, "because you would have to replace uncle, where he can no longer do it, and you certainly haven't been there for a church service a single time yet."
     "No, my dear!  Not a single time!  On Sundays I stay in bed; it's the only day when I can, sometimes 

---37---

right into the afternoon.  And my church service - well, Hans, these meadows and fields, the grazing livestock, the foals in the paddock, and the rustling woods all around us.  Do you mean then that all that is no church service, when one only has eyes to see it and ears to hear it?  It's one for me at least; I don't need the church."
     Hans wrinkled his brow.  "You know how I love all that.  But a good sermon - and the old man over there knows his stuff - increases the delight I get from it.  Besides, I thought you had changed your view in this a little."
     "Mr. Warsow is completely right," Hutemach, whose word was worth much in Bärwald and whom the two young men held in an incontestable respect, joined the conversation now.  "See, Captain, how often I have said that to you!  But you didn't want to believe it and thought it would be enough if I prayed for you."
     Fritz relented.  "Let one be good, Hans.  I'm coming along tomorrow, if there's no hurry because you will already want to go in the afternoon while I have to do; but in the evening I'm picking you up with the taxi, if only the cute Little Red Riding Hood from Samaria paid her respects to me."
     "Always the same!" said Hans, and now there was something like anger in his voice.  "Whom does he mean by the cute Little Red Riding Hood from Samaria?" he askt Hutemach.
     "A granddaughter of Pastor."

Grammatical Minutiae

I combined the two words in the phrase "nie angefochtenes" to get "incontestable."  "Nie" means "never" and "angefochtenes" is a past participle from "anfechten," which means "to contest" or "to challenge."  Translating "nie angefochtenes" somewhat literally to get "never-challenged" seemed a bit cumbersome; "incontestable" seemed much simpler.

Month 24: Pages 36-37

This Month's Installment

As usual, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

     Now Fritz came too, with Borowski, the inspector, from work.  He had changed all of his clothes, was fresh and cheerful and very pleased when the brother suddenly sat next to them at the table.  And with what pleasure!  In the summer a big [Satte] with thick milk and the coarse farm bread.  In the winter, a plate piled high with warm grits and afterwards, when it was possible, [Stippe] with bacon and gray peas, or, when it came up, [Schmandkartoffeln] with [Bratklops] and cream cheese or [Glumse], those were his favorite foods. 

---36---

Happily, he left them for all the magnificence that Hutemach had dished up for the uncle and Hans.  Because he had become a little more of a cultured man and had a more delicate stomach that was not completely prepared for the heavy East Prussian cuisine.  Only the sorrel soup with the melted egg in it or the plate with pure Königsberg [Fleck] did he not allow himself to take; lunch always had to offer one of the two if he was there.
     In late autumn, he had come to Bärwalde on vacation even for a whole week.  These were red-letter days, one like the other.
     "Listen, Fritz," said Hans the very first evening, "to-morrow I have to go see the old pond-digger, and you have to go with.  It's outrageous that you haven't made a visit to the old gentleman yet."
     "We have no time to be making visits in the country, Hans.  You're not allowed to put such high cultural demands on us.  We are farmers and plow our clod.  We don't worry about the people, their formalities and customs."
     "But with his priest, one must make an exception," threw in the old Bärwald resident, "the Pronitten pastor has always been close to us.  I myself, although I wouldn't like to make any demands on church matters, have gone into his sermons now and then.  Just for his sake."

Grammatical Minutiae

I don't have much to say about this month's installment.  There were a lot of food words that weren't in my dictionary, so I had to leave a lot in brackets.  I could recognize Kartoffeln (potatoes) in "Schmandkartoffeln," but that wasn't very helpful.

I couldn't find a good translation for "Kirchlichkeit" either.  My dictionary has the adjective "kirchlich," which it translates as "church" and "ecclesiastical" among other similar words.  It's obvious that it has something to do with church (I could tell that even before looking it up), but it's a noun, not an adjective.  I translated it as "church matters."  I don't think it's actually a plural in the original text, but the meaning is close enough.

Month 23: Pages 35-36

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

     In the withered features of the old uncle also lay something like a celebrating peace and a gleaming, despite his dim eyes that couldn't see much any more, but when they were young had lookt out on this blessed landscape in the same way, this peacefully lookt after property with its old but well-maintained buildings and trees.  Nothing that happened on the large farm escaped his keen eye in those days.
     The old man had a strange nature.  Usually he sat silently, indifferently, when the others spoke around him.  Then at once he cut in in the conversation, and immediately one knew that he had heard and well understood everything.  Now he expressed his view, and then what he usually said in short, concise words made complete sense and hit the nail on the head.  Above all Hans talked about intellectual things with no one as gladly as with the old man, and it was difficult to decide who of the two gave or received more.
     The old gentleman could not endure the stay in the open air for a long time.  Although he sat in a winter coat, he soon shivered; then one went into the house.  There Miss Hutemach has prepared supper in the meantime.  She was Lithuanian by birth; from

---35---

her earliest youth on, brought to the most varied places in the world, she had acquired a comprehensive education, much talent and tact in dealing with people, and a good dose of personal bravery, which never left her.  As the brother of the Bärwald resident, the old privy councillor in Berlin, searched for an associate, luck could lead him to no one more suitable than this.  Now for a number of years she shared the loneliness of Bärwald with the frail lord of the manor, lookt after the house and yard for him, wrote his letters, read him his newspapers in the morning and evening, kept him to regular hours that had to be kept to the second, walkt in the big, well-tended garden or on the country lane depending on the condition of the weather, and took great care of him.  A wife could not have done it better.
     Even now at dinner she say next to the "Captain" - as the Reckenstein citizen and other neighbors still called him, with the title of the long-ago military time - reached the dishes for him, gave him what was easily digestible for him, and prepared it for him with great care.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

The phrase "hit the nail on the head" is actually in the German text, although it has a different verb:  "traf den Nagel auf den Kopf."  It's literally "met the nail on the head," but it's close enough.  The other idiom in that sentence doesn't have an English equivalent:  "[es] hatte alles Hand und Fuß."  Literally, it's "[it] had all hand and foot."  My dictionary tells me that "Hand und Fuß haben" means "to make sense," so I translated "alles" as "complete," resulting in "it made complete sense."

Back in July, I was confused by "Hutemach."  I thought it was an occupation, but in translating a sentence this month, I discovered that it's actually a name:  "Da hatte Fräulein Hutemach inzwischen das Abendbrot bereitet."

Month 22: Pages 34-35

This Month's Installment

The italicized portions are what I'm unsure about:

the rooster over it as a weathervane, and the bell in the [Dachgestühl], that called to work and announced the celebration.  How familiar this sound was to him, how it spoke its own language that only he could understand!  He and perhaps Fritz, but he (Fritz) was much younger than he (Hans) and had discovered only later what he (Hans) had experienced for a long time.  And again in his way, because they both had their certain idiosyncrasy that united and divided them.  Only in one thing were they the same:  in the love of this property of their ancestors, to every building, every tree, every blade of grass on it.  For them, Bärwald meant the center of the home in which they were rooted.
     And in the act: this old property with its deep areas and ranges, its green meadows and rich pastures, the vast rings of ancient forests, that encompassed the whole horizon, the wide dikes that intersected it on its borders, and the bridges with the black and white railings, that led over it - it was like an excerpt of the fertile, blessed East Prussian country.  And at darkening evening when Hans sat on the wooden bench on the veranda with the old uncle and the rustling poplars over them played the song of time, its eternal melody of growth and fading, when on the drive, on the other side of the oval plaza, the large herd came drawing homewards, the sound of their bells united with the contented bellowing, and behind them, the cutters with scythes and tools settled their houses on the farmstead, when over them all the sun stood like a glowing 

---34--- 

disc in the blazing sky and with them greeted the last light on the old Pronitten church over there on the distant horizon, on the other side of the large dyke.  Then he was overcome by a wonderful silent, secret, happy feeling of security, and he felt nothing but blissful consciousness, now finally, after a long hike, to be back home again in the ardently loved, often missed East Prussian land!  He spoke no word, any syllable would have been a desecration for him.

Grammatical Minutiae

I couldn't find Dachgestühl in my dictionary.  I can put together Dach (roof) and Stühl (chair) to get a sense of the word (it's some kind of housing for the bell that's mentioned earlier in the sentence), but I can't think of a way to say that in English.

I'm not sure rings is the best translation for Kranze in "dem gewaltigen Kranze uralter Wälder," but none of the words my dictionary suggested seemed to fit this context very well.

One of the sentences mentions "die alte Pronitter Kirche." I could tell that "Pronitter" was an adjective derived from a geographic location, so I lookt up "Pronitter" to see if I could find where it is.  Apparently, it's Pronitten in German, but otherwise known as Slawjanskoje.  Looking this up on Google Maps, however, I found that it's about 1,000 kilometers away from the three Barwälds I found last September, so I find it very unlikely that one can see the sun set on Pronitten from Barwäld, which is what happens in the book (at least, I think that's what happens; there was no preposition, so I supplied the "on").  I'm assuming then that Brausewetter made up one or the other of these places (or perhaps even both).

I couldn't find "heißgeliebten" (or even heißlieben) in my dictionary, but I did find that heiß can mean ardently.  I knew that lieben is to love, so I translated as "heißgeliebten" as "ardently loved," subtly referencing Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy.