Month 81: Pages 128-131

This Month's Installment

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

Even the sky was busy movement.  The clouds blew in as if they wanted to say:  We are going along, we are

---128---

mobile!  And the sun shone brightly and clearly, as if it showed the way to battle, to victory!

     In Rodenburg, everything was activity; at the train station, in the depots, in the garages a running and hurrying, a humming and whirring.  And the night was like the day:  action and pressing forward.

     Everywhere, one saw soldiers:  individually, in groups, in trains.  Regiments wandering with resounding play through the streets, volunteer guards of the civil defense, their guns strapped over their soldiers, strode up and down, to the public buildings, the bridges, the water tanks.  Everyone had got going with each other, like the wheels of a great clockworks, and in everyone a calm and strength at the same time, as if this work belonged to the daily practice and didn't at all mean something new or strange.

     Even for Hans these days, there was no less to do than on Sunday.  The emergency weddings increased, throughout the whole afternoon, he had Communion distribution, in his study there was an incessant coming and going.  He found the right word for every one, and each felt that it imparted love and sympathy.

     A satisfaction, which all of his activity and work so far had not given him, came over him, he felt that in the great movement that now strode inexorably and violently through the world, he was no useless member.  Moreover, the certainty and matter-of-fact-ness with which the mobilization outside was carried out, the courage and confidence that shone out of every word, out of every eye, filled him with pride and admiration for his people.

     But then came moments when the holy

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need of the time gripped him deep in his heart, when only with quiet melancholy in his face could he look at the fathers of the families, who had to tear themselves away from wife and child, the young men moving into the field with such a holy desire and burning enthusiasm.  The unnaturalness of the war, which destroyed all culture and dealt a blow in the face to all Christianity and to all religion, spoke to his mourning soul in these moments.  Then there was a despondency in his soul, of which he felt ashamed, against which he fought with all stubborn strength, but which always came over him anew.

     "I am here for billeting with Pastor Warsow in St. Nikolai!"

     "Fritz!" cried Else and rushed towards the entering man.  "How fresh you look, and how your uniform suits you!  I haven't seen you in it for a long time."

     "I also feel very well in it.  Now the devil may walk around in civilian clothes and work the fields or fertilize the soil.  Now indeed one knows why one is a soldier!  And you can probably imagine how it has pleased me that not only did they put me in my dear old cuirassier regiment but have even made me orderly."  His eyes shone, holy joy enhanced his manly face.

     "That I can, my good boy!  But you have earned it."

     She had always been very proud of her younger brother.  After the early death of their parents, she had helpt to raise him.  With Hans was she similarly bound, across from him she felt like a mother.

     "If only our Fatherland had such genuine men!"

---130---

     "It has quite different ones, I tell you!" he parried, in his modesty almost shockt about her words.  "You should see them!  There is a courage and a circumspection in them, it is astonishing!

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

While trying to piece together "Nottrauungen" (emergency weddings), I happened upon the phrase "in der Not frißt der Teufel Fliegen."  My dictionary says this is the equivalent to "beggars can't be choosers," but literally, it's something like "in need, the devil eats flies."

This is the end of chapter twenty-five and the beginning of chapter twenty-six.

Month 80: Pages 126-128

This Month's Installment

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

   "Pastor," the young woman who had kept silent until then reported to Hans, "my husband has laid in the city hospital for three weeks with an open leg wound.  Even now it is not well yet."

     "Will you be quiet, Tine!  I don't need to walk, I come by horse," the young soldier dismissed, annoyed.

     But Tine did not pay attention to him:  "The doctor did not want to let him go.  But there was no holding him back.  His bad leg, his salary, his wife, nothing matters to him, he must go to the war!"

     "It is also rightly so.  Now there is no salary and no sickness.  Now there is only the Fatherland, which is in need - Bye, Pastor and thanks a lot!"

---126---

     When Hans came home, again someone was waiting for him.  "A young man," said Else," who still wanted to speak to you under any circumstances."

     "A face that was known to him beamed opposite him.  "The pastor doesn't know me any more.  Fritz Mattern.  I was here once with Pastor and askt him for his kind recommendation because I wanted to join the navy."

     "I remember, but you were not taken, and you received a much better position in a business here as an electrical engineer, with which you were very satisfied."

     "Yes," answered the young man, his mouth formed a joyful smile, triumph shone in his small eyes, "but now I have indeed achieved it!  I am become a stoker on a warship.  It leaves to-morrow!  And I still wanted to tell you about it!"

     "A people of heroes!" said Hans to his sister.  "Man for man!  This one a chief engineer on a submarine!  Under the water, he goes into the deepest dark, sees not sky and earth, always in difficult stations full of responsibility, ready for death, certain of death, in which the blonde wife waits for him, prays for him.  The other has an open leg wound!  But he jumps on his horse because his Fatherland is in need.  The third is proud and overjoyed because he gives up a good position so that he may do stoker service deep underwater in the night and blazing heat of a giant ship.  And they all rush into danger and death with beaming smiles, with firm confidence of victory!  Dear Fatherland may be calm!"

---127---

     Feverish days followed, days full of fervor and energy, full of hot pressure and anticipation.  The war went through the country.

     It had always been there, but it had been sleeping.  Sleeping under the fields, which yielded their fruits in their time, under the rising crops, which the sun swept across with a soft, warm hand, which the storm bent and lifted again.  Sleeping in the heat of the days, in the refuge of the cool nights, under the songs of the birds that announced the spring, under the falling leaves that the autumn spread over the fragrant ground like a rich gold blanket.  So soundly sleeping that they all had forgotten it, wrapt up in their tiny joys and small sorrows, busy with their worries and their plagues, without which they simply couldn't live, and Christmas after Christmas sang thanklessly their "Peace on earth," as it had to remain, forever, without any end.

     Now, however, it had awakened.  It stretched its bony members, it took its powerful scythe and lifted its snake-haired head.  It tore the iron horn from its fleshless ribs and blew with its bloodless lips until its lowest depth that rang and cried through the whole world:  "The war has arisen!  Prepare yourselves!"

     And they prepared themselves.  It was as if the whole world rumbled with the footsteps of deploying troops, with the hoofbeat of saddled horses.  Through the forests and fields went the frenzy of the important time.  In their formidable strength stood the trees, the slender trunks neatly in a row, as if ready to march.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Although it's describing fields, not a tree, the relative clause "which yielded their fruits in their time" seems to borrow from Psalm 1:3:  "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers."  In the original German novel text, it's "die ihre Früchte brachten zu ihrer Zeit," and in the German Psalter, it's "der seine Frucht bringt zu seiner Zeit."

The phrase "Friede auf Erden" also comes from the Bible.  Luke 2:14:  "Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe und Friede auf Erden bei den Menschen seines Wohlgefallens."  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."

This is the end of chapter twenty-four and the beginning of chapter twenty-five

Month 79: Pages 125-126

This Month's Installment

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

     "Were there even many people with you?"

     "A few men who wanted to say goodbye before they go in the field.  They must leave behind business and work and part from wife and children.  But you should have heard with what confidence and joy they went, all of them!  One took his boys with, whom I had just confirmed; and when his wife cried, he said, 'Mudder, laß jut sein... 's is Anstandspflicht jejens Vaterland.'"

     After the meal, he lay down and immediately fell into a death-like sleep.

     He must have rested for a long time because it was already softly getting dark when Else step into his room.  He could barely pull himself together, he didn't know where he was.  All of a sudden, it occurred to him:  "Oh, yes, it is war!"  Then he was very awake.

     "I have disturbed you reluctantly, but Seydelmann was just here.  A few more people have come who move out to-morrow morning and wish Holy Communion."

     He stood up immediately and put on his cassock.

     "The one asked for you specifically, he is a son of Bärwalder Kutscher."

     "What?  Of old Schikorr himself?  I married him here only in May - and now also with!"

     Two couples stood in the sacristy, in which he distributed Holy Communion at such a late hour:  the young Schikorr, who in his civilian occupation was a locksmith and now made a martial impression as a cavalryman, and then an-other.  In the dim twilight, he couldn't recognize the uniform.  But he stood so quietly and calmly at the side of the pale blonde woman

---125---

that he thought:  "Perhaps one who must not go directly into the fire, a military officer or something like that."

     After the ceremony, he approached him, as he was in the habit of doing.  Now he saw that he belonged to the navy.  "Chief engineer on a submarine."  He answered so quietly and firmly, as if it were a small trial run.  And the young blond woman at his side brushed away a tear, as if she was ashamed of herself.

     Hans had also said a few friendly words to young Schikorr.  When he left the sacristy, he saw that his left foot was dragging.

     "What's wrong, Schikorr?  Something with your leg?"

     "Yes, but, Pastor, it is nothing."

     "But you are limping."

     A bright smile.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

When Hans quotes one of his parishioners, it's spelt in what is apparently the man's dialect, and I understand only a few words of it, so I just left it as it is.

I had been translating Sakristei as vestry because this is the only translation that my dictionary provides.  I'd suspected that it could also mean sacristy, and the context here seemed to favor this (why hold Communion in the vestry?), so I lookt up sacristy in the English-to-German section of my dictionary and found Sakristei.  I'm sure there are a few earlier instances I should change now.

Month 78: Pages 122-124

This Month's Installment

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

     It sounded like a cry out of deepest need, like a confession at the same time of confidence and of faith, the mountain moves and rising tides ebb.  Now confidence and victory were also in his soul, enthusiastically and in high spirits as never before, he went to the pulpit, he read the text:

     "Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.  There is a river

---122---

whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.  God will help her when morning dawns.  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

     One had never before heard him speak as on this day.  Usually, his sermon was full of intellect and deep thoughts, this time it was like a thriving fire of his words that, restrained only with effort, burned out of everyone and inflamed all who heard them.  And there was not one in the large church who went away from this service not lifted and purified.

     "That was the man whom we needed, especially for such a difficult time!  I saw it straight away back then and have made the right choice," said Mayor Stoltzmann to his wife at the exit.

     Edith went silently between the two.  The conversation again reminded her that she had not had Hans Warson in her home for a long time.

     After the service, the Lord's Supper was held in the church.  Again a large congregation gathered at the high altar:  men whom Hans knew only in their peacetime occupations, salesmen, civil servants, craftsmen, workers.  Now all in uniform, prepared for marching off:  officers, sergeants, corporals, privates.  And beside them their wives.  Then mothers and fathers to the side of their very young son who was going to war.  The women wept softly, even the eyes of the men shimmered with a trace of tears.  And yet everyone's composure was calm and strong.  How filled and loaded by the force of the moment.

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     And he, who so many times had carried bitter lamenting in his despondent heart that humanity had broken away from God's gentle purpose, he distributed bread and wine and in this hour experienced what to him only a few days ago would have appeared impossible.

     But when he came home after uninterrupted work, he felt that he was at the end of his strength.  The hasty trip with its unpleasant incident, the sleepless night with its rushing thoughts, but more than that:  this morning with its great elevation and spiritual excitement had surely exhausted his delicate and soft-voiced organism.  He was annoyed at himself, he did not want to let it arise.  He spoke thoroughly and warmly with the people who waited for him in his study, he went into the church several times in order to hold war marriages and to baptize children whose fathers were going into the field.  And there he never did anything superficially but did everything with his whole soul, so that this all touched his heart.

     When, around two o'clock in the afternoon, he went out of the church for the last time and into his apartment, he suddenly felt such an intense, black flickering before his eyes that he had to hold on to the banisters in order not to collapse.  But he fought like a champion, took off his cassock, proceeded to the dining room, where Else already waited for him, showed a cheerful face, and forced himself to eat.

     "You have had a desperately hard day," she said.

     "But a great, a wonderful day!  I have experienced what I longed for with the entire fervor of my soul, on whose fulfillment I already despaired; now I have seen it with my own eyes.  This war has worked wonders in one day!"

---124---

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

The reading ("Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way...") is from Psalm 46, although some verses are dropt out.  The quoted text contains verses 3-5, 6b, and 8 in the German Psalter, where the versification is slightly different.  This corresponds to verses 2-4, 5b, and 7 in English translations.  Rather than do my own translation, I simply used the ESV translation.  It's a fitting reading to come after "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," since this is the Psalm that Luther used as a basis for that hymn.

This is the end of chapter twenty-three and the beginning of chapter twenty-four.

Month 77: Pages 120-122

This Month's Installment

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

     Upstairs in his study, Hans Warsow sat and workt on his sermon for Sunday to-morrow.  The day was already getting dark when he put down his pen.  Until then, he had spoken to his congregation in peace and about peace.  It was the first war sermon that he had written in his life.

     Now he had gone to bed.  Although he was tired from the strenuous trip and the long night work, he did not find sleep.  Too violent were the feelings that rushed at him, who was easy to take hold of.  He felt that an old world was now going to ruins, a new one was rising up.  Everything that he had until now thought and written, what he had read, planned, mulled over, appeared so empty and pointless to him in these hours lying awake at night; the entire structure that his never-idle spirit had organized in industrious work fell together like a house of cards; the outlook on life that he, after long years of inner struggling, after long doubting and hesitating, thought he had firmly established for his life, the events of a few days had raged over it like a storm tide and had torn gaps and holes in it that could not be filled again.  And he was become anew a searcher who set out on a journey for new values to put in the place of the old ones.

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     Certainly, he had sometimes thought about the war, but it had always been just a game in his thoughts.  Now it was here and with it a completely new time.

     When he came to the breakfast table around six o'clock, he found Else already there.  She prepared the tea for him, she poured for him, she made a piece of bread for him, all in her faithful, homely way.  A solemn calm lay on her plain features and at the same time, a firm, strong confidence.

     Hans had never before seen his church so full as on this Sunday.  He wanted not to believe his eyes:  even half an hour before the start of the church service, all seats were occupied, the people were crowing in the walkways; as the organ started playing its prelude when the clock struck ten, no corner in the enormous church was empty, like a black wall the crowd stood in the wide aisles.  And above it towered the high Gothic vault.  Softly bathed in sun-gold, the old whitewashed sandstone pillars rose heavenwards.  The spider webs and the venerable dust that had gathered on them in the course of the centuries made them gleam and glow in this lightning, as if they were made of marble.  Through the old church windows, the bright daylight peered from above like a greeting eye and let its light play over the expensive, carved council pew.

     There sat Mayor Stoltzmann with his wife, just like back at his trial sermon.  But that was already over a year ago, and he had never seen him here again since then.  Now, however, he had come and his councillors with him, and not one was missing.  As if the whole city with its head in the lead wanted to bow before

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God, Who now showed that despite all worldly powers and wisdom, He alone held the government in His hands.

     With slow steps, Hans paced up and down through his vestry, once more working through his sermon in his mind.  The thought of speaking in such an hour to such a gathering, to those who moved out to give their lives in death for their fatherland, to those who stayed behind and with heavy hearts saw them leave, caused in this hour nothing but a deep hesitation and worry in his soul.  With a fervor and purity, at the same time with an elemental force, like a storm sweeping away everything with it, as he had not heard them until now, the Luther tune rang out through the enormous church, into his quiet vestry:

A mighty fortress is our God,

A trusty shield and weapon;

He helps us free from ev'ry need,

That hath us now o'ertaken.

The old evil foe,

Now means deadly woe;

Deep guile and great might

Are his dread arms in fight;

On earth is not his equal.

 

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

A note (because I myself had forgotten):  this is the beginning of chapter twenty-three.

I don't know if it was intentionally composed this way or if it turned out this way just because of German grammar, but there's quite a distance between the subject and the verb in this relative clause:  "die er nach jahrelangem innerlichem Ringen, nach langem Zweifeln und Zagen endlich festgefügt für sein Leben wähnte."  I tried to keep this feature in my translation:  "that he, after long years of inner struggling, after long doubting and hesitating, thought he had firmly established for his life."

Some of the sentences near the end of this installment ("The thought of speaking in such an hour..." and "With a fervor and purity...") are so long that it was difficult to translate them well.  I'm unsure of the antecedent for the "sie" ("them") in the last sentence ("as he had not heard them").  Apparently, it's the members of the congregation.

Rather than try to translate "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" myself, I just used the translation in The Lutheran Service Book (#656).  I don't think I'd ever seen the original German though and was surprised to encounter it under these circumstances.  Here's the German text:

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,

Ein gute Wehr und Waffen;

Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,

Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.

Der alte böse Feind,

Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint;

Groß Macht und viel List

Sein grausam Rüstung ist,

Auf Erd ist nicht seinsgleichen.

Month 76: Pages 117-120

This Month's Installment

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

     "And I, in my unawareness, I noticed nothing, not in the least!  And only now does it fall from my eyes like scales:  the puzzling and contradictory nature of this girl, her secret beach walks, her fervent interest in the warship, her total reserve then with the arrival of the foreigners, the

---117---

shared work until late into the night, - everything so clever, like the final plan that the two had cookt up when despite all their calculation, they were unexpectedly surprised by the events:  that she wanted to place herself as a harmless travel companion under my protection until the border and then bring herself in safety into the Russian territory at night.

     "That was certainly a wicked sequel!" said Else after a longer silence.  "Now your poor appearance no longer surprises me."

     "That is the least of it.  For me the matter is an unpleasant adventure and over with.  It is something quite different that I can't get over:  with what methods, Else, one already works against us, even before the war had begun!  Just such a nest of spies as here on the east border, they should have pulled out of the west.  Today already we are surrounded by betrayal on all sides, we in our German honesty and gullibility!"

     "May God still avert the worst from us!" said Else.

     Somebody knockt at the door.  Seydelmann, the sexton from St. Nikolai, stept in.  He had for a longer time been a sergeant; something soldierly had stayed in his character and in his bearing.

     "I have to report to the pastor that His Majesty the Kaiser has just ordered the general mobilization for the entire German army at sea and on land."

     Hans stood up.  "I expected it, we all did.  Now, however, that it is here - but it is good that it is here.  All uncertainty and all wavering are over now - God will be with us!"

     "It has further been ordered that

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to-night from eight to nine o'clock all church bells should toll for an hour long." - 

     The bells ring, through the whole city they ring, their brass mouth sounds in the lanes and over the markets, into the houses it calls, in the parlors, where the people sit at their work or at dinner, to the beds of the children it carries the news, and in the places where the sick restlessly toss and turn on their pillows.  "War!  War!  War!"  Ding-dong, ding-dong...  As a darkly surging, never interrupted line flowed the stream of people through the city.  Silently, some go, their gaze bowed to the ground, others talking lively and with their arms cutting complete circles through the air.  A few horsemen, armed for battle, come dispersed along the main street, a train of soldiers follows.  Loudly the captain's command resounds, the drums roll.  Tamtamtamtam!  War!  War!  War!

     Merchants announce extras, they sell quickly although they report only what everyone knows.  A detachment of infantrymen, their bundles under their arms, marches up.  "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" sounds from their lips.  In a coffee house in the market, violin and viola play patriotic songs, cheerful, confident of victory, courage-inducing.  But then they strike up an-other melody:  "Morgenrot, Morgenrot, leuchtest mir zum frühen Tod!"

     Three soldiers, just kitted out, sing along, without thinking anything of it.  A plainly dressed woman remains standing, her watery eyes shimmering.  It is the only thing that they take with to-morrow.  Brighter and louder the bell tone floods over the market.  "War!  War!  War!"  Ding-dong, ding-dong...

---119---

     Now it falls silent.  A light rain falls, the beam of light of the city street lamps, which to-day appear to burn more sparsely and wearily than on previous days, reflects dully on the polished paving stones, the horn of a car sounds.  It is the urban.  The first mayor goes once again to the town hall.  A busy time is come for him.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Hans' "And only now does it fall from my eyes like scales" is a reference to Acts 9:18:  "And immediately something like scales fell from his [Saul's] eyes...."  Or in German:  "Und jetzt erst fällt es wie Schuppen von meinen Augen" and "und sogleich fiel es von seinen Augen wie Schuppen."

I'm not sure if I have the right sense of "Eben solches Nest von Spionen, wie hier an der Ostgrenze, sollen sie im Westen gezogen haben."  Ziehen (inflected here as "gezogen") can mean "put in" or "take out," and between this ambiguity and the unidentified antecedent of the pronoun "sie," Hans could be saying either that they (the spies) should have established a presence in the west or that they (presumably some authorities in the west) would have dealt with a nest of spies more effectively than authorities in the east.

I translated it more prosaically as "on all sides," but the phrase "an allen Ecken and Enden" actually means "on all corners and ends."

Lest my translation be thought in error:  there really is a shift to present tense starting with "The bells ring..." ("Die Glocken klingen...").  I think this may be intended to illustrate the dramatic shift in the story here, where war is announced throughout the city.

As with "Lieb Vaterland, kannst ruhig sein," I didn't translate "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" or "Morgenrot, Morgenrot, leuchtest mir zum frühen Tod!" because they're song titles.

I'm not sure if there's meant to be a comparison (or contrast) implied between the three singing soldiers and the teary-eyed woman, but I wanted at least to note that while I couldn't think of a way to include this in my translation, the descriptions of them have some similarity.  The three soldiers are described as "eben eingekleidete" (just kitted out) and the woman as "schlichtgekleidete" (plainly dressed).  Both of these adjectives are derived from kleiden, to dress.

This is the end of chapter twenty-two.

Month 75: Pages 115-117

This Month's Installment

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

     "Do you think I had gotten a taxi or a valet?  Everything has disappeared!  Now everyone is pointed to himself.  We will have to learn still other things."

     They were gone upstairs.  He proceeded to his study and cast a quick glance at the notes that had arrived.

     "It is nothing important," she said.

     He also had his mind on other things, she noticed.  She didn't like the look of him at all, his complexion was indeed tanned, but his eyes were dull and sunken, and although he had also pulled himself together, the restlessness that lay over his entire being and his movements could not escape her.

     "I had hoped I would find you more refreshed after your long vacation."

     He laughed stiffly.  "The upheaval came a little suddenly.  Out of the deep peace of Zoppot so quickly into this uncertainty!  Give me just

---115---

a little to eat, and everything will be fine.  I haven't gotten anything yet, our train had no dining car, and there was such a rush at the stations that one preferred to stand back."

     She led him into the dining room.  The tea kettle bubbled on the table, bread, butter, and cold cuts were set there.  He sat down, he even helpt himself.  But even before the first bite, he stopt.

     "There is great unrest in the city," he said, "I heard paper money would not be accepted anymore, and the businesses were often closed for hours on end."

     "It is not so bad and will soon ease up again."

     "And in the congregation?  Has anyone askt about me? ...  How many would have to go with if it would really come so far!  One still hopes, yes, but I fear the chances are only very small."

     "Don't you want to tell me about your trip?"

     "An-other time.  It all lay so far behind me, as if it had been a hundred years ago; now there is nothing in me but the seriousness of the hour."

     "No," she said quickly and with worried eyes lookt him firmly in the face, "that is not it.  Something has happened to you-"

     "How do you know?"

     "You see, now you admit it yourself.  And now tell!"

     He pushed the plate away from himself and with agitated, sometimes faltering, then again overly fast voice told her his adventure up until the moment when his travelling companion was arrested as a dangerous Russian spy and he had also been led away out of the train.

     "And then?" she askt in breathless suspense.  "What did they do with you?  And how did you get free again?"

---116---

     "Right away they put me in the train station in an already stopt, closed carriage and led me through the dark night to the guard.  There they started a short interrogation with me.  They were probably convinced of my innocence, but they did not set me free, I had to spend time in a not very cosy room until the next morning.  Then a higher officer came.  He did not doubt for a moment the truth of what I told him, regretted with hospitable sympathy the serious mishap that had befallen me through no fault of my own, added however that it would have been impossible for his officers to let me travel farther because my statement as a witness would be of great importance.  I found out that it had to do with a wide-ranging nest of Russian spies.  They had their accomplices everywhere, made plans and sketches, wrote and received traitorous letters.  And they knew how to act so cleverly that one tracked them down only yesterday, and this was possible only through the showing-off of one of theirs who had wanted to take revenge on the head of the band, a German-Russian by the name Sandkuhl.  That was the man that that ill-fated creature had introduced to me as a higher Russian officer.  He was of course not her master, but rather her partner, who had her quite in his control.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

In the original text, "up to the moment when his travelling companion was arrested as a dangerous Russian spy and he had also been led away out of the train" is in active voice with the indefinite pronoun "man":  "bis zu dem Augenblick, wo man seine Reisegefährtin als gefährliche russische Spionin verhaftet und auch ihn aus dem Zuge mit fortgeführt hätte."  I flipt it to passive voice simply because I thought it sounded better, but in this context, passive voice also illustrates the lack of agency that Nuscha and Hans had in that situation.

Month 74: Pages 113-115

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

     "You hear how the women chatter!  You will better understand, won't you, that a Prussian officer who has faithfully served his fatherland for so long that it made him a major, will not now sit around at home when his entire people are pulled into the war."

     "Certainly, I understand that well.  But Major, you are already sixty years old."

     "Sixty-three," Edith threw in again.

     "Yes, sixty-three.  Is that an old man?  Kluck and the other generals who will lead our army to victory are much older than I.  I can ride my five hours on horseback.  To parade in uniform in peacetime and to chicken out when it becomes serious, the cowards want to do that, but not the Reckensteiner."

     "But you are not healthy, dear father."

     "What?  Not healthy!  Don't I have my arms for beating, so that no pepper grows where they hit?  Have I no eyes to see and no ears to hear?"

     "But you were undergoing treatment in Rodenburg all last winter."

     "Certainly, in order to be healthy, if it works!  Otherwise, I really wouldn't have suffered the vertigo.  There is not being ill at all.  That is a concern for peace time.  No German man becomes ill when the enemy stands at the gate.  Why do we have our fatherland?  Why has our East Prussia done so much good for us, nurtured and cared for us, if we are not also able to defend it as soon as it is in danger?  Old or young, we must all get to it!  And now something

---113---

else tells me.  I am going with, that is clear as day.  And if they can no longer use me as a major at the front, they will still have a post for me, you can be sure of that!"

     The situation had come to a head, the kaiser explained the state of the war.

     Mayor Stoltzmann, who was about to go on a long vacation trip with his wife, had immediately cancelled this and had already been in Rodenburg for a few days, where he had his hands full and his circumspection and energy showed themselves in the best light.

     Only Hans did not come.  Else, who had long since left Bärwalde in order to arrange everything at home for the brother's homecoming, waited for him with an uneasiness that grew to fear when still no news of him arrived.

     Edith von Barrnhoff, who had come to Rodenburg in order to call the doctor for help against the stubbornness of her father, had truly consoled her:  in these days, wires for private individuals would not be carried at all, and if it were to happen, then one must reckon with very slow conveyance, now the war would be everything.  And in these days where everyone wanted to go home he would certainly not get anywhere quickly with the railway.

     It was become afternoon.  The evening drew closer.  No trace of Hans.  His vacation ended to-day, he had to preach the sermon to-morrow.  His name was in the church bulletin.  Mr. Brettschneider had already sent, if one still knew nothing of the brother and if, in any case, he shouldn't prepare himself for the sermon?

---114---

     Then - the church tower clock across the way had just struck the sixth hour - a quick stride up the steps of the [Beischlag] in front of the old parsonage.  Else hurried down the stairs, opened the door - in his loden coat, the small, sturdy suitcase in his right hand, blanket, cane, and umbrella in his left, stood Hans before her.

     "Finally," she cried from out of a relieved heart, "we see each other again!"

     "Yes," he answered, "neither of us had thought when we parted then, now difficult times are come."

     "We must accept them - but how did you simply arrive?  Carrying everything with you?  Did you go like this through the whole city?"

Interesting Phrases I Happened Upon

I haven't done this segment in quite a while, simply because I hadn't run across any interesting phrases.  I found a couple this month, though:

• Pferdeäpfel - horse droppings, but literally "horse apples"
• Er hört das Gras wachsen - "he reads too much into things," "he overinterprets," but literally "he hears the grass grow"

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Obviously, the phrase "so that no pepper grows where they hit" ("daß kein Pfeffer wächst, wo sie hintreffen") sounds odd in English.  According to my dictionary, this is an idiom, but the example that my dictionary provides doesn't apply to this context:  "geh hin, wo der Pfeffer wächst get lost, jump in the lake."

The Major's protests of "Have I no eyes to see and no ears to hear?" ("Habe ich keine Augen, zu sehen, und keine Ohren, zu hören?") may be a reference to Shylock's "Hath not a Jew eyes?  Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?" in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (III.i.51-53).  It's a similar construction, at least.

The phrase "Alt oder jung" ("old or young") is a merism.

I changed "morgen hatte er die Hauptpredigt" a bit.  Literally, this is "to-morrow he had the main sermon."  I'm not sure that "main" is really an adjective that's applicable to sermons, however, so I translated it merely as "sermon."  I also added a verb to clarify:  "he had to preach the sermon to-morrow."  I think this sense of have would be müssen in German though.  Er muß die Predigt predigen.

I tried to follow the original word order in the sentence "Else hurried down the stairs, opened the door - in his loden coat, the small, sturdy suitcase in his right hand, blanket, cane, and umbrella in his left, stood Hans before her." but it turned out to be something of a mess with the commas.

This is the end of chapter twenty-one and the beginning of chapter twenty-two.

Month 73: Pages 111-113

This Month's Installment

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

He doesn't preach a word that he doesn't believe and, what is probably the main thing, on which he doesn't act.  Your brother Hans knows, which is why he admires him so much.  And I know too.  But the grandmother had to go away.  So much misery and bloodshed in close vicinity would be unbearable for her, not to mention any danger... but we are talking about the war, even if it had broken out around us already, and so it has, to God be praise and thanks, here in the midst of the most beautiful peace.  You really set one alight every time.  I didn't know at all that you are such a pessimist."

     On the next evening, Fritz rode over to Reckenstein, he wanted to say goodbye to Edith and to the old man.  He met them both still at dinner and sat down with them.

     "Well, what do you say, captain?" the old man askt.

     "It will start, Major!"  He never called him by anything other than his military rank, he knew that the old man liked it.

     "Thank God that once once again hears a masculine word!  With the woman it is

---111---

not tolerable now, they are still scared of going."

     "Hey, Father, I have never had fear," Edith objected, laughing.

     "No, no, not fear, that's not quite it.  But even you always act as if it were a disaster when we [draufschlügen] now, while I hope, confidently hope.  It is the highest time."

     "I just spoke with my uncle.  But he wants to know nothing of my suggestion to go to Berlin with his brother in case the war breaks out."

     "To Berlin?  Why?  What should he do there?"

     "Only on account of the uneasiness that such a close war would bring with it.  And after all, it would not be impossible that we would receive a little Russian visit."

     "Is it impossible, captain, are you joking?  Should the Sulphur Band come this far?  Well, we will really tell it what's what!  Our East Prussians - nothing of it!  That would suit them so well!"

     "We are not too far from the border."

     "If this far, why not also to Berlin?  Your uncle is right:  he is as safe here as in Abraham's bosom."

     "Major, you are, of course, also staying here peacefully?"

     Then the old man jumpt up from his chair.  His bushy eyebrows contracted, his eyes shot lightning:  "Stay here... I?  What do you mean by that, captain?"

     "Do you want to return to Rodenburg?"

     "I?  In that crazy dump?  I'm going along, that goes without saying, captain."

---112---

     "He says that every day now," Edith threw in and directed a glance to Fritz, looking for help, "it's not for him to drive out."

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I translated "Losgehen" in the clause "die haben immer noch Angst vor dem Losgehen" as "going" ("they are still scared of going").  According to my dictionary, however, it can also have the sense of a gun firing:  "die Pistole ist nicht losgegangen the gun didn't fire."  In the context here (talking about war), this could also be a suitable translation, but because this sense wasn't listed under "losgehen" in the German-to-English section of my dictionary, I went with the more general "going."

The expression "as safe here as in Abraham's bosom" ("sicher wie in Abrahams Schoß") refers to Luke 16:22:  "The poor man [Lazarus] died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side" ("Es begab sich aber, daß der Arme starb, und er wurde von den Engeln getragen in Abrahams Schoß").

I'm not sure if "contracted" is the best translation for "zogen sich zusammen" in this context (the Major's eyebrows), but it's the best I could come up with.

This is the end of chapter twenty and the beginning of chapter twenty-one.

Month 72: Pages 109-111

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

To her, however, it was as if through the dark night, she saw the warm shining of his eyes, which she liked so much.  "I knew it," she replied, and nothing more.

     "Admittedly, I would have rather my uncle left Bärwalde.  It suits him well now because Uncle Hugo has just arrived here and could take him with to his apartment in Berlin.  But he clings to his home tightly and is fearless.  It will not be easily kept."

     "I believe that too, as far as I know the old man.

---109---

And especially now, when the war isn't even here yet and is conducted only in the thoughts of a young, merry cavalry captain."

     "It is already here," he replied, without responding to her joke, "we just don't know it yet.  What is coming now is formality - nothing more.  We are lying here not too far from the border, that is no place for old and frail people."

     "And Bärwalde?"

     "That is taken care of.  The Hutemach and Borowski, the Lithuanian and the East Prussian-born, those are a good watch.  I know them both, they have nerves like steel and real East Prussian blood.  They do not yield, not one step, even if the Cossacks take the two poplars in front of the door!"

     She laughed.  "Those would certainly be beautiful sights, for us here too!"

     He was concerned for a moment.  Actually, he hadn't thought of her at all!  But she knew him, such was his way.

     "Of course, we won't let them come that far, that is surely clear.  And then - Pronitten is a city, even if only a small one, that provides some security, and the youth know nothing of danger; that is its beautiful privilege."

     "I honestly have no fear.  Exactly as little as your Hutemach, who embodies the feminine ideal for you.  If she has the house full, then she can confidently send some of the Cossacks over to me.  I would politely ask them into our pipe leaf house over there and pour them coffee so calmly, like I did for the cavalry captain in Bärwalde, yes, perhaps even a little more calmly."

     And as she was afraid that her blushing, which this last remark had involuntarily brought to her face, could not escape from him in this

---110---

darkness:  "It was curiosity, I didn't know him at all yet, but I had heard so much about him, especially about his wicked mind."

     "And then found him as gentle as a child."

     "Of course!"  But she wanted to break off from this subject, or turn to what he had said earlier, which was still in her head:  "Grandfather will also not go, of course, come what may, and I will gladly stay with him.  There is a lot in him:  great and faithful.

Commentary

I don't have much to say this month.

I must admit that I don't understand the turn that this conversation takes after Hanna's blushing.

Also:  to-day marks six years since I started this project.

Month 71: Pages 107-109

This Month's Installment

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

Then in the evening, the two old men sat together in the cozy living room, drank a bottle of old red wine, and discussed questions of politics and public life.

     The privy councillor loved to explain his opinion a little long-windedly and in a refined manner of speech; the Bärwalder mostly just listened, his head propt up in his left hand, with his right stroking his small, not-very-well-kept beard; only now and then he threw in a remark.

     It also happened that the two bitterly argued.  Then the Bärwalder did not give up easily because he had a hard head.  But the conciliatory and more worldly-wise privy councillor soon relented again, and when the friendly terms were quickly restored, then it was his gain.

     So everything went peacefully and smoothly in Bärwalde, and everyone felt well in the calm of the quiet property, whether he stayed there for work or for relaxation.

---107---

Until one day the first alarming news interrupted the calm of the idyllic life.

     But still, no one really believed in the war.  "It is only a reminder," said Pastor Teichgräber in his Sunday sermon, "God knocks at the door, but His goodness and mercy let the specter once again pass over our people."

     A July evening.  Fritz had, as he now tended to do more often, ridden to Pronitten for a short rest after the difficult harvest.  At the family table of the quiet parsonage, he didn't say a word.  When, however, old Mrs. Teichgräber, on whose weakened condition this day had a disastrous effect, drew back to rest and the pastor had set to work dealing with a few items of official business in his study, he lookt at Hanna with the expressive glance of his clever, serious eyes and said, "Now the beautiful, peaceful agricultural activity has quickly reached its end."

     "There's a war, even for us; isn't there?"

     "Without any doubt.  While we speak here, there is among us feverish activity everywhere.  But we are prepared, thanks be to God!"

     They had left the dark parlor and stept into the garden.  Fog fell softly over the grass.  Dark, not moved by any wind, the trees stood, like a mysterious language it went from one to the other.  But also they were soundless like the entire night.  The thin crescent moon that now and then came out from the slowly moving clouds only let the darkness appear so much deeper.  From the flowerbeds pungent smells wandered out and lay over the slumbering earth like oppressive dreams.

---108---

A solemn, almost anxious tension was in this night.

     "It was here on the same spot," said Fritz, after he had stood by Hanna's side for a while, "on an autumn evening - it wasn't quite a year ago - I spoke of war, and they were all shocked at my thoughts.  Now they are become reality."

     Now there was silence between them, even Hanna's nature and disposition were quiet and withdrawn.  They were both the same in this:  they could be happy and cheerful, but the matter was serious.

     "And you?" she askt finally.

     "I am going along, of course.  As soon as I come home to-day, I will write and volunteer."

     "You told me once that you received your discharge so easily only because the doctor had certified a heart defect for you."

     "That was then, but now that all of my comrades are campaigning, it would be unthinkable to stay at home!  To take the plow in peace and the sword in war, that was always what I like."

     He said it in his simple, masculine way, without the slightest vainglory.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

The language in Pastor Teichgräber's sermon recalls a few Biblical passages.  "Der liebe Gott klopft an die Tür" resembles Revelation 3:20:  "Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür und klopfe an" ("Behold, I stand at the door and knock"), "seine Güte und Gnade" has some similarity to a phrase from Psalm 23:6:  "Gutes und Barmherzigkeit" ("goodness and mercy"), and even just the verb "vorübergehen" in this context brings to mind the Passover in Exodus 12.

I changed the sentence with "feverish activity" a bit.  In the original text, there's an indefinite singular subject:  "Während wir hier sprechen, ist man bei uns überall in fiebernder Tätigkeit."  Literally, this is:  "While we speak here, one is in feverish activity everywhere among us," but I thought this sounded a bit odd, so instead, I translated it as:  "While we speak here, there is among us feverish activity everywhere."

Fritz remark "To take the plow in peace and the sword in war" brings to mind Isaiah 2:4 and Joel 3:10, both of which also mention plows and swords.

This is the end of chapter nineteen (which was very short, barely over a page) and the beginning of chapter twenty.

Month 70: Pages 105-107

This Month's Installment

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

     In the same moment, the door was pushed open.  Two men stept into the compartment, one in the uniform of the police officers, the other in civilian clothing.  This one held in his hand a number of papers and a sheet that appeared to contain a photograph.  Quickly, his sharp gaze passed over the travellers.  At once it stopt at the window in front of the seat in which Nuscha sat.

     "Found," he said coldly and signalled to the uniformed officer.

     Full of horror, Hans had jumpt up.  He wanted to shout something to her, wanted to encourage her, to defend her - every word died on his tongue.

     Meanwhile the police officer had stept in and quick as lightning placed two handcuffs around her delicate elbows.  She let everything happen to herself, meekly almost, around her mouth a defiant feature was cut, and in her eyes, which turned to Hans with a half embarrassed, half derisive expression, lay something shifty.

     "Who is the man across from you?" askt the officer curtly and gruffly.

     "I don't know."

     "You got on the train in his company in Königsberg, already you've travelled together with him from Danzig on."

     She didn't answer.  The officer leafed through

---105---

his papers and took out a second photograph of a man.

     "The picture is certainly not right," he said to the man in uniform, "but the man must likewise follow us."

     Hans tried to account for himself.  He gave his name, his position, he emphasized that it was a question of a casual travelling acquaintance who requested his protection on the journey, that he would be indispensable to his congregation, especially in this time, and that one mustn't delay him; he showed his pocket book in which were his tickets and several letters addressed to him, even an official one - it was all useless.

     "I cannot help you," the officer replied firmly and decidedly.  "If you are innocent, it will soon be proven.  We have no time for an investigation here, the train must go on."

     He gave a sign to the other one, who led the handcuffed Nuscha, who lookt forwards with an imperturbable eye and a cool smile, out of the compartment, he himself followed with Hans.

     "A Russian spy!"

     "The worst one!"

     "They've lookt for her a long time!"

     "They did their work in Zoppot, a whole nest that held its daily meetings in the casino.  I just came from Zoppot."

     "Only to-day has it come to light."

     "But they don't have the others yet."

     "They'll find them!"

     "Cursed lot!"

     So Hans heard whizzing around and whispered as slowly and half deafened by the disbelief that he witnessed, he walkt through the corridor by the side of his companion.

---106---

     Bärwalde was preparing for the harvest, which, as a result of the burning heat of the last week, had started much earlier this time than in previous years.  Everything was diligent activity.  Now in the evening Borowski and Fritz always came to the table only when the others had long since eaten.  But the Hutemach had cared for them well, and Fritz consumed his big green glassful of thick milk and his sauce, which he had honestly earned for himself, with true voracity.

     The Hutemach stayed with him at the table.  She could do it with a clear conscience because he had cared for her old man.  In addition to Else Warsow, his brother, the privy councillor from Berlin, stayed in Bärwalde.  He always spent the summer months on his home property.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

I think there's a typo in the sentence "Voller Ensetzen war Hans in die Höhe gesprungen."  I couldn't find "Ensetzen" in my dictionary, but "Entsetzen" makes sense here - "Full of horror, Hans had jumpt up."

"Her old man" probably isn't the best translation for "ihren alten Herrn," but I couldn't think of an alternative.  I haven't gotten very far into this chapter yet, so there's not much context, and I'm not sure I have a very good translation anyway.

This is the end of chapter eighteen and the beginning of chapter nineteen.