This Month's Installment
As always the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:the mealtimes, prepared in moderation, that he always had alone, also offered him no rest because he could mull over his thoughts unhindered; some good plans that he considered for his congregation remained unrealized because he didn't have the wifely hand. Who could offer it to him better than his sister!
She was the youngest of the three of them. When they
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were children, the age difference had not let a closer relationship develop between them. That first happened when he came back to work for the second theological exam in the house of his mother, who had now long since passed away. She was seventeen years old then, but of a [Reise] that went out above her age and with a thirst for knowledge that let her take an interest in some of his works with understanding. The faithful loyalty that the two of them had kept for one another for her whole life had begun then. Only later did he find out that that winter she had refused every invitation, every request of a friend just in order to be together with him for an evening hour that he had free for her. She had never told him anything about it. Now he again was granted the chance to be able to rebuild with sincere joy the old relationship that he needed more than ever from her.
Else had come. In the determined way that was forever her own, in the first days she immediately questioned many of the changes in the house, like the way of life of her brother. At first, she didn't make much sense to him, but he soon felt her benefit.
Grammatical Minutae
I couldn't find a direct translation of weiterspinnen ("weil er ungehindert seine Gedanken weiterspinnen konnte"), although it's clearly a compound form from weiter (further) and spinnen (to spin). That's to spin in a sense similar to that in the phrase to spin a yarn. Eventually, I translated this as "to mull over," which retains some of the implied movement in weiterspinnen.Although it's not a translation listed in my dictionary, I translated aufkommen as develop. My dictionary gives me words that are synonymous with develop, but they're not applicable in this context (about a relationship). Aufkommen is plainly translated as arise, but there are also specific meanings including thunderstorms (to come up) and wind (to spring). Develop has the same sense, but it fits better within this particular context.
I'm not particularly happy with my word order in the sentence "That first happened when he came back to work for the second theological exam in the house of his mother, who had now long since passed away" because it makes it sound like the theological exam is being held in Hans' mother house, but the relative clause presents some problems in shuffling the order. It's this way in the original text too: "Das trat erst ein, als er zur Arbeit für das zweite theologische Examen in des Haus seiner Mutter, die nun auch längst heimgegangen war, zurückkehrte." At least I was able to move "zurückkehrte" forward in the sentence when I translated it.
I italicized Reise because the meaning I know and the definitions my dictionary provides (all having to do with travel) don't make sense in this context.
"In the determined way that was forever her own, in the first days she immediately questioned many of the changes in the house, like the way of life of her brother." has some clunky word order too, but there are just so many elements in it.
I should also admit that I didn't translate a sentence or clause to-day (the 14th) because I was at the end of a paragraph. The sentence at the beginning of the next paragraph is a longer one, so I would have split it into clauses, and as a result, this month's installment would have had an odd ending (although I ended in the middle of a sentence last month too...).
