Month 52: Pages 68-70

This Month's Installment

As usual, what's italicized is what I'm unsure about.

For three years already would she be there.  In the winter they lived in Petersburg, 

---68---

in the summer the baron would take a long vacation, then they travelled in the mountain region in Switzerland or to the Tyrol.  But she would prefer to be in Zoppot.
     He had to pay attention, he wanted to understand her words.  Because since they left the protection [of the trees] the wind had become stronger and here on the open summit blowed with full breath.  Moreover he thought he observed anew what he had noticed even during their first conversation back in the social room of the "Seastar," that there was a quiet foreign tone in her speech.
     The baroness would have had to go to Tarasp this summer, but "he" - she always used this short term when she spoke about her employer - wanted to come to Zoppot with the two children.  She would have travelled ahead in order to arrange everything.  Now she could expect him any day, then her beautiful freedom would have an end.  All the more she still wanted to enjoy them now.
     For a short stretch the path led close along the beach again.  The strong surf and the wind, which was against them, made it difficult, at least for Hans, although he was a good walker.  The opposing element didn't bother her.  As if she were a part of it, so happily and unconcerned she stept through storm and waves that flooded over her feet and splashed her up to her head.
     "It is so beautiful!  I love it so!" she cried as she stopt a moment at the start of a hilltop because here, where the path became very narrow, the waves went so high that she could hardly go on.
     "I must admit that I would prefer a cloudless

---69---

sky and a quiet, calm sea, at the moment at least for our walk."
     "No," she replied lively, "an overcast sky can cause despair, but the eternally blue just makes me very tired and sad.  It is right like this:  always alternating light and darkness!  Always the uncertain that stifles the charm of life.  An incessant tipping and rising, just as on this cliff.  Only no sunny, quiet rest, always unrest and risk and danger - always playing around life and death!"
     She broke off, very suddenly, and as it seemed, not unintentionally.  Then her last words came to his consciousness.
     "Always in danger?" he repeated.  "And always playing around life and death?  Do you know anything about it in your youth and secured position?"
     "And if I know anything about it! ...  Still you are coming, now we want here to go up the cliff again, up there a wonderful path leads through a small forest.  I know it from earlier years and will lead you."

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

What I translated as "employer" ("when she spoke about her employer") is "Brotherrn" in the text ("wenn sie von ihrem Brotherrn sprach").  Literally, it means "bread lord," but I couldn't think of a good way to include this in my translation.

My dictionary translates ausmachen as "to put out."  I used stifle as a synonym, but it still doesn't seem to fit the context that well.  I'm suspicious that I might not have even translated it correctly because "always the uncertain that stifles the charm of life" directly contradicts what Nuscha says immediately before that:  "It is right like this:  always alternating light and darkness!"

I wasn't able to include this in my translation ("tipping and rising"), but "Neigen und Steigen" rhyme.

Month 51: Pages 67-68

This Month's Installment

As always the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

     Hans had taken the path to Adlershorst.  In front of him stept a young couple:  his new friend with the Frenchman.
     He saw them together often.  They sat next to each other at dinner and talkt incessantly, always in French, which she spoke as fluently as German.  There was a certain charm in their conversation, which became lively and bubbly but never loud or obtrusive.
     Suddenly, they both turned around and stood opposite him.
     "Well, that's where I find the best company!" the young girl said!  "To be precise, Monsieur Guerard must go back to Zoppot, he wants to pick up his wife from the train station, and I would have liked to go a bit further yet because here is where it first starts to get beautiful.  You'll walk with me, pastor, won't you?  I'll see you this evening, Monsieur!  If you still have time for me then."
     "I didn't even imagine that Mr. Guerard would be married," Hans commented after he had left.  There was certainly nothing in the world as unimportant to him as whether the Frenchman was married or not, but he wanted to say something.
     "He has been for only a short time, his wife ought to be a lovely creature.  They come to Zoppot because of the tennis week and now still want to warm themselves up well... but with these roaring waves, one cannot understand his own word.  I mean, we're already taking the way to the summit."
     Now they went on the dune planted with young conifers, above the sea that now lay far below them.  She was wearing the green felt hat again, in which he saw her for the first time, the dark cloth skirt she had gathered up, and around her

---67---

face a thick veil was drawn that should protect it against the storm.  But up here in the middle of the protection of the fir trees, it was quieter; they could speak without trouble.
     "Now for the third time already we are together, and I know little but something about you.  You, however, nothing at all about me.  You allow me then to give you my particulars:  Nuscha Löwing, 24 years old, born in a small town close to the Russian border, where, as I probably already told you, my mother still lives to-day.  I, however, have been around much in the world, was a governess in England and France, and am presently in the same position for a higher Russian official in Petersburg.  If you want to know still more, you must ask.  Though, whether I will tell you everything, I don't know."
     He askt nothing.  He had little practice in this type of conversation.  Besides the path here close to the edge of the dune was very narrow, so that they could go only behind one an-other.  She adjusted her fast, powerful stride to his and recounted further:  about her father, who, initially a rich factory owner, through an unlucky venture lost his whole fortune and this so pulled at his soul that he took his life one day.  How she now would have just stayed with her mother and a great number of siblings, how she took her teacher examination and provided for her own with her salary that she could send home with free rations.  Only because he paid her so well, would she have then gone to the Russian baron.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

I don't know whether there's really much to be made of this, but it might be significant that Nuscha refers to Guerard as "Monsieur Guerard" while Hans refers to him as "Herr Guerard."  I tried to keep this distinction in my translation by retaining the French Monsieur but rendering Herr as Mr.

This is unrelated to this month's installment, but in transcribing the original German of pages I've already translated, I discovered that way back in December (but in January's post), I misread the Gothic script and what I thought was Ozhöfter is actually Oxhöfter.  I'm not exactly sure how this relates, but apparently Oxhöft is the German name of Oksywie in Poland, which is just north of Sopot (called Zoppot in the novel).

In contrast to "ich weiß wenig, doch einiges von Ihnen," the following "sentence" lacks a verb:  "Sie aber von mir gar nichts," illustrating Hans' (and the reader's) complete lack of knowledge of Nuscha.  I managed to maintain this in my translation:  "You, however, nothing at all about me."

Month 50: Pages 65-66

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about:

     "Oh, he is very entertaining, the genuine French gentleman, he has seen much and knows how to tell it."
     He was pretty sure that her words were aimed at him.  His dull personality seemed not to please her.  But he couldn't help it.  His thoughts were too occupied by the heavy events of the day for him to be able to show an interest in her light conversation.  And now, however, he did what he had firmly intended to refrain from:  he spoke of war.
     He had not thought that she would show any interest in so serious 

---65---

a subject.  He was all the more astonished by the attention that she showed.
     "Wonderful," she said, "the whole world is talking about war!  But it's been doing it for years already.  For a while it becomes quiet.  But then if such an event as to-day's happens, then one hears it again everywhere."
     "There are rising shadows."
     "No, it will not come to that," she replied lively and definitely, "certainly not.  They are all afraid of each other."
     "That is no reason.  Elementary necessities don't let themselves be delayed."
     A passing gentleman, trimly dressed, said hello.  Distracted, she thanked him and then said:  "Then what do the people by you over there in East Prussia think about it?  Here they are always saying many thousands of Russians armed to the teeth are standing on the border and waiting only for the opportune moment to break in."
     "We East Prussians are not a timid breed.  We are not afraid of the Russians."
     "I believe it.  I asked only because the matter concerns me a little. My mother lives close to the border."
     They had arrived at the entry door to the "seastar."  "See you later!" she cried and offered him her hand. 

     The joy had been only short.  The sun hid itself again, cold days followed.  The air was damp and unfriendly, it smelled of rain and mist.  Swimming and boating caused no pleasure now, one had transferred to walks. 

---66---

Commentary

I have only a few comments this month:

1) I find it interesting that "armed to the teeth" is also a phrase in German ("bis an die Zähne bewaffnet").

2) Coincidentally, this month's installment ends at the very end of a page.

3) This is the end of chapter 11.

Month 49: Pages 64-65

This Month's Installment

Now the music also broke off, in the middle of the thrilling waltz, abruptly and without any conclusion.  What had happened?
     "The successor to the Austrian throne has been murdered... with his wife!"
     For a moment he stood as if paralyzed, while the terrible knowledge flew around him from mouth to mouth.  Curses became loud, plonked away, sounded over the bridge and the paths.  There, the words that Fritz spoke back then in the idyll of the Pronitt parish garden were stirred up in him.  Now he knew that the war would come.
     At the exit of the Kur house he met the pretty stranger from the "starfish."  She lookt completely changed.  A silk skirt, which shimmered in all colors, flowed like water on the lithe body down to her feet, which were in delicate, white beach shoes, a not tasteless but striking blouse, and an affected panama hat with a narrow red band, which left her drawn up face in the shade.  Her eyes greeted him as a good friend, her white, slightly pointed teeth, sparkled.  Not the slightest excitement that one read on all faces in this hour was to be seen on her.
     "Haven't you heard it yet?" he askt without any address.
     "Heard what?  Oh... about the assassination down there?  Of course I've heard about it."
     "And are so calm, so..." he wanted to say "happy," but he improved: "So unconcerned about it?"
     "Unconcerned!?  My goodness!  It is sad.  But so many sad things happen in the world." 

---64---

     She saw his astonishment.  "I show to him the human compassion that this case must give rise to in every sympathetic heart."
     "But here it's a question of more than pure human compassion."
     She shook her head.  "Not for me; I am not able to attach any conclusions to it, as I have just now heard a few of my friends express."
     They were going the same way, so he stayed by her side.  Although everything was now occupied with other thoughts, he still noticed that she attracted the attention of the passersby.  She seemed to be used to it, it didn't concern her.  In her lively way, she spoke about Zoppot and the wonderful people who would meet together in such a bath.  "Half are Poles, even a few Russians are in the 'starfish.'  And even a Frenchman, a real genuine one.  Did you see him yester-day?  The young, slender man with the small, dark goatee, the long, white hands, and the fine, translucent skin; he sat directly opposite you."
     "People don't interest me like they do you."

---&---

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

"Successor to the throne" is one word in German:  Thronfolger.  The text has "Der österreichische Thronfolger," which could be translated as "the Austrian successor to the throne," but I felt that "the successor to the Austrian throne" flowed better.  As I get further along, I may have to amend this.

It doesn't quite fit the tenor of the situation, but the only translation my dictionary offered for "sich pflanzen" is "to plonk," so I have "Curses... plonked away...."

I got stuck for a while on translating "Idnlle" before I discovered that what I was reading as an "n" is actually a "y."  Then, it was obvious (Idylle is a cognate).  I vaguely remember seeing this same character somewhere before, but there's no way of tracking it down now unless I went through every page again.  (Because of this, I've started transcribing the original German text into Google Documents, so I can search them if I need to.)

The sentence describing what the stranger is wearing ("A silk skirt, which shimmered in all colors...") seems to alternate between clauses and a list.  I simply tried to translate it faithfully; that it reads oddly isn't my fault.

My dictionary translates "Meuchelmorde" as "treacherous killing," which I found oddly specific.  Since it also lists Meuchelmörder as murderer or assassin, I translated "Meuchelmorde" simply as "assassination."

Instead of breaking up sentences into clauses, like I had been doing, I translated a whole sentence every day, so this month's installment might be a bit longer than previous ones.  I'm going to try to continue this in the future.

Month 48: Pages 63-64

This Month's Installment

What's italicized is what I'm unsure about:

Slowly and peacefully the waves came in, something dreamlike, soporific was in them.  Against the white of their crests that shone as if it were made up of pure snowflakes, it stood out from the extensive, almost reddish dunes.
     The promenades and paths that laid there lonely for days were filled with a constantly growing stream of people.  One had not seen Zoppot so full on a weekday and on top of that before the real main-time.  Certainly, one had to make up for his long deprivation.
     Even Hans was among the people out on a walk.  Leisurely he strolled along the promenade, heard in the Kur Garden from the excellent choir a rhapsody by Liszt and a dance by Brahms, and walkt far along the sea-built bridge, the biggest and most beautiful that he could remember seeing in a seaside resort.  All around him giving and taking looks, greeting and chatting, laughing and flirting without end.  And the music played the accompaniment to it, and the waves murmured their eternal song.
     He didn't look to the right and left; full of quiet delight he breathed the fresh forest fragrance that rose from the sea and whose fruity breeze pierced the soul, so to speak.
     All of a sudden, however, he was snatched from his happy contemplation.  Under the people who had up until now moved up and down the bridge with such cheerful ease, something wonderful appeared to happen.  The stream gathered, stopt short, 

---63---

people stood still formed groups, spoke lively to one another, shook their heads, made furious motions and gestures.

Grammatical Commentary/Minutiae

I translated "Hauptzeit" as "main-time," which is what my dictionary said, but I'm not sure it really fits this context.

I translated "frischen Waldduft" so that it becomes alliterative ("fresh forest fragrance") to give a lingual impression of the "delight" ("Entzückens") mentioned earlier in that sentence.

I don't know if this is intended to be similar, but "in die Seele drang" (which I translated as "pierced the soul") uses the same words as Luther's translation of Luke 2:35: "und auch durch deine Seele wird ein Schwert dringen..." ("and a sword will pierce through your own soul also...").

Because I'm translating this piecemeal and because I'm not familiar with the story and don't know the larger context of what's going on, some of my word choices might later prove unsuitable.  At the end of this section, something precipitous starts to happen and is described as "Wunderbares," which I translated as "wonderful."  In reaction to this, people make "heftige Bewegungen und Gesten" ("furious motions and gestures").  These don't seem to go together, but I can't amend my translation until I get further along in the story and learn what this event is.

Month 47: Pages 62-63

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized sections are what I'm unsure about:

There were contradictions in this face and in this appearance that he couldn't rightly make sense of.  He had admittedly never particularly had a way with the nature of women.
     "Now a little life will finally come into the waste land," she said, "there wasn't even anything more to endure.  They probably played in the casino, but with the weather who felt like going there!  And there is nothing to see on the promenades and the bridges but gray, wrapt up figures and gruff faces!"
     He hardly heard her.  He was still completely lost in the sight of this wonderful nature that was just as lovely as tremendous.  She didn't challenge it.
     "Have you seen the crown princess already?  No?  Me neither, not yet.  But she's been here for weeks already.  She is often here now.  The Zoppot people have given her a cottage, one can hardly call it a castle.  There on the mountain, above the furthest north beach - no, from here you can't see it.  She lives there and goes for a drive every day... in the car or with her four-in-hand... I have waited for her a few times before, in spite of the rain; but she didn't come.  And I would like so much to see her once, I'd give anything for it!"
     Her face developed an increased radiance.  "Do you hear?  Music!  The Kurkappelle is giving its morning concert.  I have to go there.  There are still two hours until lunch.  I will change my clothes.  Bye, Pastor!" 

---62---

     The beautiful weather had worked its effect.  So long one had waited for it, now it had appeared in that sudden turn that one could so often observe here by the sea.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I find it interesting that in the sentence "There were contradictions..." there's a grammatical contradiction.  The original text reads: "Es waren Widersprüche...," which is literally "It were contradictions...."  There's a singular subject (Es) and a plural verb (waren).

I'm not exactly sure of the sense of "She didn't challenge it."  I don't know if this means that this woman doesn't interrupt Hans' looking at nature or that she doesn't compare to its beauty.  I kept my translation a bit ambiguous because I don't know which way to go with it.

I kept "Kurkapelle" as Kurkapelle.  Since kapelle means choir (cf. Bach's title of Kapellmeister), it seems that Kurkapelle is the Kur Choir.  This lookt odd though, and since it's a proper name (I think), I just kept it in the original German.

This is also the end of chapter ten!  (I fell behind a few days, otherwise, I could have posted the finished chapter on Monday.)

Month 46: Pages 61-62

This Month's Installment

As always, what's italicized is what I'm unsure about:

He spoke of his home, he told her about Bärwalde, also about Rodenburg.  Now she became more attentive; now and then she interrupted him with a question about their soil conditions and their location that showed her interest in the places that were dear to him.

     But all of a sudden she was no longer listening.  "The sun!" she shouted.  "Look, the sun!"

     A golden, long not seen stream of light broke through the window across the room and filled the big room with its warm, soft shine.

     They had stept into the clear.

     Slowly the elms began to be revealed, in sharply outlined [goldgeränderten] lines the hills emerged, first the Adlershorster, then also the farther Ozhöfter.  To the wide sea there lay, released from all the gray haze and all oppressive pressure, the sunshine, glorious as on the first day.

     "Wonderful!" Hans said, lost in devotions.  He had always loved the sea, and through all of these rain-heavy days felt an irresistible longing to see it in its glowing color and the gleaming play of its light as it showed itself now from flashing silver gray all the way down to deep, steel blue that shimmered over there against the almost black horizon.

     "Very beautiful!" the young girl at his side replied.  But the bright enthusiasm that it had seized with the first breakthrough of the sun already appeared [verloht].  Here in the open, in the incorruptible light of the day, he saw that she wasn't quite as young as he had estimated her at first sight in the hall.  Something hard lay in her profile and around her mouth was a 

---61---

peculiar, almost shifty feature whose sharpness even the radiant, cherry-red lips could not redeem.  But the saucy snub nose with freckles on it gave her again something youthful, almost childlike.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I'm not sure if "Sie waren ins Freie getreten" is meant to be taken literally or not.  I translated it as "They had stept into the clear," but it might be more metaphorical, referring to the sun's shining through the clouds again.

The only comment I have this month is that I'm assuming Adlershorster and Ozhöfter to be geographical names.  At first, I translated Adlershorster as eyries, but when I couldn't find a translation for Ozhöfter, I reconsidered this and left it as it was.

Month 45: Pages 60-61

This Month's Installment

He noticed it immediately; so sure was she in her moves, that she made them seemingly mechanically and more in passing, meanwhile she continued chatting, undisturbed.  "You are a priest, I am a governess, that is a type of relationship.  Otherwise I wouldn't even approach you so easily.  You are from East Prussia, close to the Russian border.  Right?  I read it in the guest book... no, I shouldn't keep talking, you can't pay attention at the same time... stop!  Now you are lost.  You can move as you want, there's nothing more to do... look here:  checkmate!  Here's how you should have moved: the queen, and then here..."
     And with a small, white hand, in which everything lived, and on whose gold finger a big ruby glowed, she showed him the moves that would have been able to save him.  Even now he wasn't concentrating; she felt that he had no inclination for a second match, she didn't seem too keen on it either, she liked to be used to better players.  With a slight movement, she pushed the board from herself, leaned back in her wicker chair, took a little tobacco in tissue paper out of a small silver box, wound a cigarette with a fast talent, and lit it.
     "Now it's your turn.  Tell me about your life, please."
     He tried to.  But the words didn't quite come to his lips.  She wasn't even listening with very great enthusiasm; her legs wrapt over one an-other with casual grace, she squinted at her feet, whose delicate build couldn't be hidden by the strong

---60---

shoes she chose for this weather.

Grammatical Minutiae

I think I've translated "Jetzt sind Sie verloren" correctly as "Now you are lost" rather than "Now you have lost."  I know there's a group of words in German that use a form of sein instead of haben in the perfect tenses ("Ich bin gegangen," for example), but I don't think verlieren is one of them.

I've noticed before that the text uses commas rather than semi-colons to separate clauses.  Especially in this installment, this caused some difficulty.  I'm not sure whether to follow the grammatically confusing original and preserve this proclivity or amend this in some way, either by breaking up the clauses into individual sentences (which would probably seem too choppy) or replace all of these commas with semi-colons (which would result in extremely long sentences).  For now, I retained most of the commas, but I did replace a few with semi-colons in order to aid in comprehension.

Like some other sentences I've encountered earlier, there are so many elements in "With a slight movement..." that I'm not sure I have them in the smoothest order.  I'll also admit that "with a fast talent" isn't the best translation of "mit schnellem Geschick," but I couldn't come up with anything better.

I smoothed out "Aber die Worte kamen ihm nicht recht von den Lippen," although perhaps I shouldn't have.  Literally, it's "But the words came to him not right from the lips" ("right" in the sense of "correctly"), but I translated it as "But the words didn't quite come to his lips."  Maybe it's just that German isn't my first language, but the original seems a bit awkward to me.  Since Hans is having trouble finding his words, though, this awkwardness might be intentional.

Like "With a slight movement..." there were a lot of elements to include in "She wasn't even listening...."  I flipt the voice of the relative clauses "deren zierlicher Bau auch die starken Schuhe, die sie für dieses Wetter gewählt, nicht verbargen" so instead of the literal (and awkward) "whose delicate build even the strong shoes, that she for this weather chose, didn't hide" in active voice, I have the smoother "whose delicate build couldn't be hidden by the strong shoes she chose for this weather" in passive voice.

Month 44: Pages 59-60

This Month's Installment

What's italicized is what I'm unsure about:

She had freed and set in place her dark hair from the felt hat, whose only ornamentation was a bold feather.
     "You play chess.  I can tell by looking at you, one can tell by looking at all people.  In the same way that you are a priest."
     "I've always been told that I don't look like a priest at all."
     "On the contrary!  From the first glance.  Certainly, you wear a light gray suit, also your beard is secular.  But it is something in your movements, in your bearing, that betrays your profession.  Yester-day evening I saw it right away."
     "Yester-day evening?  I don't remember noticing you there."
     "I believe that.  I was here in the social room and made my studies through the open door.  There's certainly nothing else to do now.  You sat directly across from me, and I said to myself: officer?  No, his face is too pallid for that.  Farmer?  Same reason.  Businessman or civil servant?  Too much of the cerebral in his features.  Artist or author?  Too civilly proper.  So, priest."
     "You seem to spend a lot of time with people."
     "I get around the world a lot; I observed quite a few people there; I - well, didn't you agree to a game?"
     She had taken the game board out of a closet, distributed the pieces that she set up

---59---

and made the first move.  Everything went so quickly that he, without really knowing it, was all of a sudden in the most enthusiastic match.  She was a master at the game.

Grammatical Minutiae

I flipt the voices of the verbs in both clauses of the sentence "Man hat mir sonst immer gesagt, daß man mir den Geistlichen gar nicht ansieht" so they're passive instead of active.  "I've always been told..." seems more natural than "One has always told me...."  I'm not even sure how I would render the second clause with an active verb.  (My dictionary doesn't provide a translation of ansehen with quite the same sense that it's used with here, which complicated things.)  Maybe something like "one can't tell at all by looking at me that I'm a priest."  It's unwieldy, and "that I don't look like a priest at all" flows much better.

I've mentioned this before, but I still don't really know how to translate "doch," even though I understand the sense.  I translated "Doch, doch!  Auf den ersten Blick" as "On the contrary!  From the first glance," and I feel that I have to justify a few things about this.  I included only one of the "doch"s and translated it as "on the contrary."  Having this twice ("On the contrary, on the contrary!") is unnatural and seemed like overkill.  As something in the way of compensation for omitting one of the "doch"s, I exaggerated my translation of "Blick."  Instead of simply "look," I translated it as "glance."  Hopefully, this conveys something of the same impact of the double "doch" in the original.

I took the indefinite pronoun out of "Man hat jetzt ja nichts andres zu tun" so instead of a more literal translation ("One certainly has nothing else to do now"), I translated it as "There's certainly nothing else to do now."  It's a more natural rendering.

Month 43: Pages 58-59

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

     When he got up the next morning, the same gurgling rain trickling; the sea, of which he had an extensive view from out of his window, no longer so violently rough as on the last night, but almost murkier and gloomier, as a bored monster stretching itself out, enveloped the protruding coasts in thick fog.
  He was the only one in the breakfast hall, it appeared no other had gotten up so late.  Now he proceeded to the hall.  As if they hadn't gone to sleep at all, so sat the same people with the same tired expressions exactly in the same place.  Now and then one or an-other probably got up, went to the weather indicator that stood by the entry door, examined, tapped, shook his head, and turned disgruntledly as he came back to his place.
  "Maybe you would play a game of chess?"
  Hans had just withdrawn into the big social room and - undecided as to how he should kill time on this depressing morning - started to leaf through a few magazines when a soft, pleasant voice struck his ear.  Before him stood a young lady, small and delicately built, in a greenish-gray, fur-garnished jacket that fit close and tightly around her radiant body; on her head she wore a felt hat of the same color, under it waved her thick, deep-black hair, in which a few raindrops had gotten caught,

---58---

on both sides over her pale-brownish, sharply-cut forehead.  "I was just about to go outside for a little bit," she went on, without waiting for a reply.  "But it is impossible.  And here inside, one goes to waste out of boredom."

Interesting Words I Happened Upon

• die Siebenhügelstadt - City of the Seven Hills (Rome)
• die Siebensachen (pl.) - (all one's) things [I'm assuming that this is related to the Biblical idea of seven as a number of completeness]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I couldn't do much to change the unwieldy descriptions that separate the subject from the verb in the clause "the sea... enveloped the protruding coasts...."  It's that way in the original German too, and since I translated it in sections, I myself got confused.

I translated "Spielen Sie vielleicht eine Partie Schach?" as "Maybe you would play a game of chess?" even though it's literally "Maybe you play a game of chess?"  The verb is just an indicative, but there's something of a conditional in the question.

This could have gone under "Interesting Words I Happened Upon," but I'm sticking it down here because it's actually in the text.  Blättern means to leaf through, and it seems to be etymologically related to das Blatt, the word for leaf.  So that's nice.