This Month's Installment
What's italicized is what I'm unsure about.
How might it look in Reckenstein now? Whether they will also---168---set the marauding feet there one day, will throw firebrands in the peaceful fields, the full barns, as in that farm over there, from which smoke and flames go up, always more, always closer? Could it be that everything is become so indifferent! To him who has seen it, what do personal possessions, personal happiness mean!? Also that on which one has set his whole life, that one built and added to with stubborn diligence, with never-resting effort - that the fire may devour it!He thinks about Edith. She has always been a dear daughter to him. Now she has chosen the occupation of the Samaritan and cares for the wounded. It is indeed also so natural. What else should she do in this time? Since his separation he has received no news of her. But even that gives him no qualms. And yet, otherwise, he was the most affectionate father and always in worry and fear for his child when once he was separated from her. But now? Who has time now to send letters!? And Edith is a brave kid and will know how to help herself. And if not - she has never feared death. Just as little as he.He looks at the clock. He has already done it several times, thoughtlessly, mechanically. He doesn't even know now which hour the hand pointed to; time itself is become meaningless. Only the wounded there inside and their rescue are worth thinking about.The sun sinks deeper and colors the tops of the trees purple-red; long blue shadows fall ghostly on the valley below him; now and then it flashes through fire that is flaring up; it already burns in all places; but the roaring of the cannons is no longer so deafening.In the train everything is quiet; only here and there a groaning tone pierces,---169---a fervent groaning out of the opened windows. Like a specter, bathed in the blazing evening- and fireglow, the Russian sits on his coal car; more often and faster the left arm grabs the field coat.
Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary
In the original German, the sentence "He thinks about Edith" is structured in such a way to highlight the object of the man's thoughts: "An Edith denkt er," "about Edith thinks he."
The phrase "keine Nachricht von ihr" could mean either "no message from her" or "no news of her." I noted this ambiguity earlier in the novel, too. Perhaps by design, these two instances are inversions of each other. Here, the Reckensteiner refers to Edith, and in the previous instance, Edith refers to him.
In the original German, the clause "wenn er einmal von ihm getrennt war" is literally something like "when once he was separated from it." The antecedent of "ihm" is "sein Kind" ("his child") from the previous clause. The pronoun is the neuter ihm because it refers back to the neuter Kind, but since Edith is obviously feminine, I translated the pronoun as the feminine her: "when once he was separated from her."
