Month 5: Pages 9-10

This Week's Installment

As usual, the italicized parts are things I'm unsure about:

But that’s only the introduction.”
     “And then?”
     “I take my discharge - it appears it doesn’t please you.”
     “I allow myself no opinion.  But it is not completely understandable for me.”
     A shadow flew over his face.  “And I believed no one would understand it like you.”
     “Maybe, if you give me time to resign myself to it - to-day it’s a little strange for me.  You’ve already called me slow once.”
     An old memory seemed to awake in him; he smiled.  “Do you believe that it’s become so light for me?  Our dispositions are not so dissimilar.  I have wrestled with the decision long enough; now it is irrevocable.”
     “Even now, when you are promoted and are called to Berlin in the general staff.”
     “That’s exactly why I’m going.”  And when she fell silent:  "One overestimates my abilities.  I can only thrive and work in the fresh air, in nature, on the horse that flies through fields and forests.  The sedentary occupation, the work in the narrow room is nothing for me.”
     “You have your service.  One would take your wishes into account; father said it only yesterday.”
     “He is wrong.  In the military career, there are no wishes, 

---9--- 

but rather only obeying.  One decides the place for us; we don’t choose it.  And it is properly so.  I want to be my own man and make a life for myself, as it corresponds to my idiosyncrasy, so nothing remains for me except going.”
     A secret darkness crept over the paths.  Under the trees, it had become cool.  A star flashed.

Interesting German Words I Ran Across

• das Schnauferl - jalopy [I find this interesting only because it seems to come from schnaufen - to breathe hard; to wheeze; to chug (along).]
• ich spür's im Urin - I've got a gut feeling about it [But literally: I feel it in [my] urine.]
• der Benjamin - the youngest, the baby [The entry for this includes "F," which indicates "familiar" or "colloquial."  I'm assuming this is related to the Biblical Benjamin, who was the youngest of the twelve sons of Israel.]

While confirming the plural of der Baum (die Bäume, although the text has - in dative - den Bäumen), I ran across bebrillt (spectacled), which obviously comes from die Brille (glasses, spectacles).  But I also discovered that die Brille can also mean toilet seat.  There's also "etwas durch eine schwarze Brille betrachten," which my dictionary translates as "to take a gloomy view of something," but which literally is "to look at something through black glasses."  In a way, it's opposite but similar to the English phrase "look at something through rose-colored glasses," although my dictionary also directs me to rosa (pink), under which that English phrase appears in German as "die Dinge durch eine rosa (rote) Brille sehen."

And while looking up die Brille, I also found brr, which doesn't indicate chilliness, as the English brr does, but rather whoa! or ugh!.

Grammatical Minutiae

I don't understand why the word for "strange" is capitalized in "heute ist es mir etwas Fremdes" ("to-day it's a little strange for me"). That capitalization seems to indicate that it's a substantive adjective ("it's a strange [thing]"), but a predicate adjective would provide the same meaning and wouldn't require capitalization.

I can't seem to wrap my head around "Eben jetzt, wo du befördert und nach Berlin in den Generalstab berufen bist."  I'm unsure of the verb forms (they seem to be passive), and it doesn't make sense to me as an indicative sentence.  Were the period a question mark, it would make more sense, but I'm hesitant to assert that it's a mere typographical error that's impeding my comprehension.

I have a lot to say about "Ich kann nur gedeihen und wirken in der frischen Luft, in der Natur, auf dem Pferde, das durch Felder und Wälder fliegt," which I translated as "I can only thrive and work in the fresh air, in nature, on the horse that flies through fields and forests."

• I'm not certain of the placement of "only."  There's a difference between "I can only thrive and work in the fresh air..." and "I can thrive and work only in the fresh air...."  The word order of the German seems to suggest the first (and I followed that), but the second makes more sense grammatically.
• "Auf dem Pferde" seems to exhibit a grammatical change between German as of 1916 and current German.  My dictionary tells me that "Pferde" is actually the plural, but the sentence makes it clear that it's singular.  So sometime the form of Pferd evidently changed.
• This isn't specific to German, but "auf dem Pferde, das durch..." got me thinking about the similar function of the definite pronoun (dem / the) and relative clauses ("das durch..." / "that flies through...").  Both provide more information about the noun that they modify.
• I'm glad that "That flies through fields and forests" exhibits alliteration because it helps to emphasize what Warsow is saying about nature.  That's where he thrives, and - accordingly - the words have a harmonious relationship.

I don't know how "der" functions in "Man würde deinen Wünschen Rechnung tragen, der Vater meinte es gestern erst."  Based on the structure, it seems to be a relative pronoun, but I can't come up with a meaning that employs a relative pronoun.  For now, I just left it out; my translation is: "One would take your wishes into account; father said it only yesterday."  That makes sense on its own, but because I didn't use that "der" in my translation, I'm dubious that it's the correct sense.

Like last month, I ran across an-other fortuitously-placed page break.  It's in the sentence "In the military career, there are no wishes, but rather only obeying."  It divides "Wünschen" (wishes), almost to reflect the lack of wishes typographically.  It's as if the word itself can't stand intact.  I'd rather not put page breaks in the middle of words, so I put it after "wishes," but that still achieves a similar effect by separating "wishes" and "but rather only obeying."  Before the page break, there's the thing that isn't present, and after the page break (on the start of page ten), there's the thing that's prevalent.

I might have translated "Will ich mein eigner Herr sein und mir ein Dasein zimmern, wie es meiner Eigenart entspricht, so bliebt mir nichts als das Gehen" incorrectly.  It seems to be an indicative sentence because there's a period at the end, but the word order at the beginning (leading with the verb) usually indicates a question.

Month 4: Pages 7-9

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

Fritz Warsow went to Frau Lisa’s side.  The warm air shook in the fragrance of the spring flowers, and a little of the moon was already there: a very thin crescent, it hung pallid and milk-white over the jagged tops of the trees.  Something safe and calm went out from the retiring day, and the sky was a play of glowing and fading colors.  From the courtyard sounded the low of the cows and also now and then out of the stables the whinny of a horse.  Everything was silence and peace. 

---7--- 

     “Only in the country can one have such a thing,” said Fritz Warsow, and with a sigh of release and relief, this came out of a genuine heart:  “Here one is really a man again!”
     Frau Lisa was not completely of his opinion; she also loved the country, but she loved it as a person who has not grown close with it: more from a distance, like a pleasant play that one watches for a few hours.  But in the soul one is not gripped and deeply moved by it; of his loosened secrets and his deep creative power one has never discovered something, and his breath has not penetrated a heart.  She did not contradict, yet she took the next real opportunity to sing in her lovely eloquence a song of praise to the city, that the active powers of men in the gathering with the other are in the happy contest of work and desire more roused than the quiet country.
     He let her speak and had his silent pleasure at her effervescent enthusiasm.  But he had his mind on other things.  As he went all alone through this wonderful evening, he gave himself to the abundance of his impressions and to the gentle magic, and out of each patch, every shrub spoke to him.
     As they turned into the park another couple came towards them:  Edith at the side of Uechteritz, who talked on the [Stillere] in his cheerful soldierly way.  Soon they had changed places, and no one appeared dissatisfied with the exchange.  Fritz now went with Edith, and Frau Lisa’s bright laugh sounded to them like bright bird twittering while she lost herself in the depth of the park.  At the trunk of an old copper beech whose branches reached low toward the earth,

---8--- 

Edith stopped:  “Is it true, Fritz, really true?”
     He understood her immediately.  “Yes,” he said, “it is true.  Still, I’ve spoken about it with no one.  But you want to have a right to hear about it.”
     “You’re going?”
     “I submitted my application yesterday.  First the usual leave for half a year or longer.

Interesting German words I found by happenstance:

• der Zögerer - procrastinator, ditherer [Mostly, I found this interesting because it's related to zögern (to hesitate, to waver) and zögerlich (hesitating, halting).]
• der Frevel - sacrilege; blasphemy [Like I mentioned before, my German-English dictionary doesn't contain etymologies, but I'm wondering if this is related to revel.]
• igittigitt - ugh!; yuk!

My German-English dictionary translates "scheidenden" as "out-going," but since "went out" is the verb in the same sentence, I derived my translation of "scheidenden" from the verb form (scheiden).  So I have "went out from the retiring day" instead of "went out from the out-going day," which seems somewhat redundant.

I was a bit dubious about my dictionary's translation of "das Brüllen."  It gave only "roar," so my sentence had "the roar of the cows."  I looked up "low" in the English section and discovered that it also translates to "das Brüllen."  Lowing cows seem more appropriate than roaring cows.

I had a few problems with one of the characteristically-long German clauses.  I think my word order is OK, but I'm not sure what "mit den andern" means in this context (I translated it as "with the other," but it doesn't seem to make much sense).  I had to supply an "are" for the clause to make sense, and I didn't find a direct translation of "wachrufe," which I translated as "roused."

For the first time, I've run across a word I can't seem to translate.  Stillere isn't in my dictionary, and I'm dubious about Google Translate's saying that it's quieter.  It's capitalized in the text, so it's a noun, but quieter is an adjective.  Even if it's a substantive adjective, it doesn't fit into the context:  Uechteritz is talking about "quieter [things]" in a "cheerful soldierly way"?

I'm sort of confused about "Lachen" in "Frau Lisas helles Lachen klang."  From the context, it's fairly obvious that it's laugh, but my dictionary says that Lache is a feminine word (a die word) that doesn't have any other endings (the plural is the same form: Lache).  There is an-other sense of Lache (pool, puddle) that does have an -n in the plural form (Lachen), but that doesn't fit the context and plurals take die anyway (in this case [nominative] at least).  From what the text has, it looks like in 1916, Lache had an -n at the end and was a neuter word (a das word).

In my translation, I've been trying to put the page breaks in places that are comparable to where they are in the original German setting.  The break between pages eight and nine is great in that it really does stop between "At the trunk..." and "Edith stopped."  The first words on page nine are "blieb Edith stehen."  It's weird how that page break is in such an appropriate place.

Month 3: Pages 5-7

As usual, the italicized sections are those that I'm unsure about:

“I had completely forgotten it,” this one retorted.
     “Yes, your wager!” it rang from several sides over to him.
     “A year ago I had bet with Ms. von Barrnhof, as I had forgotten her birthday in an irresponsible way, that at the next recurrence of this day I would be there, even if I had to ride the distance from my garrison 

---5--- 

into your dining hall.”
     “And have won brilliantly!” shouted the fiery mayor’s wife, and her cheeks blossomed like the red carnations on her breast.  Such an adventure and rider-trick, that was to her liking!  What she had still wished and what she was actually missing was that Fritz Warsow had not literally fought out his wager and had galloped into the middle of the dining room with his comrade.  And had they ridden the whole table into the ground and floor besides!  The falling table and the jangling pieces of broken glass - it would have been a proper Rhenish carnival, and that was the only thing that she had by all acculturation and settling-in been without in the sober north and had not pardoned this up to present days.
     But the old Reckenstein citizen also smiled contentedly to himself there.  He liked the bit.  He had always liked Fritz.  He himself had been a soldier with body and soul, and he had taken part in all practices more than ten years ago.  Then he had had to stop.  But he had been awarded the title “major” and was proud of it.  “And when it comes down to it, I am the first who takes part - against the Russians the best!” he was in the habit to say.
     “How long have you been en route, captain?” Frau Lisa turned herself anew to Fritz, and her cheerful eye full of pleasure smiled at him.
     “Eight hours, madam, not including the short midday rest.  But in the end we have really ridden like the devil; I don’t know whether the hunger or the longing drove us.” 

---6--- 

     Edith knew him otherwise only seriously, so much the more she liked his funny nature and the fresh humor that suited him well.  In the eyes, he was not a falling phenomenon, rather of stocky, almost small figure, but in his face was a trait of strength and energy, and his gaze was both clever and good.
     Now Mrs. von Ubitzsch pulled him into a very thorough interrogation.  Patiently, he withstood her a while, then he broke off a little abruptly and took part in the funny banter that his friend Uechteritz had started up with two young landed ladies from the neighborhood.  But with little enthusiasm; he liked pretty girls, but the actual society and the light tone that it required was not his thing.  The strength and masculinity of his personality combined with a certain timidity, during which he became a difficult gentleman.
     It had become quieter at the table.  From the garden sounded, not as loud and swelling as before, but still with a sweet euphony, the music of the bird that sang the hymn of love and courtly love.  Was it jubilation or sadness?
     One had not sat for long at the table; the garden there outside tempted.

Interesting German words I discovered by happenstance:

• die Ilias - Iliad [I found this interesting mostly because I’m currently reading The Iliad, but - since I’m also re-learning Latin - I looked up The Iliad in Latin.  It’s also Ilias and also feminine (I think it’s third declension, but in reviewing, I’m only up to second declension, so I’ll refrain from venturing anything).]
• etepetete - la-di-da; fussy; squeamish
• üppig - luxuriant, opulent  [there’s also die Üppigkeit - luxuriance, opulence]
• pendeln - to swing; to oscillate [I thought this interesting because it seems to be related to pendulum, the German word for which is das Pendel.]

While looking up unterwegs (just to confirm I knew what I meant), I ran into die Untertasse (saucer), which I thought fairly interesting because it’s literally “under cup.”  Following this, there was an arrow pointing to fliegend.  I knew that fliegend means flying, but it was until I referenced fliegend that I put flying and saucer together and realized that fliegende Untertasse is flying saucer.  It was one of those learn-a-foreign-language-in-order-to-understand-your-own-better moments.  I don't think I'd ever connected the flying saucer appellation to tea ware.

While confirming that Teufel means devil (although it’s feminine in the text [“wie die Teufel”] and masculine in my dictionary [der Teufel]; also, I find it odd that the German idiom “weiß der Teufel” is equivalent to “God knows” in English), I ran across a bunch of wallpaper-related words:  die Tapete (wallpaper), die Tapetentür (concealed door), tapezieren (to wallpaper, to decorate).  These all appeared to be related to tapestry.  Unfortunately, my German-English dictionary doesn’t contain any etymologies (I’ve been vainly seeking a “pure” German dictionary that would have them), but I looked up tapestry on Merriam-Webster, and I discovered that it comes from the Greek: “tapētion, diminutive of tapēt-, tapēs carpet.”  While I don’t know the etymology of the German Tapete, I’d bet that it’s related to that Greek word.

Looking up das Verhör (interrogation), I came across vergriffen.  It’s the past participle of vergriefen (sich ~ - to make a mistake; sich ~ an - to attack, to assault), but as an adjective, it means out-of-print, which is really interesting.  It sort of equates being out-of-print with making a mistake or an attack.

There’s a lot to talk about with the sentence that bridges pages five and six.  Warsow says, “bei der nächsten Wiederkehr,” and I can’t tell whether this is supposed to redundant or not.  Nächst is next, and Wiederkehr is return or recurrence, so it’s “at the next recurrence.”  “At the next occurrence” makes more sense, but - since I’m not too keen on this Warsow character already - I’m wondering whether it’s meant to be redundant in order to show that he’s not that smart of a guy.

I’m not too confident on my translation of the second part of that sentence:  “und wenn ich von meiner Garnison aus in einer Strecke bis in Ihren Eßsaal hineinreiten müßte.”  My German-English dictionary tells me that “wenn auch” or “selbst wenn” is “even if.”  There isn’t an auch or a selbst in this sentence (although there is an und [and], which is similar to auch [also]), but I don’t think it makes sense without an even.  There are also so many prepositions that I don’t know what to do with them all.  There’s von, aus, in, bis, in, and hinein.  I left a lot out to get a smoother translation, but I have some doubts about it:  “even if I had to ride the distance from my garrison into your dining hall.”  I wasn’t quite sure how to translate Eßsaal either.  Initially, I’d thought dining room, but I wanted to check.  Eßsaal isn’t in the German section of my dictionary, but looking up dining|~ gave me der Speisesaal (dining hall) and das Eßzimmer (dining room).  So I cobbled Eß- (dining-) and -saal (-hall) together to get dining hall.

"Ausgefochten" provided some troubles (especially because I thought at first that it was ausgesochten).  After some fruitless looking in my German-English dictionary, I just typed it into Google Translate, which gave me “fought.”  Then (because Google Translate said, “See fechten”) I realized that it’s a verb that changes its vowel in past tense.  I looked up ausfechten in my dictionary to confirm this, but the only translation it provides is to fight out, which doesn’t seem to fit the context very well (“Warsow had not literally fought out his wager”).

Tafel and Tisch were in two sequential sentences, which made me realize that I know two German words for table.  It’s easy to come up with synonyms in English, but I’d never really thought about doing it in German, to the point that I didn’t even know that I knew two words for table.

I couldn’t find an entry for Eingewöhnung in my German-English dictionary, but I did find die Eingewöhnungszeit (settling-in period).  Since Zeit is the word for time, I just chopped that off and translated Eingewöhnung as settling-in.

“Ihr frohes Auge lachte ihm voller Wohlgefallen entgegen” gave me some problems, mostly with regard to word order.  I can’t tell whether “voller Wohlgefallen” (“full of pleasure,” I think) is meant to describe Lisa (or, more specifically, her eye) or Fritz, whom she’s talking to.  I also just had regular word choice problems here.  I don’t understand why “Auge” is singular (Lisa looks at him with just one eye?), “lachte” can mean both “laughed” and “smiled,” and I’m not sure what to do with “entgegen” (provided I understand what’s going on, I don’t think I need “against” in my translation).  I translated the whole clause as “her cheerful eye full of pleasure smiled at him.”

Even though I’m two months into this project, I’m still wary of adding too many words to create a more mellifluous English translation.  So this is just a note to say that I supplied the “whether” in “I don’t know whether the hunger or the longing drove us.”  The original text has “ich weiß nicht, trieb uns der Hunger oder die Sehnsucht,” literally “I don’t know, drove us the hunger or the longing.”  It doesn’t make sense to me without whether or if, but there isn’t an ob in the text there.

“Eine Weile hielt er ihr geduldig stand” stumped me for a while.  I didn’t understand why there were both “hielt” and “stand.”  Why were there two verbs?  “Held” and “stood”?  I could understand what was going on by the context of the rest of the sentence, so I tried supplying my own verb.  Withstand seemed to fit, so I looked that up in the English section of my German-English dictionary, and then I found standhalten.  I’d thought there were two verbs, but it was just a separable-prefix verb!

I got the right idea in translating “Das Kräftige und Männliche seines Wesens,” but I don’t think I have it the same grammatically.  I translated “das Kräftige und Männliche” as “the strength and masculinity,” but I think both “Kräftige” and “Männliche” are substantive adjectives.  Die Männlichkeit (ironically feminine) is the word for masculinity; männlich is the adjective.  Similarly, die Kraft is the word for strength or force; kräftig is strong or powerful.  But since they’re capitalized in the text and have -e endings, I’m fairly certain that they’re substantives.  So “the strong and masculine [things] of his personality….”  That sounds a bit weird in English though, so I went with straight nouns.

My German-English dictionary doesn’t contain “Wohllaut.”  I pieced it together to get “good-sound,” but Google Translate gave me “euphony.”  Looking up euphony in my dictionary provided der Wohlklang, which is fairly close, so I went with euphony.  The rest of that sentence doesn’t translate very well.  The “euphony” is a bird’s singing “das Hohelied der Liebe und Minne.”  Die Liebe (in genitive case here) is love, and die Minne is courtly love, but “the hymn of love and courtly love” doesn’t have the balance that “der Liebe und Minne” has.

I was dissatisfied with my dictionary’s translation of Jubel (cheering; rejoicing) because it seems to share the same root as jubilation.  So I looked up jubilation in the English section and found that it does indeed translate to der Jubel.  This is something I only recently started thinking about (mostly because I didn’t understand why my Latin textbook kept translating periculum as danger, even though peril is a directly related word), and I think that if there’re words that share etymological roots between the two languages (the original and the language to which the text is being translated), that relation should be honored and particular words preferred accordingly.

I might regret this later, but I translated “der Garten… lockte” as “the garden... tempted,” to include a sort of Edenic overtone.  Locken can also be translated as to lure, to call, or to bait.

Month 2: Pages 3-5

I normally write these piece-meal throughout the month, but on the 10th, I lost everything I'd written (aside from the translation itself, which I hand-write and then type up), so this is reconstructed from what I remember (haply, in re-writing one of the points of commentary, I realized that it was ill-founded, so there was that benefit).

At the beginning of the month, I effected a slight change in my procedure.  I'd been translating a sentence everyday, but since German sentences have a tendency to be rather long, I decided to start splitting them up into their constituent clauses if there's a colon or semi-colon.  Eventually, I started doing this with dialogue and speech tags too, if the speech tags were lengthy.

Here's what I translated this month (as usual, italicized sections are things I'm unsure about):

And that is good; the permanently-at-home and native woman who is rooted in the home and active in it is for me the strongest and most efficient.  We are glad that our youthful hostess found here in her beautiful, East Prussian home, which for a series of years I have also been proud and happy to call mine, a field of rich efficacy and abundance-bringing work on the clod of her ancestors.  That she have her activity fulfilled - this that survives her together in those lucky narrow and width, as she fulfilled them to the welfare of her father, his righteous girl, and all people who work in Reckenstein, until now with her sense full of the joys of life: that is my wish for her birthdays.  Then I ask you to raise your glasses with me and let them crash in a cheerful and strong huzzah for Miss Edith von Barrnhoff!” 

---3--- 

  “Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah!” it rang from against the company at the table.  But it was a dull, almost distracted echo.  Before the last saying of the speakers had found no more attention, a different sound had mixed itself into them, first from the distance, then coming closer and closer:  the sound of horseshoes, that hit the road of the approach with a hurrying trot, and now - “That is really the limit!” shouted the Reckenstein citizen and with his face burning with anger jumped up from his chair.  “They’re riding in my garden!”
  “In our garden?” Edith now also asked.  “That is outrageous!”
  But before she or her father could step out into the open, over the small thorn-hedge, placed to separate the garden from the yard, in a short gallop, two horsemen in the smart officer’s uniform of the cuirassiers had galloped over the path, raked with more special care in honor of the present day, and suddenly stopped the horses, dropping with sweat, directly in front of the wood steps that lead up to the garden veranda.  And still not enough, now with some doing they forced the well-practiced horses up the small steps, and before the society - who had without exception risen from the cosy evening table, recovered from their astonishment - they stood with their horses up on the veranda.  “Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah!” they shouted, with the right arm raised, ten times as powerful than even the whole table company had first managed it, and once again: “Huzzah for the birthday girl!”
  That all was the work of a moment; it had some so quickly and unexpectedly that no one knew how it actually happened and what this inexplicable invasion was supposed to mean. 

---4--- 

  “Fritz Warsow!” one heard Edith’s bright voice then, and, bursting out in a merry, happy laugh, she held out her hand toward one of the two riders.  That one had already dismounted, greeted, and returned her heartfelt handshakes.  Then he walked up to the old Reckenstein citizen:  “Pardon this ambush, major, but I had to win my wager.  And allow me to introduce to you and to the ladies and gentlemen, my comrade, Mr. von Uechteritz, who has accompanied me as a flawless witness and to whom I have often praised your hospitality.”
  That one also had long since gotten out of the saddle; a stable boy, who came running up, received the steaming horses and led them into the stable.  “However able to run down and to feed well, they have achieved something!” Fritz Warsow shouted after him and proceeded with his comrade to a room to let, in order to prepare himself for the table after the difficult ride.
  Very soon they turned back and took the places cleared away for them, Mr. von Uechteritz between the two orphaned owner’s daughters, Fritz Warsow between Edith and Mrs. Stoltzmann.
  “But your wager, captain!” shouted the Reckenstein citizen from the opposite side of the table.  “Edith never told me a word about it.”

Fun German words and phrases I found (or at least those that I remember finding) while looking up other words:

• der Rösselsprung - knight’s move [in chess]
• der I-Punkt - dot over the i; bis auf den ~ - down to the last detail
• man kann nicht auf zwei Hochzeiten tanzen - you can’t be in more than once place at the same time [literally: one can’t dance at two weddings]
• kreiseln - to play with a top; to spin around [I found it interesting how this relates to der Kreis - circle]

In the English section of my German-English dictionary, I ran across setaceous, which I didn’t know.  It means “set with or consisting of bristles”.  In German, borstig.
Also while in the English section, I discovered that in German rumrunner is das Alkoholschmuggler, which is not as much fun to say.

The mayor forces himself into the middle of his compliment to Edith.  Between “her beautiful, East Prussian home” and “a field of rich efficacy,” he adds his own claim that “for a series of years I have also been proud and happy to call [it] mine.”  It reminded me of Claudius’ speech in Hamlet when he announces his marriage to Gertrude:

Therefore our sometime sister, now our Queen,
Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we--as 'twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dole in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole--
Taken to wife. (I.ii.8-14)

David Scott Kastan points out in "Words, Words, Words: Understanding Shakespeare's Language,” which is in most (if not all) of the Barnes & Noble editions of Shakespeare’s plays, that Claudius’ weird syntax demonstrates his discomfort.  He doesn’t just say, “Our sometime sister… have we… taken to wife,” he goes on various tangents.  I haven’t gotten far enough in Heimat yet to know the characters that well, but it seems like the mayor is doing a similar thing here: sticking himself into his compliment.  Once I understand the characters more clearly, I might be able to shape their syntax to reflect their aims and personalities.

I’m confused by “zu ihrem Geburtstage.”  “Zu ihrem” indicates that this is masculine and dative, but the “-e” ending of “Geburtstage” is indicative of a plural, which would change “ihrem” to “ihren.”  This is all assuming that I’ve read the charts correctly (and remember my point correctly).  I ran into a similar situation with “Hurra dem Geburtstagskinde!”  I can’t make sense of that “-e” ending either.  The singular is Geburtstagskind; the plural Geburtstagskinder.

I translated “Hurra” as huzzah.  Huzzah wasn’t listed as a translation in the German section of my English-German dictionary (it gave only hooray), but working from the English section, both hooray and huzzah redirect to hurrah, which they translate as Hurra, so it all works out.

I found a missing quotation mark on page 4.  Der Reckensteiner (I’ve been translating this as “the Reckenstein citizen,” which I’m not sure is the best translation) shouts, “In meinen Garten reiten sie!” but there’s no quotation mark preceding his dialogue.  I’ve encountered this in other books, but it’s weird to see that it happened even in 1916.

“Was dieser unbegreifliche Einfall bedeuten sollte” had me confused for awhile because I couldn’t think of a way to put should (sollen) in past tense.  At first, I tried “what this inexplicable invasion should have meant,” but then I realized that that was putting the infinitive (“bedeuten”) in past tense instead of “sollte” (also, that was present perfect instead of simple past).  I put that part of the sentence through Google Translate (which I’ve been using only as a last resort), and it suggested “supposed to” instead of “should.”  And “supposed to” is much easier to put in past tense (“was supposed to”).  I’m not even sure now if there is a past tense of “should” in English.

I’m not sure if I was surprised by it, but I still found it interesting that in German, bright can be used metaphorically, in addition to purely visual things.  This appears in the description of “Ediths helle Stimme” ("Edith’s bright voice").  I wouldn’t think twice about such an application in English, but I felt I’d better check it in the German.

I had a lot of problems with “ein herbeigeeilter Knecht,” specifically “herbeigeeilter.”  (It was while writing about this point that I lost almost a month’s work of commentary, too.)  It’s a participle from herbeieilen (“to come running up”), but it’s in past tense (herbegeeilt).  The “-er” at the end is there because Knecht is a masculine word preceded by an article (a der word with “ein” in front of it).  I can’t figure out a way to make “to come running up” into a past tense participle though.  At first, I just made it a verb and made the other verbs in the sentence infinitives, but then I realized that I could put “herbegeeilter” in a relative clause (“who came running up”), which preserves the adjectival function of the participle.  So, instead of my original “a stable boy came running up to receive the steaming horses and lead them into the stable,” I now have “a stable boy, who came running up, received the steaming horses and led them into the stable.”  It’s better, but I’m still not completely satisfied with it.  Hopefully, I’ll come back to it later with a solution.

Month 1: Pages 1-3

I plan on writing a post like this every month (on the 14th) to document my progress and mention any interesting lingual things I might have run across.  It'll be like a serialization but of translation rather than of writing.  Here's what I've translated so far (the parts I'm unsure about [there are a lot, and even some of the other sections could probably be phrased better; I'm planning on refining things once I get through a first draft of translation] are in italics and "---&---" indicates page breaks, accompanied by a page number if there is one):

Who Loves the Home as You

Novel by Artur Brausewetter 

Twenty-sixth through Thirtieth Thousand 

Publishing house of Georg Westermann

Brunswick - Berlin - Hamburg 

---&--- 

Copyright 1916 by Georg Westermann Brunswick

From the bill literal prescribed formula 

Printing by Georg Westermann in Brunswick 

---&--- 

Dedicated in gratitude and admiration to the savior of East Prussia General-Fieldmarshall von Hindenburg 

---&--- 

     What had not happened for a long time in Reckenstein happened today: someone was having a party.  Edith the only daughter of the old Reckenstein citizen, who for five years had with circumspection and loyalty replaced his early departed wife for him in house and yard, began her twenty-first birthday.  The Reckenstein citizen had never been for having the party; for him life’s sense and happiness lay in his monotony.  This time he made an exception; it was from him that the suggestion for this celebration came.

     Small was the circle of the invited: from the neighborhood, Harro von Ubitzsch, lean, serious aloof, with a small wife who delighted in empty chatter; from farther away, Dr. Werner Stoltzmann, the first mayor of Rodenburg, who had been city treasurer for a short time in Königsberg, and who had - for their blossoming city and not easy administration - won the Rodenburg city council to count on him with pride to action.  He was still young and of outspoken talent, one whose consciousness of himself was - for one in his thirty-fourth year - stamped very surely in character and appearance, which for him would be laid out from some sides as arrogance and self-importance.  However, those who knew him more closely, like the Reckenstein citizen and his daughter, knew that at heart he was humble and modest.  But the life and the great publicity, in this it was tasked to him so early, to have liked to have taught him, that in this world with such virtues, not many were to begin.  His wife showed the compensating opposite, a tall brunette with red, round, 

---1--- 

soft cheeks; laughing eyes; and a boldly-made nose with very thin, finely-drawn wings that - when she spoke - quietly shook.  Coming from an old Rhenish officer’s family, Frau Lisa quickly settled herself by virtue of excellent upbringing into the stiffer north German relations, and through her natural, warm-hearted nature, quickly won the hearts of all the Rodenburg citizens and also the hearts of those who were still temporarily faced with deferring to their husbands.

     Edith, more serious but as life-affirming as she, was tightly befriended to her of a Genevan pension year; now the contact, when she found herself here again one day, would preferably maintain, although one had a three-hour railroad journey to Reckenstein and both men appear further separated through the differences of age and attitude.

     For the early season the day had been exceptionally hot.  When one settled one’s self to supper in the large dining room, the windows and both wings of the old oak doors that led out to the garden veranda remain opened.  Although the darkness had not yet arrived, one had lit the candles on the enormous silver candelabra that - inherited from the ancestors - belonged to the most beautiful pieces of the Reckenstein house-treasure.  In the mild draft the flickering light grasped her there with long fingers over the spring flowers that - stunning and fragrant - adorned the table.  However, the gradually duller and twilight-still becoming evening light pierced the windows and the door.  And if the conversation once fell silent, one heard from outside the song of a nightingale in wonderful tones, one minute jubilant, the next sighing. 

---2---

     But now it broke off, from a loud sound that shrilly cut off his soft melodies, brought to silence.  Dr. Stoltzmann had knocked on his glass and rose to his feet.
     “Ladies and gentlemen,” he began in his somewhat hard - but not sparing melodiousness - way of speaking, “You know that I am more a man of objective language than of well-cut table-aphorisms.  However, the friendly position that we took up for our host - and particularly my wife took up for the daughter of his house - drives me today together in her name to offer up our congratulations to Miss Edith in this circle of chosen friends.  It is the day on which she” - he took an approach to be humorous, something at which he never particularly succeeded - “steps out of her children’s shoes and will be received under the adults.  This event will change little in her external life-relationships.

Fun German words I came across by happenstance while looking up other words:

• verprügeln - to beat someone up
  While cross checking candelabrum (der Armleuchter) I ran across baste in the English section of my German-English dictionary, and apparently verprügeln also means to baste
  And while reading a book about Mendelssohn (R. Larry Todd's Mendelssohn: A Life in Music), I ran across Musikantenprügelei a "humorous part-song" Mendelssohn wrote.  I'm not sure of the origin of the given English translation: "Musicians' Fisticuffs," but - while I hate the word fisticuffs - it does agree with what my German-English dictionary gives me: "brawl, scrap, free-for-all"
• der Liliputaner - dwarf, midget
  Apparently in reference to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels
• (wie) im Fluge - [idiomatically:] quickly [but literally:] as in flight
• uzen - to pull someone's leg [as a noun: die Uzerei]
• die Schwachkopf - blockhead [but literally "weak head"]
• der Klimbim - to-do; rubbish; der ganze ~ - the whole caboodle

I was a bit befuddled by "einer... Nase mit... Flügeln."  I translated it as "a... nose with... wings," which didn't make sense at first, but then I looked it up.  Apparently nose wings are a thing even in English.  I'd never heard of this, so it was weird to learn about it via German.

While looking up hinausführenden (leading out [or led out?]), I noticed die Hexe (witch), and discovered that it's connected etymologically with the English word hex.  I either discovered or re-discovered die Hexerei (witchcraft), which I found interesting because it follows the same paradigm as die Bäckerei (bakery), die Brauerei (brewery), die Metzgerei (butcher shop), and probably some others.

And while confirming Brauerei for that comment above, I ran across die Brause (shower).  Along with das Wetter (weather), I think this provides the author's surname (Brausewetter).

I couldn't find a direct translation for Hausschatzes, but since Haus is house and Schatz (in genitive case here) is treasure, I translated it as house-treasure.  Then it occurred to me that a lot of the German compound words (and I suppose English ones too) are sort of akin to Old English kennings (I've been reading Beowulf lately, so I've encountered a lot of them).

"Bald jauchzenden, bald schluchzenden" looked sort of confusing when I was copying it out, but in translating it and looking up bald, I discovered that "bald... bald..." is a correlative ("one minute... the next...").  I was going to verify this with my German textbook, but it turns out that neither of my collegiate German textbooks has anything about correlatives in the indices.  Running into jauchzenden (jubilant) was coincidental as it appeared in the title of a Bach cantata I'd listened to a few days earlier (albeit as an imperative: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51 ["Praise God in all lands"]).

Introduction

About two weeks ago (on the 14th), I started a project I'd been meaning to get to for a long time: translating a German novel.

I obtained a copy of Artur Brausewetter's Wer die Heimat liebt wie du (published in 1916) from my grandfather's basement after he died at the end of 2008.  Later, I found a .PDF of the book on the Internet Archive, and when I was in university (and had access to virtually free paper), I printed a second copy.  For about two years, it'd just been sitting around, so I decided to finally get around to translating it - at the rate of one sentence per day.

I'm not particularly qualified to translate a German novel.  I took German classes through all four years of high school and two semesters of university (my first semester in 2010 and my last semester in 2014), and while I did well in my German classes, that's about as far as I went with it academically.

But I've graduated and am currently unemployed with not many prospects, so I figured I don't have much to lose.