Month 57: Pages 78-80

This Month's Installment

Aside from the Flying Dutchman, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

It forced its way into every pore, it made steam rise from every stone, it made every leaf swell.  Like a steel plate the sea lay completely motionless, as if it were not even water anymore, and in such a deep blue that against it the cloudless sky appeared with an almost pale clarity.  In the silver-gleaming streaks that stretcht across the dark blue, now and then sailboats emerged and stood fixed and motionless.  In the border however between the sea and the sky

---78---

ran a ship, leaving smoke behind it in a long line as straight as an arrow, so shadowy its course that one thought the Flying Dutchman glided through the ghostly still water.
     Now even life stopt off in Zoppot.  In the "seastar" every room had been bookt for weeks in advance.  A society of men from all countries had assembled there:  to the Germans, who were in the majority, not only Poles and Russians, but also Frenchmen and Englishmen; because the sport week, the big sensation of the summer, was just around the corner.
     Monsieur Guerard now sat by the side of his very slender, charming wife at every meal, but still had eyes and words for the pretty Nuscha, who had taken over the place across from them.  And at Hans' table had sat two Englishmen and a flaxen-haired miss, the sister of the one, whom likewise had come for the sport week and spoke of nothing else but tennis, in which they were masters.  He steered clear of them.  He had never loved this nation and on all of his trips had gone out of his way to avoid it.  So he stayed on his own more than ever.
     But Nuscha, however, he saw more often, even outside of the building.  Actually, she was everywhere:  in the Kur house, at the concerts, where she moved in the most dense stream of people, which she liked best, on the sea bridge, where her face with lively, restless eyes searching and examining scanned the passers-by.
     But even on his lonely hikes he met her.  Afterwards she sat in any secret spot on the dune or on the beach and had a long notebook on her lap in which

---79---

she made marks with a large pencil.  Once he surprised her, as he approached her from behind, unnoticed.  But she quickly closed the notebook.
     "Are you a poet or an artist?" he askt.
     "Neither, I'm much too prosaic for that.  But now and then I write down a thought that just comes to me.  Or I make for myself a little sketch of the surroundings.  One learns it soon, if one travels so much."
     "Couldn't I see it once?  Or maybe you'll read something to me?"
     "It wouldn't pass your criticism," she replied curtly and put the notebook in the black folder that she took with her on her morning hikes.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

The sentence "In jede Pore drang sie, aus jedem Stein dampfte sie, jedes Blatt schwellte sie" ("It forced its way into every pore, it made steam rise from every stone, it made every leaf swell") exhibits anaphora (the repeated "jede" ["every"]), and this gives a sense of the ubiquitousness of the heat.

I went with the functionally equivalent "was just around the corner," but I want to point out that the expression in the original text is literally "stood at the door" - "stand vor der Tür."

I couldn't think of a way to include this in my translation, but "the pretty Nuscha" rhymes (or nearly rhymes) in the original:  "die hübsche Nuscha."

Month 56: Pages 77-78

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

     And now her face only half turned towards him:  "Do you know that there are people similar to those animals that see better in the dark and move as in the light?  People who only because of that never fall and stumble, because they don't know danger?"
     He didn't understand her question.  Was it a joke or - ?  But already a silent smile flew around her sharply-cut mouth again:  "I must think about our philosophical conversation, earlier on the cliff there:  that no person has an idea of the other, and yet they walkt so close next to each other.  And isn't it good like that?  If one knew the other, even only the slightest of the known, what happens in him - how terrible like would be!  You see, pastor, if you knew whom you took into the protection of your storm coat up there, to whom you are now offering your supporting hand - no, you don't need to take your arm away from me because of that - I still really need it.  Didn't you also not want that at all?  Yes, but suddenly it twitcht like that at the same time.  And honestly, your hand, which earlier was so very warm, has become completely cold.  Just admit it: you are afraid of me!  And who knows if not rightly so?"
     He felt ashamed.  He held her hand tighter in his own, he forced his face into cheerfulness.  But he didn't have a funny feeling about it at all.  Her words like her being were beginning to become puzzling to him.  It might have been his fault again and his poor knowledge of the female soul.  A saying of Fritz occurred to him.  "You can believe me," he once said to him, "every woman, even the seemingly simplest, becomes a puzzle as soon as you begin even to step a little closer to her."  With that he calmed himself down.

---77---

     They had left the beach and had arrived on the promenade.  Now she took her hand out of his with a short word of thanks and walkt by herself at his side.  He saw that she dragged her left foot a little, now and then a painful wince also ran over her face.  But he noticed that she didn't want anything to appear and did not offer his arm to her again.
     New cloud formations were always piling up in the sky, the dark red fire of the dying sun literally drowned in them.  Nuscha quickened her pace.  She had suddenly become very quiet.  In the sharp evening light, her black hair had a metallic luster and the severely-molded characteristic around her red lips emerged more strongly. 

     After the stormy days, all the more beautiful ones followed.  With widely extended wings, the sun lay on the sea and let her flashing lights grasp at and touch his back in high-spirited play.
     Then came the great heat.  It scorched the beach so that it burned like fire under foot, it forced its way into the lightly built buildings and firmly nested itself in them so that even nights with open windows brought no coolness.

I have no comments this week aside from announcing that I've finished chapter twelve and begun chapter thirteen.

Month 55: Pages 75-76

This Month's Installment

As always, what's italicized is what I'm unsure about.

From under, however, the surge of the sea forced its way up to them like an organ tone in the deepest registers.  From the nearby fields the strong draft carried the scent of the rye bloom, which united with the damp mossy and earthy smell.
     Still she sat nestled close to him. "You Germans are everything: clever and rational and even good, yes very good.  But gallant you are not, it is not given to you; you don't know the soft, delicate tenderness of the French, which one can have without thinking and wanting something wicked and which certainly does one good, especially when one is freezing to death - like I am now."
     Her hand searched for his under the thick coat, ice-cold it lay between his fingers.  Ardently it rose in his heart... all of a sudden she jumpt up, very quickly and abruptly:  "Homeward!" she cried with a choked, alarmed voice.  "The sun is already sinking, it will be night before we are in the 'seastar.'"
     She didn't choose the well laid out path that they had gone up; dropping sharply, she rushed in zigzag through tree and brush, she jumpt down the slope with such an agility that he was not able to follow her.  She ran as if a mob of pursuers

---75---

were behind her, as if hunted.  But with a confidence at the same time, she infallibly went out of the way of every small obstacle, every tree root, and every stone.  Finally at a sharp bend of the path she stopt in her wild run, sat on a boulder a few meters above the sea, and waved to him, who was far above her.  Now she waited quietly although it was a short while until he had reached her vicinity.
     "Why did you rush down the mountain like a maniac?  And why didn't you choose the path that all people take?" he askt half indignantly, half joking.
     "Because it suddenly came over me!" she answered, laughing.
     "Came over you?"
     "You even said it yourself:  the maniac.  My blood must have a diversion then, otherwise it becomes rebellious.  No, don't look at me so shockt, now it is very calm and sensible again... support me, please, at least with this short descent here!  I believe I've hurt my foot. But it's not worth mentioning."
     "Look, the punishment for your recklessness!  These uneven paths down the steep cliff are, if one doesn't know them exactly, not at all harmless, especially not in such a jumping step."
     A short, flickering glance between the thick, silky eyelashes:  "In my life I have walkt completely different paths that I knew even less and that were a good deal more dangerous."
     "Yes, you explained earlier.  You were in Switzerland a lot.  Are you a mountain tourist?"
     "She smiled her graceful, superior smile.  "Oh no, I didn't mean that."

---76---

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I know next to nothing about plants, so I don't know if "rye bloom" makes any sense horticulturally.  I had troubles with the relative clause in that same sentence:  "der sich mit dem feuchten Moos- und Erdgeruch einte."  "Einte" also appeared on page 71 ("das vielstimmige Blöken der Tiere einte sich mit dem aufgeregten Gekrächz der Raben"), and I couldn't find sufficient information about it then either.  I think the infinitive form is einen, which simply looks like an inflected form of the indefinite article, so I couldn't even find it in my dictionary.  I translated it last time (and this time) as united.  I think last time I relied on the etymological relationship evident between this verb and ein; this time I did a bit of internet research, which supports my translation but still leaves me ignorant as far as the infinitive form.

I switched the order of two adjectives in the phrase "die feine, sanfte Zärtlichekeit der Franzosen."  Instead of "the delicate, soft tenderness of the French," I went with "the soft, delicate tenderness of the French" because I thought it flowed better.  In the same sentence, I translated "etwas Böses" as "something wicked."  At the time, I was reading the end of Ezekiel 3, where wicked appears a lot.

As far as I can tell, there isn't an antecedent for the "es" in the clause "Heiß stieg es in seinem Inneren auf...," so I'm left with the unspecific "Ardently it rose in his heart...."  I chose ardently because of its appearance in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice:  "'You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.'"  (This is in chapter 34, which I'm mentioning because it took much longer to find than I'd anticipated.)  I'm not sure this quite fits the context of Wie der Heimat liebt wie du, however.

I wish I could find a better translation for "Nach Hause!" than "Homeward!" but I wanted something with some directionality.

I have a couple comments about "sprang sie den Abhang mit einer Behendigkeit herunter, daß er ihr nicht zu folgen vermochte."  I understood "daß er ihr..." as a purpose clause, so while it's really only "that he was not able to follow her," I translated it as "so that he was not able to follow her."  For the same reason, I added a qualifier to "mit einer Behendigkeit," so that rather than just "with an agility," it's "with such an agility."

I won't go into detail, but I want to note that I rearranged a lot of phrases in the sentence "Finally at a sharp bend of the path..." to make it flow better in English.  I also omitted a few words that I thought were a bit redundant in English (primarily because there wasn't a good place to put them in the sentence, which was already pretty long).  For example, I didn't include "with her hand" because that's implied in "waved to him."

"Not at all harmless" doesn't seem the best description, but the almost double negative of "not" and "-less" is in the original too:  "gar nicht so ungefährlich."  I probably could have rendered the sentence better, but I didn't want to stray too far from what the original text has.

Month 54: Pages 73-75

This Month's Installment

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

Blue-green, as if boiled, the water rolled under them, stretcht itself up to them with swelling crests, reeled back in the deep in thundering collapse - a sight of indescribable grandeur, on which the range of hills all around the shore lookt down silently and rigidly.
  Hans stood fascinated.  Even his companion couldn't take her eyes off the raging elements; she had pulled up the collar of the fur-garnished jacket, her hand held it firmly claspt, she had pushed the felt hat tightly down to her forehead, under it her bright cheeks shone.  Suddenly she wriggled around.
  "There is something in the air around us," she said with a voice whose serious tone befit her wonderfully, "something big, foretelling disaster.  And do you even know what is it?  It's the war!"
  For a long while they didn't speak a word, not even as they rose from the bridge behind the Kur house up the steep path paved with rough stones, which at first went between low houses with neat, flowering front gardens and later went through a small yet dense and dark forest up to the summit of the cliff.
  The rain-heavy clouds had dropt very low.  Soon they settled on the hills and mountains with pressing force, soon they settled like a cap made of gauze on the chief of the two foothills that jutted out directly in front of them into the sea.

---73---

  "Here it's almost like in the mountains when one has finally reached a height with effort and sees nothing," she said with the bad mood of a child, one which obstinately destroys a pleasure that has long pleased it.  "But," she lookt for her way of consoling, "it is like that everywhere.  We never see without a haze, not in our whole life... I don't see you and you don't see me.  What do we two know of each other?  And if we went on such a hike together for a whole summer long, would we therefore become closer?"
  "See," he thought to himself, "she is not at all so unintellectual, like you thought, she philosophizes in her own way, and what she just said there didn't sound so insensible at all."  Aloud, however, he replied:  "You are right.  We know nothing of others and least of all of ourselves.  The nearness withdraws, the far off brings near, that is the wonderful law of life that we will never explore and would be to us the age of the sea or of the eternal mountain."
  But now she was already no longer concentrating.
  "It is becoming cold up here," she said while she beat the ground with her sturdy shoes, "and you are devoted to your thoughts and don't for a moment care if I, poor child here next to you, am freezing to death.  We'll want to look for a sheltered little place for ourselves in the forest, then you can continue to philosophize on my account.  Although I would prefer to hear something funny from you - I think you can't be funny at all."
  They had found the wished for place of rest: a small moss-covered hill under a low beech tree whose branches shut behind them like a door. 

---74---

     "And now come and warm me up a little with your big loden coat!"
     She moved close to him, took half of his coat, threw it around her shoulder and, now with
her teeth chattering perhaps more deliberately than involuntarily, crouched by his side.  He felt the warm rush of her blood, which - enlivening - flowed over to him; he had never felt a feminine body so close.
  Above them, the storm caught its song in the branches of the trees.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I'm not very good at phonetics, but I think the sentence "Gebannt stand Hans" exhibits assonance.  The repetition of the vowel sound portrays something of his standing still in awe.

"Unheilschwangeres" is literally something like "pregnant with disaster."  Between its being an odd word and being used as a substantive adjective ("etwas Großes, Unheilschwangeres"), I didn't know quite how to translate this.  I went with "foretelling disaster," which - while not as striking or imaginative a phrase - at least gives the same sense.

The sentence beginning with "For a long while they didn't speak a word..." provided a challenge.  The whole paragraph is this single sentence, and in the original formatting, it's eight lines.  The verb for the last clause ("hinaufführte") appears only once in the original text, but I included it twice in my translation ("went... up") to give something of a signpost in between the thickets of description.  I was glad that I was able to retain the alliteration of "dichten und dunklen Wald" - "dense and dark forest."

I was a bit underwhelmed when I found that my dictionary translates "Lodenmantel" as "loden coat" because I still had no idea what it meant.  Loden is "a thick woolen cloth used for outer clothing."

Month 53: Pages 70-73

This Month's Installment

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

"Then we must go back again.  No path leads upwards here."
     "Why do we need a path and a bridge?  Sometimes you really act as if you were an old man... forward!"
     As nimble as a chamois she clumb up the steep elevation, now and then she graspt one of the numerous shrubs with her hand in order to pull herself up by it.  At the same time she spoke and joked, turning back to him without stopping, although now he didn't even hear a syllable.  Everything was in her movement:  every muscle of her lithe body, the black curly hair that the wind

---70---

tousled, and the cherry-red lips from which the words fell as smoothly and easily as pearls.
     Now they walkt again on level, well-kept paths through deciduous and coniferous woods, through the trees they saw the foam-crowned water, the dull thunderous [Geprall] of the waves prest on their ears.
     "I went here almost every day last year.  He workt then on his veranda, and the children played on the beach."
     "And his wife?" he askt casually.
     She glanced at him with a quick look:  "She lay in her hammock in the South Park and read Dostoyevsky's 'Raskolnikov.'"
     Gradually the forest disappeared and then thinned out completely.  Now there were only individual knotted and withered trunks in the dense dune-sand.
     They walkt along the edge of a cornfield with cheeky blue and red invaders that swayed on the slender stalks like dreaming idlers.  With a strong hand the window swept over the high ears, they duckt down and rose again and murmured like the waves of the water.  Under the clouds, which piled up darker and thicker, flew a flock of ravens toward the sea, and over a fallow field a shepherd with his flock moved to the horizon; the polyphonic bleating of the animals united with the excited screeching of the ravens.  Loudly the dpg barkt.  The first houses of Adlershorst became visible.
     "Now, first we will got into the Kur House and drink a cup of coffee," she suggested," and then I will lead you through the small [uckige] village high up on the summit of th eAdlershorst.  There we will have the most beautiful view of the world." 

---71---

     In the large hall of the Kur House, it was empty and uncomfortable, he felt a little cosy, she however with visible desire spooned up the chocolate that she had ordered for herself and polished off a mountain of cake besides; now and then the tiny tip of her tongue slid over her red lips in order to wipe up the remains of the cake crumbs from them.  A certain craving was in her way of eating, nothing elegant, but also nothing off-putting.  Even here appeared, as in all expressions of her character, the true child of nature that had borrowed from culture and society only as much veneer as was unavoidably necessary for the people of our days.
     "I once read a Russian novel," he said, "it was very sad, but good.  The heroine was a young girl of the steppe.  She has stirred up in my memory again since I've been together with you."
     Again the quick glancing look.
     "It was very sad?"
     "Yes."
     "Like life - no, not to-day, to-day it is beautiful and full of strength like the storm outside.  I am full, we can go outside again."
     He paid, she let it happen as a matter of course and didn't even thank him.
     The storm had gained strength, as it does here on the coast only seldom, especially at the beginning of July.  With long-winded pushes the sea came thundering against the shore, the swirling waves blew like a pack of mad dpgs, they lashed against the posts of the small swimming pool.  And when their white [Gischtköpfe] smashed on them, then they roared, irritated through the resistance, like a wild animal up to the sky

---72---

that now - stuffy and leaden without any view of the light, almost without a hue - hung over the excited waters.
     They had stept onto the sea-bridge.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Although I would usually translate Herr as gentleman, I translated it as man here because "you really act as if you were an old man" reads better as a playful insult than "you act as if you were an old gentleman."

Rather than "sie," Nuscha refers to the Baroness with "die" ("Die lag in ihrer Hängematte...").  I couldn't think of a way to put this in my translation, but I feel this specific word choice illustrates distance between the two characters.

This seems kind of backwards to me, but the original text does says that the forest disappears before it thins out:  "All mählich verlor sich der Wald und lichtete sich dann ganz."

I have a few comments on the clause "das vielstimmige Blöken der Tiere einte sich mit dem aufgeregten Gekrächz der Raben."  The only suggested translation my dictionary has for "vielstimmige" is "polyphonic."  "Many-voiced" is a more literal translation and probably would have fit better, but I thought "the polyphonic bleating" sounded funny, so I kept it.  I couldn't find direct translations for "einte sich" or "Gekrächz," but I'm pretty sure of my translations of "united" and "screeching" (respectively) based on related words.  (I did consider simply keeping Gekrächz because it's a great onomatopoeic word.)  Also, I find it interesting - but perhaps a bit confusing - that the German word for ravens (Raben) sounds exactly the same as robin in English.  Same sound; different bird.

Month 52: Pages 68-70

This Month's Installment

As usual, what's italicized is what I'm unsure about.

For three years already would she be there.  In the winter they lived in Petersburg, 

---68---

in the summer the baron would take a long vacation, then they travelled in the mountain region in Switzerland or to the Tyrol.  But she would prefer to be in Zoppot.
     He had to pay attention, he wanted to understand her words.  Because since they left the protection [of the trees] the wind had become stronger and here on the open summit blowed with full breath.  Moreover he thought he observed anew what he had noticed even during their first conversation back in the social room of the "Seastar," that there was a quiet foreign tone in her speech.
     The baroness would have had to go to Tarasp this summer, but "he" - she always used this short term when she spoke about her employer - wanted to come to Zoppot with the two children.  She would have travelled ahead in order to arrange everything.  Now she could expect him any day, then her beautiful freedom would have an end.  All the more she still wanted to enjoy them now.
     For a short stretch the path led close along the beach again.  The strong surf and the wind, which was against them, made it difficult, at least for Hans, although he was a good walker.  The opposing element didn't bother her.  As if she were a part of it, so happily and unconcerned she stept through storm and waves that flooded over her feet and splashed her up to her head.
     "It is so beautiful!  I love it so!" she cried as she stopt a moment at the start of a hilltop because here, where the path became very narrow, the waves went so high that she could hardly go on.
     "I must admit that I would prefer a cloudless

---69---

sky and a quiet, calm sea, at the moment at least for our walk."
     "No," she replied lively, "an overcast sky can cause despair, but the eternally blue just makes me very tired and sad.  It is right like this:  always alternating light and darkness!  Always the uncertain that stifles the charm of life.  An incessant tipping and rising, just as on this cliff.  Only no sunny, quiet rest, always unrest and risk and danger - always playing around life and death!"
     She broke off, very suddenly, and as it seemed, not unintentionally.  Then her last words came to his consciousness.
     "Always in danger?" he repeated.  "And always playing around life and death?  Do you know anything about it in your youth and secured position?"
     "And if I know anything about it! ...  Still you are coming, now we want here to go up the cliff again, up there a wonderful path leads through a small forest.  I know it from earlier years and will lead you."

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

What I translated as "employer" ("when she spoke about her employer") is "Brotherrn" in the text ("wenn sie von ihrem Brotherrn sprach").  Literally, it means "bread lord," but I couldn't think of a good way to include this in my translation.

My dictionary translates ausmachen as "to put out."  I used stifle as a synonym, but it still doesn't seem to fit the context that well.  I'm suspicious that I might not have even translated it correctly because "always the uncertain that stifles the charm of life" directly contradicts what Nuscha says immediately before that:  "It is right like this:  always alternating light and darkness!"

I wasn't able to include this in my translation ("tipping and rising"), but "Neigen und Steigen" rhyme.

Month 51: Pages 67-68

This Month's Installment

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

     Hans had taken the path to Adlershorst.  In front of him stept a young couple:  his new friend with the Frenchman.
     He saw them together often.  They sat next to each other at dinner and talkt incessantly, always in French, which she spoke as fluently as German.  There was a certain charm in their conversation, which became lively and bubbly but never loud or obtrusive.
     Suddenly, they both turned around and stood opposite him.
     "Well, that's where I find the best company!" the young girl said!  "To be precise, Monsieur Guerard must go back to Zoppot, he wants to pick up his wife from the train station, and I would have liked to go a bit further yet because here is where it first starts to get beautiful.  You'll walk with me, pastor, won't you?  I'll see you this evening, Monsieur!  If you still have time for me then."
     "I didn't even imagine that Mr. Guerard would be married," Hans commented after he had left.  There was certainly nothing in the world as unimportant to him as whether the Frenchman was married or not, but he wanted to say something.
     "He has been for only a short time, his wife ought to be a lovely creature.  They come to Zoppot because of the tennis week and now still want to warm themselves up well... but with these roaring waves, one cannot understand his own word.  I mean, we're already taking the way to the summit."
     Now they went on the dune planted with young conifers, above the sea that now lay far below them.  She was wearing the green felt hat again, in which he saw her for the first time, the dark cloth skirt she had gathered up, and around her

---67---

face a thick veil was drawn that should protect it against the storm.  But up here in the middle of the protection of the fir trees, it was quieter; they could speak without trouble.
     "Now for the third time already we are together, and I know little but something about you.  You, however, nothing at all about me.  You allow me then to give you my particulars:  Nuscha Löwing, 24 years old, born in a small town close to the Russian border, where, as I probably already told you, my mother still lives to-day.  I, however, have been around much in the world, was a governess in England and France, and am presently in the same position for a higher Russian official in Petersburg.  If you want to know still more, you must ask.  Though, whether I will tell you everything, I don't know."
     He askt nothing.  He had little practice in this type of conversation.  Besides the path here close to the edge of the dune was very narrow, so that they could go only behind one an-other.  She adjusted her fast, powerful stride to his and recounted further:  about her father, who, initially a rich factory owner, through an unlucky venture lost his whole fortune and this so pulled at his soul that he took his life one day.  How she now would have just stayed with her mother and a great number of siblings, how she took her teacher examination and provided for her own with her salary that she could send home with free rations.  Only because he paid her so well, would she have then gone to the Russian baron.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

I don't know whether there's really much to be made of this, but it might be significant that Nuscha refers to Guerard as "Monsieur Guerard" while Hans refers to him as "Herr Guerard."  I tried to keep this distinction in my translation by retaining the French Monsieur but rendering Herr as Mr.

This is unrelated to this month's installment, but in transcribing the original German of pages I've already translated, I discovered that way back in December (but in January's post), I misread the Gothic script and what I thought was Ozhöfter is actually Oxhöfter.  I'm not exactly sure how this relates, but apparently Oxhöft is the German name of Oksywie in Poland, which is just north of Sopot (called Zoppot in the novel).

In contrast to "ich weiß wenig, doch einiges von Ihnen," the following "sentence" lacks a verb:  "Sie aber von mir gar nichts," illustrating Hans' (and the reader's) complete lack of knowledge of Nuscha.  I managed to maintain this in my translation:  "You, however, nothing at all about me."

Month 50: Pages 65-66

This Month's Installment

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

     "Oh, he is very entertaining, the genuine French gentleman, he has seen much and knows how to tell it."
     He was pretty sure that her words were aimed at him.  His dull personality seemed not to please her.  But he couldn't help it.  His thoughts were too occupied by the heavy events of the day for him to be able to show an interest in her light conversation.  And now, however, he did what he had firmly intended to refrain from:  he spoke of war.
     He had not thought that she would show any interest in so serious 

---65---

a subject.  He was all the more astonished by the attention that she showed.
     "Wonderful," she said, "the whole world is talking about war!  But it's been doing it for years already.  For a while it becomes quiet.  But then if such an event as to-day's happens, then one hears it again everywhere."
     "There are rising shadows."
     "No, it will not come to that," she replied lively and definitely, "certainly not.  They are all afraid of each other."
     "That is no reason.  Elementary necessities don't let themselves be delayed."
     A passing gentleman, trimly dressed, said hello.  Distracted, she thanked him and then said:  "Then what do the people by you over there in East Prussia think about it?  Here they are always saying many thousands of Russians armed to the teeth are standing on the border and waiting only for the opportune moment to break in."
     "We East Prussians are not a timid breed.  We are not afraid of the Russians."
     "I believe it.  I asked only because the matter concerns me a little. My mother lives close to the border."
     They had arrived at the entry door to the "seastar."  "See you later!" she cried and offered him her hand. 

     The joy had been only short.  The sun hid itself again, cold days followed.  The air was damp and unfriendly, it smelled of rain and mist.  Swimming and boating caused no pleasure now, one had transferred to walks. 

---66---

Commentary

I have only a few comments this month:

1) I find it interesting that "armed to the teeth" is also a phrase in German ("bis an die Zähne bewaffnet").

2) Coincidentally, this month's installment ends at the very end of a page.

3) This is the end of chapter 11.

Month 49: Pages 64-65

This Month's Installment

Now the music also broke off, in the middle of the thrilling waltz, abruptly and without any conclusion.  What had happened?
     "The successor to the Austrian throne has been murdered... with his wife!"
     For a moment he stood as if paralyzed, while the terrible knowledge flew around him from mouth to mouth.  Curses became loud, plonked away, sounded over the bridge and the paths.  There, the words that Fritz spoke back then in the idyll of the Pronitt parish garden were stirred up in him.  Now he knew that the war would come.
     At the exit of the Kur house he met the pretty stranger from the "starfish."  She lookt completely changed.  A silk skirt, which shimmered in all colors, flowed like water on the lithe body down to her feet, which were in delicate, white beach shoes, a not tasteless but striking blouse, and an affected panama hat with a narrow red band, which left her drawn up face in the shade.  Her eyes greeted him as a good friend, her white, slightly pointed teeth, sparkled.  Not the slightest excitement that one read on all faces in this hour was to be seen on her.
     "Haven't you heard it yet?" he askt without any address.
     "Heard what?  Oh... about the assassination down there?  Of course I've heard about it."
     "And are so calm, so..." he wanted to say "happy," but he improved: "So unconcerned about it?"
     "Unconcerned!?  My goodness!  It is sad.  But so many sad things happen in the world." 

---64---

     She saw his astonishment.  "I show to him the human compassion that this case must give rise to in every sympathetic heart."
     "But here it's a question of more than pure human compassion."
     She shook her head.  "Not for me; I am not able to attach any conclusions to it, as I have just now heard a few of my friends express."
     They were going the same way, so he stayed by her side.  Although everything was now occupied with other thoughts, he still noticed that she attracted the attention of the passersby.  She seemed to be used to it, it didn't concern her.  In her lively way, she spoke about Zoppot and the wonderful people who would meet together in such a bath.  "Half are Poles, even a few Russians are in the 'starfish.'  And even a Frenchman, a real genuine one.  Did you see him yester-day?  The young, slender man with the small, dark goatee, the long, white hands, and the fine, translucent skin; he sat directly opposite you."
     "People don't interest me like they do you."

---&---

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

"Successor to the throne" is one word in German:  Thronfolger.  The text has "Der österreichische Thronfolger," which could be translated as "the Austrian successor to the throne," but I felt that "the successor to the Austrian throne" flowed better.  As I get further along, I may have to amend this.

It doesn't quite fit the tenor of the situation, but the only translation my dictionary offered for "sich pflanzen" is "to plonk," so I have "Curses... plonked away...."

I got stuck for a while on translating "Idnlle" before I discovered that what I was reading as an "n" is actually a "y."  Then, it was obvious (Idylle is a cognate).  I vaguely remember seeing this same character somewhere before, but there's no way of tracking it down now unless I went through every page again.  (Because of this, I've started transcribing the original German text into Google Documents, so I can search them if I need to.)

The sentence describing what the stranger is wearing ("A silk skirt, which shimmered in all colors...") seems to alternate between clauses and a list.  I simply tried to translate it faithfully; that it reads oddly isn't my fault.

My dictionary translates "Meuchelmorde" as "treacherous killing," which I found oddly specific.  Since it also lists Meuchelmörder as murderer or assassin, I translated "Meuchelmorde" simply as "assassination."

Instead of breaking up sentences into clauses, like I had been doing, I translated a whole sentence every day, so this month's installment might be a bit longer than previous ones.  I'm going to try to continue this in the future.

Month 48: Pages 63-64

This Month's Installment

What's italicized is what I'm unsure about:

Slowly and peacefully the waves came in, something dreamlike, soporific was in them.  Against the white of their crests that shone as if it were made up of pure snowflakes, it stood out from the extensive, almost reddish dunes.
     The promenades and paths that laid there lonely for days were filled with a constantly growing stream of people.  One had not seen Zoppot so full on a weekday and on top of that before the real main-time.  Certainly, one had to make up for his long deprivation.
     Even Hans was among the people out on a walk.  Leisurely he strolled along the promenade, heard in the Kur Garden from the excellent choir a rhapsody by Liszt and a dance by Brahms, and walkt far along the sea-built bridge, the biggest and most beautiful that he could remember seeing in a seaside resort.  All around him giving and taking looks, greeting and chatting, laughing and flirting without end.  And the music played the accompaniment to it, and the waves murmured their eternal song.
     He didn't look to the right and left; full of quiet delight he breathed the fresh forest fragrance that rose from the sea and whose fruity breeze pierced the soul, so to speak.
     All of a sudden, however, he was snatched from his happy contemplation.  Under the people who had up until now moved up and down the bridge with such cheerful ease, something wonderful appeared to happen.  The stream gathered, stopt short, 

---63---

people stood still formed groups, spoke lively to one another, shook their heads, made furious motions and gestures.

Grammatical Commentary/Minutiae

I translated "Hauptzeit" as "main-time," which is what my dictionary said, but I'm not sure it really fits this context.

I translated "frischen Waldduft" so that it becomes alliterative ("fresh forest fragrance") to give a lingual impression of the "delight" ("Entzückens") mentioned earlier in that sentence.

I don't know if this is intended to be similar, but "in die Seele drang" (which I translated as "pierced the soul") uses the same words as Luther's translation of Luke 2:35: "und auch durch deine Seele wird ein Schwert dringen..." ("and a sword will pierce through your own soul also...").

Because I'm translating this piecemeal and because I'm not familiar with the story and don't know the larger context of what's going on, some of my word choices might later prove unsuitable.  At the end of this section, something precipitous starts to happen and is described as "Wunderbares," which I translated as "wonderful."  In reaction to this, people make "heftige Bewegungen und Gesten" ("furious motions and gestures").  These don't seem to go together, but I can't amend my translation until I get further along in the story and learn what this event is.

Month 47: Pages 62-63

This Month's Installment

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

There were contradictions in this face and in this appearance that he couldn't rightly make sense of.  He had admittedly never particularly had a way with the nature of women.
     "Now a little life will finally come into the waste land," she said, "there wasn't even anything more to endure.  They probably played in the casino, but with the weather who felt like going there!  And there is nothing to see on the promenades and the bridges but gray, wrapt up figures and gruff faces!"
     He hardly heard her.  He was still completely lost in the sight of this wonderful nature that was just as lovely as tremendous.  She didn't challenge it.
     "Have you seen the crown princess already?  No?  Me neither, not yet.  But she's been here for weeks already.  She is often here now.  The Zoppot people have given her a cottage, one can hardly call it a castle.  There on the mountain, above the furthest north beach - no, from here you can't see it.  She lives there and goes for a drive every day... in the car or with her four-in-hand... I have waited for her a few times before, in spite of the rain; but she didn't come.  And I would like so much to see her once, I'd give anything for it!"
     Her face developed an increased radiance.  "Do you hear?  Music!  The Kurkappelle is giving its morning concert.  I have to go there.  There are still two hours until lunch.  I will change my clothes.  Bye, Pastor!" 

---62---

     The beautiful weather had worked its effect.  So long one had waited for it, now it had appeared in that sudden turn that one could so often observe here by the sea.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I find it interesting that in the sentence "There were contradictions..." there's a grammatical contradiction.  The original text reads: "Es waren Widersprüche...," which is literally "It were contradictions...."  There's a singular subject (Es) and a plural verb (waren).

I'm not exactly sure of the sense of "She didn't challenge it."  I don't know if this means that this woman doesn't interrupt Hans' looking at nature or that she doesn't compare to its beauty.  I kept my translation a bit ambiguous because I don't know which way to go with it.

I kept "Kurkapelle" as Kurkapelle.  Since kapelle means choir (cf. Bach's title of Kapellmeister), it seems that Kurkapelle is the Kur Choir.  This lookt odd though, and since it's a proper name (I think), I just kept it in the original German.

This is also the end of chapter ten!  (I fell behind a few days, otherwise, I could have posted the finished chapter on Monday.)

Month 46: Pages 61-62

This Month's Installment

As always, what's italicized is what I'm unsure about:

He spoke of his home, he told her about Bärwalde, also about Rodenburg.  Now she became more attentive; now and then she interrupted him with a question about their soil conditions and their location that showed her interest in the places that were dear to him.

     But all of a sudden she was no longer listening.  "The sun!" she shouted.  "Look, the sun!"

     A golden, long not seen stream of light broke through the window across the room and filled the big room with its warm, soft shine.

     They had stept into the clear.

     Slowly the elms began to be revealed, in sharply outlined [goldgeränderten] lines the hills emerged, first the Adlershorster, then also the farther Ozhöfter.  To the wide sea there lay, released from all the gray haze and all oppressive pressure, the sunshine, glorious as on the first day.

     "Wonderful!" Hans said, lost in devotions.  He had always loved the sea, and through all of these rain-heavy days felt an irresistible longing to see it in its glowing color and the gleaming play of its light as it showed itself now from flashing silver gray all the way down to deep, steel blue that shimmered over there against the almost black horizon.

     "Very beautiful!" the young girl at his side replied.  But the bright enthusiasm that it had seized with the first breakthrough of the sun already appeared [verloht].  Here in the open, in the incorruptible light of the day, he saw that she wasn't quite as young as he had estimated her at first sight in the hall.  Something hard lay in her profile and around her mouth was a 

---61---

peculiar, almost shifty feature whose sharpness even the radiant, cherry-red lips could not redeem.  But the saucy snub nose with freckles on it gave her again something youthful, almost childlike.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I'm not sure if "Sie waren ins Freie getreten" is meant to be taken literally or not.  I translated it as "They had stept into the clear," but it might be more metaphorical, referring to the sun's shining through the clouds again.

The only comment I have this month is that I'm assuming Adlershorster and Ozhöfter to be geographical names.  At first, I translated Adlershorster as eyries, but when I couldn't find a translation for Ozhöfter, I reconsidered this and left it as it was.