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.
