This Month's Installment
The privy councillor noticed how this subject excited his sickly brother; he began to worry about him."For the time being, the enemy is not yet in Bärwalde, thanks be to God," he admitted, "and even if it should come to the worst, then after the peace and the victory, which is sure for us, we would be richly compensated for the destruction." Then an angry flame ran over the wrinkled features of the old man."Compensated for!?" he cried, for the first time his voice loudly raised so that even the others around him stopped. "Pardon, my dear, you are not already become such a strong city dweller that you can say such a thing. Compensated for! One can compensate you for your money that you have lost, your furniture and appliances; perhaps one can compensate Hans for his books and his tools - but how can one compensate us for a destroyed home? All those hallowed treasures of many generations before that are hidden in it? We sacrifice them - that is our duty. But we sacrifice them as something not able to be compensated for, never again to be made up for; that makes this sacrifice so difficult for us."Now even the privy councillor said nothing more. Hans had not participated in the conversation at all, rather just listened silently and absorbed in himself. Everything that the Bärwalder said there had a core and a strength, as always, once he opened his mouth. Yet this time, however, it was something different: the old man had given expression to what he himself constantly felt and what grasped him deep in his soul at this moment.---187---The Bärwalder appeared completely exhausted; his hands shook, and the color of his face was drained, become ashen, after the red of the excitement."I think you should lie down, Manny!" the privy councillor said."Yes, yes, I can lie down. It may be good for me."
Grammatical Minutia/Commentary
The expression "was ihm in diesem Augenblick in die tiefste Seele griff" is literally something like "what for him in this moment in the deepest soul grasped," but I smoothed this out a bit into "what grasped him deep in his soul at this moment."
It may also be worth pointing out that in his speech, the Bärwalder uses the word Heimat ("home") which is also in the title of the novel.
