Month 15: Pages 22-24

This Week's Installment

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

you, the man of the intellect, whom Fritz looks up to with respect, who to me - excuse me! - appears sometimes very kind, sometimes a little bit funny.  You, the light of the Warsow family, whose books and writings I didn't dare to read because they appeared too high for my feeble intellect, you - a simple priest in a city that, if not exactly small, is still only of middling importance, at least minuscule compared with Königsberg, where you desired to be a professor, that certainly would have been fitting and worthy for you.  And now pastor in Rodenburg, the successor of the old honest but very simple Maleischke, my confirmation priest - no, that comes as a surprise to me.  What does Fritz say about it, then?" 

---22--- 

"He understands it because he knows me," he returned, now audibly irritated because of the way with which she received his announcement.  "Because he knows that, after all, the subordinate lecturer job in Bonn cannot satisfy me, that I must work with all of my strength and can do this nowhere so well and gladly than as priest of a large congregation.  I find there is nevertheless enough similarity between his decision and mine.  He left a distinguished position that perhaps promised him a significant advancement in order to learn from scratch as a simple apprentice."
     His comparison was fitting.  But she didn't mention it to him.  "But with the difference," said she, "that something would never be made out of him, that despite his acknowledged ability he constantly stept back compared with you."
     Now it came to life in his dark eyes, which had - so slightly - a tired, almost dead expression:  "I don't know who gives you the right [implied verb?] me always as the less humble, who [sich Überhebenden hinzustellen].  You know me only from the judgement of others, who - with the exception of Fritz - have dealt with me with little love and understanding.  Do you want to charge me with it or count it for a sin if I always stood apart because of the arrangement of my nature?"
     She hadn't thought that such emotion could speak from out of the quiet thinker.  He wanted to be right: she didn't know him.  She wanted to say a justifying word when wheels rolled over the driveway in front of the house.  In a simple, but well-hitched self-driver, leading the reins, sat Fritz; near him, with an admirable impunity Schikorr set himself, who had been for Fritz in his childhood days a figure of authority, 

---23--- 

as ruler and leader of the manorial coachhouse, and now ancient as everyone in Bärwalde.
     "Now, have you settled your matter in Rodenburg?" asked Fritz, after he had greeted Edith and his brother.  "And are you content?"
     "Nothing can be said about that for the time being."
     "Have you told Edith about your visit with Stoltzmann?

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

Part of one sentence has "ein klein wenig komisch," and since "klein" means "small" and "wenig" means "little," I wasn't quite sure how to translate it.  I went with "a little bit funny," which I think provides the same sense as the original and is about as close as I could get.

For the first time in this project, I ran across a sentence that completely stumpt me.  I think there might be an implied verb that I just can't figure out, and some of the words aren't in my dictionary (Google Translate wasn't any help either).  I translated what I could, but I ended up with a sort of Frankensteinian "I don't know who gives you the right [implied verb?] me always as the less humble, who [sich Überhebenden hinzustellen]."

I ran into a panoply of problems in the clause "neben ihm der noch immer mit einer bewundernswerten Straffheit sich aufrecht haltende Schikorr, der für Fritz in seinen Kingertagen als Lenker und Leiter des herrschaftlichen Kutschstalles eine Respektsperson gewesen und jetzt uralt war wie alles in Bärwalde."  There are just so many elements, and I can't figure out how they all go together.  It's made more difficult because I couldn't find perfect translations for some words ("sich aufrecht haltende Schikorr" in particular gave me problems; I couldn't find anything for Schikorr, so I think it's a name, but I'm not sure).

Month 14: Pages 21-22

This Week's Installment

She knew it and did it all the same.  A little humiliation couldn't hurt him.
     He answered almost calmly: "Fritz has taught you well.  Yes, I hoped it once and was very disappointed as the affair came to nothing.  But I soon found myself.  In the meantime doubt emerged for me, whether it would be right to devote my whole life to the academic career."
     "I believed another would not at all be out of the question for you."
     "O but.  Actually my inclination, perhaps also my ability, pointed me more to the vicarage.  Just during my year of lecturing in Bonn the advantages in addition to the faults of this profession had become clear to me.  I did without contact with the large spheres of people, in which I could support my ideas and goals more effectively than in a small circle of students. - I was in Rodenburg this morning.  That's why you see me in this solemn 

---21--- 

garment.  There I had a good connection; I travelled here by the fast train.  Fritz wanted to send for me tonight from here to Bärwalde.  Perhaps he's even coming himself."
     A shimmer of delight flew over Edith's beautiful features.  It didn't escape him.  These last words appeared to spark a stronger interest in her than everything that he had said so far.  But now she turned herself to his matter again:
     "You were in Rodenburg?  I don't understand how it can be connected with what you just told me."
     "Very easily.  The first vacancy in Rodenburg will be at St. Nicolaus church.  I have applied for it."
     "You?  In Rodenburg - and at St. Nicolaus'?"
     A bright astonishment lay in her words, which she uttered individually and in bigger intervals.
     "That appears to astonish you - ?"
     "Yes, greatly - 

Interesting Words I Ran Across by Happenstance

• der Dreck - dirt, muck, filth; rubbish, garbage [I find it interesting that Dreck is a word in German because dreck is also a word in English, although apparently not a very common one.  I know it only because of Chris Baty's use of it in No Plot? No Problem!:  "The main thing separating the mind-blowing, life-changing stories of a great novel from the treacly dreck of daytime TV is the manner in which the tale is told."  Merriam-Webster's etymology seems to suggest that it came into English from German.]
• entgehen - to escape ["Escape" in both literal and figurative senses.  Usually, these "interesting words I ran across by happenstance" are ones I find in my dictionary when I'm looking up a word in the text, but entgehen was actually used in the text (in the imperfect tense: "Er entging ihm nicht").  Based on the sentence it's in (specifically the "ihm"), I'm pretty sure it's a dative verb, which is why it's in this list of interesting words.]
• in sein - to be in, to be the fashion [I don't find this so interesting in itself, but rather the part of speech is interesting.  This is listed under "in" in my dictionary.  It's "adj.: ~ sein."  In the sentence "it is in," "in" is indeed an adjective, but "it is in" seems to be a curtailing of "it is in fashion."  In that sentence, "in" is a preposition, and the prepositional phrase "in fashion" is adjectival.  What I find interesting about "in" being an adjective is that it came to be considered that part of speech through an abbreviation of a construction in which it's a preposition.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Despite having studied German for almost a decade, I'm still not really sure how to translate "doch," so for "O doch," I have "O but," which isn't exactly fluid English, but it's the best I could do.

"Fritz wollte mich heute abend von hier nach Bärwalde abholen lassen" is an-other one of those sentences where I've translated every part but can't come up with a way to put it in a smooth English translation.  It'd be easy enough were it not for the "von hier nach Bärwalde."  Anyway, I've translated it as "Fritz wanted to send for me tonight from here to Bärwalde."

I'm pretty sure the "großes" in "Ja, großes" is a substantive adjective.  That's why there's a "-es" ending; if it were an adverb, it'd just be "groß."  I think it's "great [astonishment]" since there's "ein helles Erstaunen" (a bright astonishment) a few lines earlier.
"Yes, great [astonishment]" doesn't really translate well into English though, so I changed that substantive adjective into an adverb to get "Yes, greatly."  The same sense is there, although the grammar is different.

Month 13: Pages 19-21

This Week's Installment

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

But just because it is so, we love this country with a tenacity and strength of which the people in the south and in the west have no idea.  And if we separate ourselves from him and look for the area of southern Germany or even of flourishing Italy - certainly, we are not blind to the beauty there that presents itself to us step 

---19---

by step.  But we can only enjoy all that and be glad of its being for a short time, for a holiday period.  Then love for the home awakens only all the more strongly.  Then in the midst of all of the softness of the air and lines, all of the agricultural and artistic splendor, our angular, gruff country only appears all the more lovely and wonderful.  Then we must go back, northwards, in the high east, in the tempered, steel air without which we cannot thrive.  And if we suppress this urge and do violence to it, then we become sick, as it has fared with me."
     She had listened to him with growing interest; having spoken with such depth and sincerity out of every word, he had suddenly appeared to her a completely different man.  "Wonderful" - but then she stopt; no, she couldn't say that to him -
     "You had never confided all that to me," he completed her without any trace of sensitivity.  "But that's the way it is, and I can't change it.  For three centuries the Warsows have settled here.  Bärwalde has never come out of their hands.  They have kept it even in the most desperate times, the hardest misery of war, have gone without and suffered, simply in order to not yield an inch of the homely clod.  In my history of East Prussia, the comprehensive chronicle of Bärwalde and of the Warsows is included.  It is admirable in its power and in its suffering."
     "Fritz has often told me about it.  But I did not suspect that you knew even more and more precisely.  I took you for a man of intellect, a hero of the pen, who found his fatherland there, where he could write and create."
     "Certainly, I am a man of intellect.  The 

---20---

problems of our time, the questions of belief and knowledge burn in my soul, and I want to proclaim them from the university chair or from the pulpit as long as I can.  But I am before everything East Prussian with body and soul.  And there is only one country in which my intellectual ability can develop itself fruitfully.  The others don't understand that; therefore, they have often teased me.  Only we know that the East Prussian blood was to carry many generations, that we have breathed this air from birth on and have fed from the marrow of this earth."
     "That's why it was your wish to obtain a university chair in Königsberg?"
      It was not very sensitive of her to say that to him, not right now.

Interesting Word I Ran Across by Happenstance

• blauäugig - blue-eyed; fig. starry-eyed, dewy-eyed, naive

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I probably should have realized this at the end of what I translated for my last post, but I think some of Hans Warsow's comments are a response of sorts to World War I.  The first sentence I translated for this month is: "But just because it is so [East Prussia is "uneven, sharp, and square"], we love this country with a tenacity and strength of which the people in the south and in the west have no idea."  It's a nationalistic statement, and since this book was published in 1916 (and especially since it's dedicated to General-Fieldmarshall von Hindenburg), it's very possible that Warsow's nationalism is colored by the war.  I haven't found anything in the book so far that indicates a particular time period, and - while the military has been mentioned - it hasn't been particularly prominent, so I don't think the novel is meant to be a novel about or set during World War I.  Still, I think Warsow's comment here is indicative of when the book was written.

I couldn't find a translation for "härtliche," but I found that härten" is "to temper" (as metal), so I translated "härtliche" as "tempered."  Warsow also describes the air as "steel," so - while "tempered" seems to fit - I'm still unsure enough to italicize it.

I think I have the correct sense of one sentence, but my structure differs from the original.  I'm not sure what to do with "es sprach eine solche Tiefe und Aufrichtigkeit aus jedem Wort."  Literally, it's "it spoke such depth and sincerity out of every word," but I'm not sure of the antecedent of that "es."  I should think it's referring to Warsow, but - if so - it would be the masculine "er" rather than the neuter "es."  My other thought was that it could be anticipatory, but there's a problem with that too: it's singular, but what it would anticipate is plural ("Tiefe und Aufrichtigkeit").  In my translation, I rendered that part as "having spoken with such depth and sincerity...."

The only translation I could find for "eingesessen" is the adjective "old-established," but in the sentence in the text, it's a verb, not an adjective.  I lookt up some derivatives and found "seßhaft," and - although that's also an adjective ("settled") - I think it provides enough credence to translate "eingesessen" as "settled."  While it might not be a perfect translation, it makes sense in the sentence:  "Seit drei Jahrhunderten sind die Warsows hier eingesessen" ("For three centuries the Warsows have settled here").

I can't seem to find a good way to phrase part of a sentence in English.  In the original text, there's the indirect statement "daß Sie alles noch viel genauer wußten."  I'm pretty sure that the "alles noch viel" is "even more," but "genauer" is "more exactly" or "more precisely."  It's difficult to put those two phrases together because they both have "more," but one "more" is a substantive adjective where the other is an adverb.  I can't say "that you knew even more more precisely" because two "more"s that are different parts of speech are directly next to each other.  So I added an "and" between them to get "that you knew even more and more precisely."

Month 12: Pages 18-19

This Week's Installment

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

As I passed my tests, I received a bigger scholarship that puts me in the standing to do studies in Greece and Italy.”
     “I heard about it from your brother.  How many of the beauties you must have seen!”
     “No doubt.  I don’t misjudge that either.  I saw unforgettable things in Athens, Florence, and Rome.  Just at the age in which one is most receptive to it, the treasures of the world opened themselves to me.  My knowledge increased; my artistic sense received rich stimulation.  And still on all these voyages I never came to a true pleasure.  I tried to force it, was annoyed and outraged at myself - it was all futile.  As a sick person, I wandered through the marvelous Uffizi and the old buildings of the cities.” 

---18---

     “It was the continuous reception of new impressions; that touches the soul.  I have experienced something like it, if only in smaller scale.  When Father took a trip with me to Italy soon after the death of Mother, I too had not nearly the pleasure that I had promised myself.”
     “I saw that it did not go on like that and lookt for a permanent place of residence.  First I stayed a year in Rome, then a second in Florence, for a while I lived in Switzerland, in Zürich and Bern, busy with a bigger effort about the beginnings of Christianity in Rome - finally I went back to Germany.”
     “You let yourself go lower in Bonn?”
     “Yes, my work had appeared, and one encouraged me to give lectures there.”
     “And now you came to rest?”
     “No - I didn’t come here to rest either; I felt just as peaceless as there in the south.  I have worked a lot in this time; I may well claim it.  It was like a self-defense against that which seethed in my core.  And now I want to tell you too what it was.”
     He became quieter, but with a move away that trembled through each of his words:  “We people up here from the northeast cannot thrive in the south, and also not in the west.  There everything is soft, smoothed, even; with us it is uneven, sharp, and square.

Interesting Word I Ran Across By Happenstance

• der Friedhof - cemetery, graveyard [literally peace-yard]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I'm very confused by the sentence "Unvergeßliches empfing ich in Athen, Florenz, und Rom," particularly the "unvergeßliches" ("unforgettable").  I think it's a substantive adjective, but I'm not sure of the noun that it's standing in the stead of.  Whatever it is, it's a singular neuter, indicated by the "-es" ending.  I substituted "things" (so, "I saw unforgettable things in Athens, Florence, and Rome"), but I know that's not right (obviously, because it's plural).

I don't think there's a way to translate this to English so that it maintains the same grammar, but apparently in German, one can use "sick" as a substantive adjective.  The last sentence on page eighteen starts with "Wie ein Kranker...."  Literally, it's "As a sick [person]."

I'm not exactly sure what sense "lassen" has in "Sie ließen sich in Bonn nieder?"  Based on the other words, I think there's an implied infinitive there.  I inserted "go," so it becomes "You let yourself go lower in Bonn?" but I'm still not sure if that's really the intended meaning.

I didn't know how to translate "friedlos," and it wasn't in my dictionary.  Because I know der Frieden is peace and -los is -less, I could tell that it meant "please-less," but it wasn't until I lookt up "peace-less" in an endeavor to find a synonym that's an actual word that I discovered that peaceless is a word in English.

Month 11: Pages 17-18

This Week's Installment

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

How very kindly, yes, with what admiration and love had Fritz spoken of him!  And he?  He took the first real opportunity to lower the younger brother in her eyes.
     “I believe your judgement about your brother is not totally fair.  In the foundation of his nature Fritz is serious, almost too serious.  That he ventures a funny horseman trick and can also be happy in the happy circle doesn’t make him worse for me.  I do not love the person who can not once laugh from the heart.”
     “And do you count me among them?”
     “I have not the pleasure to know you so well in order to allow myself an opinion about you.”
     She said it in that cold, dismissive manner that, for her, was always required when she felt herself offended.
     “But your word suits me since you have rightly said:  such laughing from the heart, as you yourself expressed, I have never been able to do - not from my childhood on.  And no one has felt that so heavily as I myself.”
     A faint stroke of sympathy flitted over her face.  He did not want it, one could tell it annoyed him, 

---17--- 

that it was not accepted by him.  A more self-conscious tone came into their conversation.
     “That your brother, now arrived at a sure highpoint of his career, has the bravery to break from it,” said Edith after a short pause, “and build up a totally new life for himself through his own strength surely also speaks for the earnestness of his view.”
     “No, no!” he butted in with suddenly-awakened liveliness, “that isn’t it.  At least not that alone.  It’s something else - the same as with me.  However different we also usually find our philosophy of life, we find something of a shock in it.”
     “And what would this other be?”
     A faint glow had entered his face.  It didn’t color it red, but it gave it a hint of warmth that it didn’t possess up until then.  “You see, I have gone a long way around the world and have gotten to know many people and countries.

Interesting Words I Ran Across

• das Manko - deficiency, shortage; deficit, shortfall [This is an-other word that makes me wish my German/English dictionary had etymologies because it seems to come from the Romance Languages.  In French, there's the noun le manque (lack, want; deficiency, shortage) and the verb manquer (to be absent; to be missing), and in Italian, there's the verb mancare (to be missing)

I had to look up a different sense of Zug (I was familiar with train, but that didn't fit the context), and I found a lot of idioms with "train" in them:

• in den letzten Zügen liegen - be breathing one's last; be on its last legs [literally: to lay in the last train]
• dem Zug seines Herzens folgen - follow (the dictates of) one's heart [literally: to follow the train of his heart]
• Zug um Zug - step by step [literally: train by train]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

A relative clause has "zu Gebote," which I've translated as "required," although it's literally more like "to requirements."  So, "die ihr immer zu Gebote war" becomes "that, for her, was always required."  I'm pretty sure it provides the same meaning, but the grammar is different; there's a passive voice verb instead of a plural noun in a prepositional phrase.

Ihr can be either a third person singular (feminine) possessive pronoun or a third person plural possessive pronoun, so "Ein befangenerer Ton kam in ihre Unterhaltung" could be translated as either "A more self-conscious tone came into her conversation" or "A more self-conscious tone came into their conversation."  Since this sentence takes place right after Hans Warsow was speaking, he seems to have some involvement in the conversation's turning to "a more self-conscious tone," so I translated it as "their conversation."

Month 10: Pages 15-17

This Week's Installment

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

“I must still have some good establishment with you because although we were neighbors often enough, our circles have met little.”
  “They had better things to do,” she casually retorted, as she removed the riding cap from her hair.
  “Not better,” he replied quietly and frankly, “but more important, I willingly grant it.  I was until today, and perhaps still am to a certain degree, burdened with the illness that destroys each harmless 

---15--- 

pleasure:  taking life and its duties seriously.  I believe it is Egmont who once said, ‘If you take life a bit too seriously, what is it?’  Very true - but one can just not do differently, that is the misfortune.”
  “You have also received your reward for that:  You’d find he’d become a well-known man, like your brother Fritz first explained it to me a few days ago.  I for my part read little, even your books and writings I don’t know, but with them I say the same.”
  “I am well-known only in a very small circle; that my life was accompanied by exceptional luck I can hardly say.”
  She looked at him, for the first time.  He had no resemblance with his younger brother.  His pale face was clever and charming, but the strong and energetic excitement that made Fritz’s features so dear to her was missing from him; too much of the dreamy and pensive lay in this face, and she loved the hard, angular brows in men more.  The act was for her that which granted value to men, not the idea.  It had always possessed something subordinate for her.
  “You know that Fritz is about to change jobs,” said Hans Warsow, well in the wish to give the conversation an objective turn.  But for her it was as if he would have read out of her gaze what she had just felt in the stillness.  “And do you also know well that he already settled into his new job in Bärwalde?”
  “He notified me of it when he appeared here unexpected one evening.”
  The thought of this evening, of Fritz’s arrival high on horseback, here on the veranda woke up in her with such vividness that a cheerful smile 

---16--- 

flit across her pretty mouth.  She recounted the incident.  But he didn’t show an interest in her cheerfulness; on the contrary, he became even more serious, and in the gently entering dawn his face appeared to her a shade paler and gloomier than it had so far.
     “That’s like him!  Although he is old enough to wean himself from such tricks.”
     She was annoyed at his words.  That was Hans Warsow, exactly as he stood in her memory, as she had often heard her father, who favored him little, describe him:  full of himself and from a higher vantage point judging the actions of others condescendingly and disparagingly.

Interesting Words I Came Across

• das Bauchknöpfchen - belly button
• der Kasus - case [in the sense of grammatical case; the case in sense of container is der Kasten.  More then a few times, my Latin professor impressed upon us students the importance of recognizing multiple meanings of a word in a particular context.  He complained that the textbook used "in this case" where "in this instance" would have been better suited because otherwise it could easily be misconstrued that grammatical cases were being talked about when they really weren't.  So it's interesting that - for this particular word, at least - that ambiguity wouldn't occur in German.]
• im falschen Zug sitzen - be barking up the wrong tree [literally: to sit in the wrong train]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Originally, I thought that something had happened that resulted in a cataclysmic shift in Edith and Warsow's relationship because the pronouns that they use had changed.  I even wrote:

It seems like something has caused a rift between Warsow and Edith in the break between chapter one and chapter two.  There's her stinging remark about how their social circles had better things to do than mingle with each other, which she "casually retort[s]," but there's something else that indicates this change too.  A few months ago, I noticed that Warsow and Edith were using the informal du to address each other, but here, Warsow uses the formal pronouns (it would be Sie in the nominative case, but since all the instances so far are in accusative, it's Ihnen).  He says, "Ich bringe Ihnen" ("I bring you") and "bei Ihnen" ("with you").

It wasn't until weeks later that I realized that it wasn't Fritz Warsow; it's Hans Warsow, his brother.  I guess tunnel vision is a side-effect of translation a novel one sentence at a time.
Fritz and Edith's relationship seems to be the same then, but the formal German pronouns that Hans and Edith use with each other still illustrate something about the characters that my English translation can really only hint at.

Warsow (Hans Warsow) quotes Egmont ("I believe it is Egmont who once said, 'If you take life a bit too seriously, what is it?'").  I haven't read it and amn't even familiar with it, but I'm assuming that Goethe's play Egmont is Warsow's source.

I think "Sie find ein bekannter Mann geworden" is subjunctive, but mostly it just confused me.  Because "sie" starts the sentence, I don't know if it's capitalized or not, so I don't know whether it's the formal you or they or she.  The conjugation of the verb could help narrow those options, but it doesn't seem to agree with any (it'd be "sie finden" or "sie findet").  "Geworden" is a past-tense of "werden," which also complicates things.  I eventually translated that section as "You'd find he'd become a well-known man," but I'm extremely dubious of the accuracy, especially because I had to stick in that he pronoun myself.

Die Dämmerung can be translated as either "the dawn" or "the twilight."  So far in this chapter, there hasn't been anything that indicates the time, but since it starts out with der Reckensteiner doing work on the grange, I translated it as "the dawn."  Farmers are known for getting up really early.
I'm not sure how useful it is to try to write commentary on the novel as I'm translating it, but this sentence seems to portray Hans Warsow as unnatural.  As the dawn comes in, he becomes "paler and gloomier."

Month 9: Pages 14-15

This Week's Installment

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

Awhile ago you didn’t take your sentence to the end.  What do you believe?”  He collected himself: “I believe,” he said then, “that his missed Königsberg hope has become a definitive decision, that no one had believed him capable.”
     “What sort of decision?”
     “I may not speak about it.  Even not face-to-face with you, Edith, did I do it so willingly.  Maybe he will tell you it himself.”
     “He will hardly give me this honor.”
     “Maybe he will.  He announced his arrival from Bärwalde to me within a few weeks and also wrote from a visit in Reckenstein.”
     They had stept into the house.  Uechteritz stood at the grand piano and sang Schumann lieder.  He had a soft baritone voice that stole into the souls of the women and clung to them, often more than his small jealous wife wanted.  Frau Lisa accompanied him; the others were all ears; only the Reckenstein citizen sat with Rodenburg’s first mayor in the remote parlor with a bottle of red wine and negotiated political questions in that strained manner that was characteristic of most of their conversation.  They both knew that they would never come to any end, but always started off, maybe because they would have agreed even less about other things. 

Edith had ridden with her father over the fields.  The old gentleman still had some things to do on the grange,

---14--- 

and - because she, from long-standing experience, knew and dreaded the endless range of his conversation with the Hofmeister - she had ridden on a straight path homeward.
     “A gentleman has waited on the power for half an hour,” reported the servant and handed her the card.  “Lic. Dr. Hans Warsow, lecturer.  Bonn,” it read.
     In the parlor they stood facing each other.  He in a black overcoat with a black necktie, just as serious - as flawlessly dressed.  She was still in riding clothes, the cap with a pin with a sparkling knob put through her thick hair, which had a brown, faintly iridescent reddish color.  Something of the dull brilliance of autumnal leaves was in it.  On her red cheeks lay still the trace of the fresh exercise.
     She almost never saw gentlemen in long overcoats; in society they wore the [Leibrock], perhaps the [Halbfrack], or else the light jacket, as it belonged in the country.
     He came before her strangely in this dignified clothing, so solemn and grave.  But nothing was for her more hateful than the ceremonious.
     “I bring you greetings from Fritz,” he said, as he sat down at her invitation.

Interesting Words I Came Across

• verifizieren - to verify [there's also die Verifizierung - verification, both of which I find interesting because they come from the Latin veritas - truth)
• derangiert - untidy; disheveled [I assumed that this is related to deranged, but when I looked up deranged in the English section, I found in Unordnung, gestört, so the similarity seems just coincidental.]
• divers - various [Apparently, this is a cognate with the English divers.  I looked up divers to confirm this, and I discovered that it actually has a slightly different meaning from diverse.  I’d always assumed that divers was just an alternate spelling, which I guess is not the case.]
• nicht gerade der wahre Jakob - not quite what I want [I'm pretty sure this phrase comes from the Biblical Jacob, who dressed up as his brother Esau and got his birthright]
• fensterln - to sneak into one's girlfriend's room through the window at night with the help of a ladder [I thought this definition oddly specific.]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

"Vielleicht teilt er ihn dir selber mit" translates to present tense ("Maybe he is telling you it himself"), but present tense doesn't make sense there, plot-wise.  I faintly remembered something from high school German about how present tense forms can also be translated as future tense, so I translated it as "Maybe he will tell you it himself."  Then I looked through my reference books, and - in my first college German textbook - I found that "German generally uses the present tense to express future time."  The examples they provide also include a temporal adverb, which helps to clarify the meaning ("Gehst du morgen...?" "Are you going to go tomorrow...?").  There isn't a temporal adverb in this sentence in the novel, but I still think it's intended to be future tense.

I translated "Er wird mich dieser Ehre kaum würdigen" as "He will hardly give me this honor," but I feel I should note that when I looked up "würdigen," my dictionary gave me acknowledge and appreciate.  I felt give fit with honor more than acknowledge though.

I always find doch difficult to translate, but especially so in "Vielleicht doch."  I went with "Maybe he will."  Initially, I'd thought something like, "Maybe, on the contrary," but that seemed wordy.  "Maybe he will" includes words that aren't really in the original text (it'd have to be "Vielleicht wird er"), but it's the best I could come up with.

I translated "Schumannsche Lieder" as "Schumann lieder."  I think that sometimes using a word from the original language like that seems pedantic, but I looked up lied and found that it's specifically "a German art song especially of the 19th century," a category into which Schumann (1810-1856) falls.  "Schumannsche" wasn't in my dictionary, but I'm pretty sure I've translated it correctly.
I feel like I'm saying most of this just because I was excited to see Schumann mentioned.

It doesn't make a difference in my translation, but I can't figure out the antecedent for "ihnen" in "Er hatte eine weiche Baritonstimme, die sich in die Seelen der Frauen stahl und in ihnen haftete..." ("He had a soft baritone voice that stole into the souls of the women and clung to them...").  It could refer to either "die Seelen" ("the souls") or "der Frauen" ("of the women").  Both are third person plurals.

I was surprised to find "die andern waren ganz Ohr."  It's the same as the English expression:  "the others were all ears."  I'd just never thought about how there might be a German equivalent.
In that same (seven-line-long!) sentence, there's the word "zueigen" (in the relative clause "die ihren Gesprächen meist zueigen war").  I couldn't find "zueigen" in my dictionary, but I found "characteristic" under "eigen," which seems to fit the context here ("that was characteristic of most of their conversation").
Earlier in the sentence, there's also "Herrenzimmer," which I couldn't find in my dictionary either.  Literally, it's something like "gentlemen-room," so I translated it as "parlor."

The bold E in "Edith" is supposed to be a drop cap.  It's the beginning of the second "chapter."  There aren't chapter headings, just breaks, but I'm calling them chapters anyway.  From now on, I'll also be posting the chapters by themselves, without all of this grammatical minutiae and commentary.  Here's a link to the entirety of chapter one, and the other chapters will eventually be in the menu to the right

In the sentence that bridges pages fourteen and fifteen, I ran into some more words that weren't in my dictionary.  I tried Google Translate, but I wasn't satisfied with or convinced by their translations.  I tried just Googling them, but then I had the idea to type them into the German Wikipedia and then switch it back to English.  That's how I figured out what der Vorwerk and der Hofmeister mean.

I'm not quite sure how to translate die Herrschaft.  My dictionary gives me "rule; government, reign; power," but I feel that all of those are too political for this domestic situation.  I went with "power," which seems more general, but I'm still not satisfied with it, hence the italics.  I also dislike how it makes that sentence rhyme "on the power for half an hour."

It took some digging to translate "Lic.," especially because it's an abbreviation.  I'm fairly certain it's Licentiate, or - in German - Lizenziat.
That same sentence has an interesting grammatical feature.  After Warsow's card, there's "las sie."  It could be either "it (the card) read" or "she (Edith) read."  Because German pronouns have genders, it could be parsed either way (with sie referring to Edith or referring back to die Karte).  I went with "it read" because the focus here seems to be on the card itself.

The "dull brilliance" ("Etwas von dem matten Glanze...") in the description of Edith's hair seems to be an oxymoron, but I think it's that way in the original.  As far as I know, it's not my own translation error.

I couldn't find translations of Leibrock or Halbfrack.  It's clear from the context that they're types of coats or jackets, but I couldn't find anything specific, so I've put them in brackets.

Month 8: Pages 13-14

This Week's Installment

     “Quite right.  He wrote his work about East Prussia,” he retorted with sharp emphasis and carried on:  “It was far from him as theologian and is in the opinion of all experts the best that was ever written about our province.  No, you don’t know him, Edith.  He locked himself up - it was once his arrangement.  But in him is the same blood and the same longing as in us.  No one loves his home as he.”
     His serious words made perhaps a certain impression on her, but they did not convince.  “You said once that he was supposed to become a full professor in Königsberg.  How has it really turned out with that?”
     “He failed at the last minute because of some direct question that, of course, in theology  always plays a role.  He has never gotten over it.  I believe - “  He wanted to add something else though, broke off and said:  “Now we’ve spoken still only of me and of us.  But of your father you have told me nothing yet.  How does it stand for him?”
     A shadow flew over her face.  “He wants to let nothing arise, certainly not!  That’s why he pulls himself together, often well over his strength, especially when company is there.  But I know best that since the death of the mother, he is not the boss anymore.  That summer I did not get him out of here.  He cannot separate himself from the economy and still sits on the same horse everyday.  He wants to stay in practice, like he says.  But in winter we must go to Rodenburg; privy councillor Raber wants to carry out a regular treatment with him.  Hopefully it helps.” 

---13--- 

     Through the quiet park echoed clear calls.  Only now they noticed that their long absence was conspicuous, that the night had advanced.  They got ready to go back in the house.  But before they stept on the veranda, Edith said, “Do tell me that about Hans quickly!

Interesting Words I Ran Across

• das Fürwort - pronoun [I love how the constituent parts of this sort of explain what a pronoun is.  Für and Wort are clearly visible, and a pronoun is something that stands for something else, a for-word.]
• die Pferdeäpfel - horse droppings [literally: horse apples]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I feel I should make a note of the sentence "Niemand liebt seine Heimat wie er" (No one loves his home as he), which is very close to the title of the book - Wer die Heimat liebt wie du (Who loves the home as you [do]).

I feel that "[er] sitzt jeden Tag noch zu Pferde" ("[he] still sits on the same horse everyday") is an idiom that I'm not completely understanding.  I looked under "Pferd" in my German-English dictionary, but I didn't find anything enlightening there (although that's how I found Pferdeäpfel, so it wasn't a complete waste).  I tried Google Translate too, but that wasn't helpful either.  It seems to have the same meaning as the phrase "stuck in a rut," but even looking that up in the English section didn't lead me to anything.

Month 7: Pages 11-13

This Week's Installment

The italicized parts are things I'm unsure about.

“He is however completely out of the question.  He lives only in higher fields and is sincerely happy in his lecturer function.  He writes one article after another; one can hardly open a newspaper or magazine without reading his name.”
     “You have never thought very highly of his intellectual profession.”
     She pursed her lips.  “It is actually very far from us; it is

---11--- 

very far from you to all the Bärwald.  It is something - I wouldn’t like to hurt you or him, but I can’t put it an-other way - something not completely manly in it.  You, your ancestors, everything as you told me so often, cultivate your land or carry the sword.  He studies theology and philosophy and who-knows-what-else and became a champion of the quill.”
     “It was his hobby even in the first year of grammar school.  And you cannot deny that he had brought it to something.  His name has become widely well-known.”
     “That may be.  You, and especially you in your oversized modesty, have always made who-knows-what out of him.  But to me your profession appears more valuable, and even if you become a countryman, under these circumstances, I can’t understand it any better.”
     “Then I must venture it even without your kind approval.”  A dismissive tone, such as she had never heard from him, was in his answer.  “But as far as Hans is concerned, you do him wrong, have always done it.  And that annoys me.”
     She shrugged her shoulders.  “What do I know of him?  He is over fifteen years older than I and has never paid attention to me.  You took yourself as the chivalrous boy of the small daughter next door and were later my dancer in Rodenburg and by the good men here.  He was always the superior, always stood apart.  He didn’t play as a boy and didn’t dance as a man.  His books were the world for him and his ambition.  What is Reckenstein worth to him, yes, even Bärwalde?”
     “Every vacation, every simply conceivable free time he spent in Bärwalde.” 

---12--- 

     “Yes.  He sat up in his room, at best sometimes in the garden and wrote his books!”

Interesting Words I Ran Across

• ätsch - see!; serves you right! [I love how there's just a single word for this.]
• der Geck - fop
• sich freuen wie ein Schneekönig - be tickled pink, be pleased as punch [literally: to be glad like a snow king]
• spuken - to haunt [I think I ran across this one other time, but it's more seasonally-appropriate now.  Also, I like how it sounds similar to spook.]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I'm not sure if I have "Der kommt doch gar nicht in Betracht" translated strictly correctly, although I do have the same idea.  "Nicht in Betracht kommen" means "to be out of the question," but I didn't know how to combine that with "gar nicht," which means "not at all."  I went with "He is however completely out of the question."  "Not at all" and "completely" are different, but they mean pretty much the same thing.

"Dozententätigkeit" isn't in my dictionary, but der Dozent (lecturer) and die Tätigkeit (action, function, etc.) are, so I translated it as "lecturer function."

I feel like I need a stronger word than just "open" for "aufschlagen" in "man kann kaum eine Zeitung oder Zeitschrift aufschlagen, ohne seinen Namen zu lesen" ("one can hardly open a newspaper or magazine without reading his name").  Edith seems to have a slight disdain for Hans' omnipresence, and "aufschlagen" seems to indicate that.  In this context, it means just "open," but my dictionary also says it means "break open; crack egg," "cut one's knee," and some others.  The verb "schlagen" is clearly visible, which by itself means "hit, beat, punch," etc., so clearly there's more force than "open" describes.  It's more like: "you can hardly slap open a newspaper or magazine without having to read his name," but that changes the grammar of the sentence.  I referenced my thesaurus and momentarily thought of employing "crack," as in "crack [open] a book," but a book is more substantial than a newspaper or magazine, and I don't think the same term could apply.  "Crack [open] a newspaper" just sounds kind of ridiculous.  So while I can't seem to find a word that has the same aggressive tone, I thought I would at least mention that there's a slight undertone of contempt there.

It took a bit of effort to correctly translate "Sie schürzte die Lippen."  When I looked up schürzen in my dictionary, it gave me only to gather up.  I was dubious about this because "She gathered up the lips" doesn't sound like anything a normal person would say.  I typed "schürtze die Lippen" into Google Translation, and it gave me "pursed lips."  I'm not completely confident in Google Translate though, so I looked up purse in the English section of my dictionary, and I did find schürzen.  So I've sorted that, but I don't know why "purse s.o.'s lips" isn't included under schürzen in the German section.

"Ihr, eure Vorfahren, alle, wie du mir so oft erzählt, bebauten ihr Land oder führten das Schwert" seems odd to me because it introduces a 2nd person plural pronoun ("Ihr"), but that pronoun doesn't seem to have an antecedent.

In "Es war sein Steckenpferd schon auf der Prima," Warsow talks about Hans' schooling.  My dictionary has some different definitions of "Prima" depending on the nationality of the education:  "Brit. sixth form; Austrian first year (of grammar school)."  Neither of these is German, but I went with the "first year of grammar school" because by the way Warsow explains it, this is something that's been Hans' hobby for a long time, and the first year of grammar school has some inherent primacy.

It's unfortunate that English doesn't have different words for singular you and plural you because "You (pl.), and especially you (sg.)..." is quite confusing.  Also, that sentence and its various yous has made me realize that Edith and Warsow have a pretty close relationship because they use the familiar form of you (du) with each other, or at least Edith uses it with Warsow here.

I'm not very happy with my translation of "But to me your profession appears more valuable, and even if you become a countryman, under these circumstances, I can’t understand it any better."  I think it provides the same sense as the original, but I had to change a lot of things from the original to make it sound a little better (and I don't think it even sounds that good).

I've translated "auf den Gütern" as "by the good men," although I took some liberties with it.  The "Gütern" was the difficult part.  As a preposition, "auf" could take either accusative or dative case.  Because there isn't movement here, I think it's dative.  As a result, the "den" is plural.  I couldn't find the same form of "Gütern" in my dictionary, but there is an entry for "der Gute," a substantive adjective of "good" for "good [man]."  I can't account for the umlaut over the u or the -n ending however.

I can understand the idea behind "jede nur erdenklich freie Zeit," but I can't seem to find a good English translation for it, at least not one that's faithful to the original text.  Currently, I have "every simply conceivable free time," which is comprehensible if not very fluid.
My dictionary gave me a few translations for erdenklich ("imaginable, conceivable, possible"), and conceivable seemed to fit the best.  The "denk" part of erdenklich comes from denken (to think), so possible seemed too different, and since Hans is earlier described as a sort of stodgy academic, I thought conceivable was better suited than imaginable.  So I went with the most straight-forward word that also had cerebral connections.

Month 6: Pages 10-11

This Week's Installment

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

“And if one had now let you in your garrison?”
     “Perhaps I would have stayed,” after short reflection he replied, “and perhaps not.  See, Edith, it is a thing specific to the job of a soldier in peacetime.  He is created for war.”
     “Who knows how soon we will have it!”
     “Then it would have been desire and happiness to be a soldier.”
     “And now?”
     “It likes to lay in the blood,” he answered, and his voice was serious, almost heavy, “that sticks to the clod and cannot get off from it.  It is something in me that pushes me to the country; I grew up on it, and I feel one with it.  The metropolis would suffocate me, paralyze the last strength in me.  Another can’t understand it for me, but I know it.”
     “So do you mean to become a countryman?”
     “It was certain for me for a year and a day, only I could not come to the decision.  Now the last moment is there, later I would be too old to go to school again.”
     “You want to go to Bärwalde, to your uncle?”
     “I intended to ride over tomorrow from here and discuss the details with him.  If he too is now frail and doesn’t worry much about the economy, one still has much from 

---10--- 

him because he is cleverer than all the others and has a rich experience.  And his inspector, you know what he’s like, the old Borowski, is the best teacher that I can have.  Also, there’s more in that one than his modest nature shows at a quick glance.”
     Edith knew Fritz; she knew that he was never dissuaded from that which he got down to.  She set therefore a joking tone that he loved on her since the childhood years and that had always decided so many serious conversations between them.  “Listen, if you went out of a promising career now all of a sudden and will have worked out as a farmer, and on top of that, at your old childless uncle’s place in Bärwalde, what will your comrades say?  Will they also believe in the purity of your inclination as harmlessly I do?”
     He laughed.  “You mean they will take me for a sly boy who in good time wants to secure the warm nest for himself.  You can be calm; I am safe from such suspicion.  Bärwalde is not yet entailed, but it has always been treated as such; one has acted exactly on the laws of the seniority.  And there Hans is the older of us both --”
     “Hans? - him?!” she asked, and her voice had all of a sudden an indifferent, an almost disdainful sound.

Interesting German Words I Ran Across

• die Flinte - gun, shotgun [slightly interesting because it seems related to flint, the spark from which triggered the shot, but there's also a related idiom]
• die Flinte ins Korn werfen - give up, throw in the towel [but literally: to throw the shotgun into the corn]
• die Sisyphusarbeit - Sisyphean task
• der Glanz - shine, luster, brilliance, &c. / glänzen - shine, glitter, sparkle [again, I can't confirm this because my German dictionary doesn't have etymologies, but I'm wondering if there's a connection between Glanz and the English glance.  According to Merriam-Webster, glance comes from the Middle English verb glencen.]
• die Glühbirne - light bulb [I learned this in German class but had forgotten until now; the -birne part of light bulb means pear by itself (die Birne).  Since glühen is the verb for to glow, Glühbirne is more-or-less glowing pear.]
• der Jux - (practical) joke, aus ~ for fun, for a laugh [I find this interesting because it's pronounced the same as yuks, which means the same thing.]
• das Malheur - mishap, accident [Again, I can't confirm this, but this seems to come from French.  Initially, I thought malheureusement - unfortunately, but in looking that up, I discovered that in French le malheur is bad luck, which - while not the same as accident - is similar.]

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I wasn't sure how to translate "Bärwalde."  Literally, it's "Bear Wood," but - as I've learned by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's letters (he was very particular about translations of his books) - place names shouldn't always be translated.  I looked it up only to find that there are three different Bärwaldes (or - more accurately - Bärwälder).

I found them on Google Maps, but that didn't help in determining which one Edith refers to.  Because the mayor says (on page three) that Edith is from an "East Prussian" home, I thought that the Bärwalde that's referred to would be in the eastern part of Germany - the part closest to Prussia.  But all of these Bärwaldes are in the eastern part:  Bärwalde, Niederer Fläming is the more northern one; Bärwalde, Boxberg is the more eastern one; and Bärwalde, Radeburg is the more southern one.  The Bärwalde in the text could be any one of these, or even a historical Bärwalde that doesn't exist anymore or a Bärwalde that the author made up.

I'm a bit confused about the later part of "wenn du jetzt mit einem Male aus einer verheißenden Laufbahn herausgehst und ausgerechnet Landwirst wirst."  "Herausgehst" goes with "du," for "you... went out."  I can't make sense of having both "ausgerechnet" and "wirst" unless it's a future perfect form that also takes sein instead of haben.  So:  "You will have worked out."  That's how I translated it, and it seems to make sense, but I can't make a clear path through the grammar.

In two sentences exactly a week apart (the 7th and the 14th), I ran across the phrase "mit einem Male."  At first I thought this was an-other instance of how German had apparently changed since 1916, since the preceding "einem" seems to indicate that it's singular yet my dictionary says that the "-e" ending indicates a plural (either "times" or "marks").  But when I looked it up a second time for the second occurrence, I found "mit einem ~(e)" ("all of a sudden") in my dictionary.  I don't understand it literally (the singular "einem" goes with a plural ending?), but now that I understand that it's an idiom, my sentences make more sense.

I've been consistently translating words like "der" and "die" as demonstrative pronouns (so, "that one" or "this one"), but when I ran across it again this month, I looked it up and found that it can also be translated as just a personal pronoun ("he," "him," etc.), which makes for a smoother translation.  I should go back and fix some of the older ones, but I probably won't.
As it is in the text, one of those pronouns should be nominative, but I intentionally put it in accusative instead.  It's "Hans? - der?!" so the English should be "Hans? - he?!," but English messes up the cases to such a point that "Hans? - he?!" sounds weird.  I went with "Hans? - him?!"

This isn't limited to German, but the interrobang as it's present in the text seems backwards to me.  It has ?!, but !? has always looked better to me.  I retained the ?! however.