This Month's Installment
Now Edith had to pull herself together in order not to laugh loudly. "Do you have so little confidence in me, then?"The protruding lips curved; a short, gurgling tone came out from between them: "Well, I mean one so... one so refined!" And as if the matter began to be embarrassing for him, he turned to Hans again: "I have read the book that the pastor gave me. All well and good... very good even. I just mean: if dear God really holds His protecting hand over every good soldier, as it stands, then I wouldn't be lying here in this splash of water and the others wouldn't groan there in their beds. But then the thing would stand wrong.""Of course, it is not meant like that, Adam, but rather: no one is met by a bullet unless God has determined it."But Adam did not let himself be convinced so easily. "hm, hm!" And again he shook his head slowly, "the question is just this: for whom does dear God determine it. And for whom does He not determine it? By which route do His troops march? Does He look after the good ones? Does He punish the evil doers? Does he guide the bullet towards the head of the old man who has six children at home? I have noticed nothing of it... absolutely nothing at all. But I also do not understand it."---152---"No one understands it, Adam.""No, no, no one understands it. But it was determined for me. Hard. Three at once. Why? God would know it! I have always been an old sinner; that is the only thing that I know.""It is probably different: God has the whole in mind: the rescue of our Fatherland, and the individual whom the bullet meets is the sacrifice for the Fatherland. Everything that is great and good is always achieved through sacrifice.""Good, then I am a sacrifice; I accept that; I have always told the others: with the pastor, one can make himself understood. If it is so, then I'll lie in the d----- splashing until the Lord God up there leads me onto dry ground again."
Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary
I had to rephrase "keinen trifft die Kugel, die Gott nicht für ihn bestimmt hat" a bit in order to get a smooth English rendering. Literally, it's something like "The bullet that God has not determined for him hits nobody," but I translated it as "no one is met by a bullet unless God has determined it."
I've been sick almost all month, and there was a whole week where I didn't do any translation work. I'm slowly catching up, but I'm still a few days behind, so this month's installment may be a bit shorter than some others.
