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---118---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.
