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.
