Month 84: Pages 134-136

This Month's Installment

As always, the italicized part is what I'm unsure about.

Bad enough that one could not go out at least as a chaplain to encourage the soldiers,

---134---

and to comfort and take care of the wounded.  I was at the town hall yester-day-"

    "You wanted to come too?" askt Fritz, full of amazement.

    "Certainly I wanted to.  But they absolutely refused it.  I would be indispensable here, I had to be content with that."

    "You will do good here too.  I'm completely sure of it."

    "I will not be idle.  That is the only comfort that remains for me."

    This day a completely new agreement between the two brothers was sealed.  Quite wonderful, said Hans to himself, what everything enables to-day.  They give new meaning not only to the matters but also to the people and our whole relationship to them.

    In the early morning of the next day, Fritz moved out with his soldiers.  For Hans, however, the hours that Fritz stayed in his house were become hours of incomparable benefit.  I had never previously thought I would ever go to school with him, he said to himself, and now he is become a good teacher for me!

    And it became again happy and free in him.

    Meanwhile, Fritz went out into the dawning morning that was blossoming in the dull blue sky and filled the quiet world with its triumphant light.

    The next stop he had to take a short meal was Pronitten; from there on out, there was then a long march straight through the country to the staging grounds of the troops.  He still would have liked to ride close to Bärwalde for a moment, but he had no time for this.

    Tired and sleepy lay the large parish garden in the heat of the morning.  A few white moths

---135---

glided slowly over the flowerbeds there, the buzzing of the bees that drowsily flew from blossom to blossom was the only sound in the stifling loneliness.

    He didn't need to look for long.  Through the high shrubs of the beans over there, where the vegetable garden was positioned, he saw a woman's dress shimmering; now he was at her side, so quickly that she had not noticed his coming at all and became aware of him only through the jingle of his spurs as he stood close by her.  A slight shock went through her body, but a bright joy shone out of her face towards him.

    "How nice that you have come once again!" she said in her winning manner and shook his hand.

    "Yes," he replied, "what you still did not want to believe back then is now here.  A few minutes more, then I move out from here with my troops to the assembly point.  And then we face the enemy."

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I translated "Sammlungsort" as "staging grounds," but literally, it's something like "collection place."

I don't know if "the high shrubs of the beans" really makes any sense, but it's the best I could come up with.

This is the end of chapter twenty-six and the beginning of chapter twenty-seven.

Month 83: Pages 132-134

This Month's Installation

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

     As she sat down to breakfast with him, Hans came, who had had work to do in the church and then had made a hospital visit.  His joy was no less affectionate when he saw Fritz in the gray cavalry uniform before him.

---132---

     "I had already given up on being able to shake your hand again, but now here we are.  How happy I am about it!"

     With a splendid appetite, Fritz ate the beautiful Bärwalder sausage that the Hutemach had sent just to-day.

     "What do you think of the situation, then?" Hans askt.

     "Good.  The Russians will make us work here.  But we will force them.  It is, however, a pleasant duty now, with the sword in hand, to be able to defend these East Prussians, who have come to mean so much."

     "We have many enemies."

     "Certainly.  But they fight because they must.  With us, the simplest train conductor knows what it's about.  That's the difference."

     Hans glanced over at Fritz.  He had always liked him, yet sometimes he had probably not assessed him highly enough.  There he sat across from him and was of such great confidence and of such cheerful courage and ate his sausage and his ham without any scruple and thought, like his best days in Bärwalde.  And yet he was about to go into battle and give his life into death.

     Finally, Fritz was finished with his breakfast.  He gave a few instructions to an under-officer who waited outside and then stept back into the room.  Else was gone into the kitchen to make arrangements for the billeted squad's meal.  The two brothers were alone.

     "Things haven't been going well for you, Hans?" Fritz askt, and the old, heartfelt concern that he had always had for his older brother spoke out of his words.

     "It's not worth talking about.  It was more so

---133---

a sort of spiritual pressure, too much was rushing at me.  But that is long past."

     "I have often thought about you now.  It was perhaps not so untrue what Edith once thought."

     "Edith?" replied Hans, and something irritated was in his question.  "What did she think?"

     "That it would be one's own thing to build his life completely on the spiritual."

     "Indeed she must know that well!  Only through the spiritual are we become what we are."

     "Quite right.  In the soul lay characteristics through which one wins or loses battles, a great general from 1870 said something like that.  Now we will see whether that which was sown in it during the long peacetime will bring the fruits that we need out there:  the act of will power and the strength for victory that flow only out of a pure conscience."

     Again, Hans lookt at his brother.  And for him it was as if he saw him now with completely different eyes, yes, as if he saw him for the first time in his life.  What he spoke then sounded so clever and thought through, it was the same thing that he said over and over to himself now in many a sleepless night, it was the new and overwhelming knowledge that came to him during these few days.  And with what delicate consideration and care he expressed it to him!  With that certain respect that he had always shown for his older brother and his actions and that even now, where he was of a different opinion, he did not deny.  He stood up and gave Fritz his hand:  "You are right, dear man.  The time of thinking and brooding is past, that of action is come.  You who are setting out are the heroes.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I couldn't find an exact translation for "Schlachtenlenker," but it's obviously a combination of "Schlachten" (battles) and "Lenker" (ruler or pilot), so I translated it as "general."

Month 82: Pages 131-132

This Month's Installment

The italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.

Until yester-day, I workt in the command headquarters in Königsberg.  How everything went well and was in good form!  It was a joy."

     "And even now you are come to us!"

     He laughed: "Oh, you mean to dismiss me solemnly!  No, my good little old lady, as laudable and proper as that would be, the war leaves us no time for that.  I am, of course, here on official business.  Last night, I took a train of soldiers from Königsberg, we are billetted here until to-morrow.  You will also receive yet an-other man."

     "It should be good to have your people with me!"

     "I want to believe that.  They are splendid guys!  But when they have to wait so long for a snack, like their captain..."

     "I didn't think of that!  Pardon me, I just want to fetch Hans, then I'll make everything ready."

     But he called back to her again.  "How is it with Hans, then?" he askt.

     A shadow flew over her face.  "He has had a very difficult trip home."

     "I heard about the story.  Unbelievable!  That's how they do it!  But after all... we are living in a war now.  And a thing like that forces itself."

     "Then he arrived here quite exhausted just an hour before the mobilization and without any break had to throw himself into a breathless activity.  Everyone came to him.  One saw rightly what love and what confidence they showed in him."

---131---

     "That is nice and must have lifted him up."

     "So it did.  He preached like I have never heard him before.  Then it went from one official act to an-other, I barely saw him at meals."

     "Good for him, who now has something to do!"

     "But you know how all of that touches him internally.  It was always his weakness and his strength at the same time, good for others because he gives to them from his whole soul, consuming for him."

     "Now we all must more or less consume ourselves, we owe it to the Fatherland."

     "He said the same thing.  And everything was going very well - until England's declaration of war came."

     "Why the devil does that band of grocers worry him?"

     "That's not it at all.  It's something else.  He doesn't talk about it, but I know it.  His whole philosophy of life, the Christian foundation on which he built until now, has begun to waver.  Two worlds are wrestling in him:  the old, which he built on the foundation of his spiritual activity in long times of peace that has now collapsed in ruins, and the new, in which he should find himself."

     The maid came and said that there were soldiers downstairs in the hall who showed a billeting note.

     Now Else had plenty to do.  But she did it all quickly, she was not allowed to lose any of the precious time that she could still be together with Fritz.

Month 81: Pages 128-131

This Month's Installment

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

Even the sky was busy movement.  The clouds blew in as if they wanted to say:  We are going along, we are

---128---

mobile!  And the sun shone brightly and clearly, as if it showed the way to battle, to victory!

     In Rodenburg, everything was activity; at the train station, in the depots, in the garages a running and hurrying, a humming and whirring.  And the night was like the day:  action and pressing forward.

     Everywhere, one saw soldiers:  individually, in groups, in trains.  Regiments wandering with resounding play through the streets, volunteer guards of the civil defense, their guns strapped over their soldiers, strode up and down, to the public buildings, the bridges, the water tanks.  Everyone had got going with each other, like the wheels of a great clockworks, and in everyone a calm and strength at the same time, as if this work belonged to the daily practice and didn't at all mean something new or strange.

     Even for Hans these days, there was no less to do than on Sunday.  The emergency weddings increased, throughout the whole afternoon, he had Communion distribution, in his study there was an incessant coming and going.  He found the right word for every one, and each felt that it imparted love and sympathy.

     A satisfaction, which all of his activity and work so far had not given him, came over him, he felt that in the great movement that now strode inexorably and violently through the world, he was no useless member.  Moreover, the certainty and matter-of-fact-ness with which the mobilization outside was carried out, the courage and confidence that shone out of every word, out of every eye, filled him with pride and admiration for his people.

     But then came moments when the holy

---129---

need of the time gripped him deep in his heart, when only with quiet melancholy in his face could he look at the fathers of the families, who had to tear themselves away from wife and child, the young men moving into the field with such a holy desire and burning enthusiasm.  The unnaturalness of the war, which destroyed all culture and dealt a blow in the face to all Christianity and to all religion, spoke to his mourning soul in these moments.  Then there was a despondency in his soul, of which he felt ashamed, against which he fought with all stubborn strength, but which always came over him anew.

     "I am here for billeting with Pastor Warsow in St. Nikolai!"

     "Fritz!" cried Else and rushed towards the entering man.  "How fresh you look, and how your uniform suits you!  I haven't seen you in it for a long time."

     "I also feel very well in it.  Now the devil may walk around in civilian clothes and work the fields or fertilize the soil.  Now indeed one knows why one is a soldier!  And you can probably imagine how it has pleased me that not only did they put me in my dear old cuirassier regiment but have even made me orderly."  His eyes shone, holy joy enhanced his manly face.

     "That I can, my good boy!  But you have earned it."

     She had always been very proud of her younger brother.  After the early death of their parents, she had helpt to raise him.  With Hans was she similarly bound, across from him she felt like a mother.

     "If only our Fatherland had such genuine men!"

---130---

     "It has quite different ones, I tell you!" he parried, in his modesty almost shockt about her words.  "You should see them!  There is a courage and a circumspection in them, it is astonishing!

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

While trying to piece together "Nottrauungen" (emergency weddings), I happened upon the phrase "in der Not frißt der Teufel Fliegen."  My dictionary says this is the equivalent to "beggars can't be choosers," but literally, it's something like "in need, the devil eats flies."

This is the end of chapter twenty-five and the beginning of chapter twenty-six.

Month 80: Pages 126-128

This Month's Installment

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

   "Pastor," the young woman who had kept silent until then reported to Hans, "my husband has laid in the city hospital for three weeks with an open leg wound.  Even now it is not well yet."

     "Will you be quiet, Tine!  I don't need to walk, I come by horse," the young soldier dismissed, annoyed.

     But Tine did not pay attention to him:  "The doctor did not want to let him go.  But there was no holding him back.  His bad leg, his salary, his wife, nothing matters to him, he must go to the war!"

     "It is also rightly so.  Now there is no salary and no sickness.  Now there is only the Fatherland, which is in need - Bye, Pastor and thanks a lot!"

---126---

     When Hans came home, again someone was waiting for him.  "A young man," said Else," who still wanted to speak to you under any circumstances."

     "A face that was known to him beamed opposite him.  "The pastor doesn't know me any more.  Fritz Mattern.  I was here once with Pastor and askt him for his kind recommendation because I wanted to join the navy."

     "I remember, but you were not taken, and you received a much better position in a business here as an electrical engineer, with which you were very satisfied."

     "Yes," answered the young man, his mouth formed a joyful smile, triumph shone in his small eyes, "but now I have indeed achieved it!  I am become a stoker on a warship.  It leaves to-morrow!  And I still wanted to tell you about it!"

     "A people of heroes!" said Hans to his sister.  "Man for man!  This one a chief engineer on a submarine!  Under the water, he goes into the deepest dark, sees not sky and earth, always in difficult stations full of responsibility, ready for death, certain of death, in which the blonde wife waits for him, prays for him.  The other has an open leg wound!  But he jumps on his horse because his Fatherland is in need.  The third is proud and overjoyed because he gives up a good position so that he may do stoker service deep underwater in the night and blazing heat of a giant ship.  And they all rush into danger and death with beaming smiles, with firm confidence of victory!  Dear Fatherland may be calm!"

---127---

     Feverish days followed, days full of fervor and energy, full of hot pressure and anticipation.  The war went through the country.

     It had always been there, but it had been sleeping.  Sleeping under the fields, which yielded their fruits in their time, under the rising crops, which the sun swept across with a soft, warm hand, which the storm bent and lifted again.  Sleeping in the heat of the days, in the refuge of the cool nights, under the songs of the birds that announced the spring, under the falling leaves that the autumn spread over the fragrant ground like a rich gold blanket.  So soundly sleeping that they all had forgotten it, wrapt up in their tiny joys and small sorrows, busy with their worries and their plagues, without which they simply couldn't live, and Christmas after Christmas sang thanklessly their "Peace on earth," as it had to remain, forever, without any end.

     Now, however, it had awakened.  It stretched its bony members, it took its powerful scythe and lifted its snake-haired head.  It tore the iron horn from its fleshless ribs and blew with its bloodless lips until its lowest depth that rang and cried through the whole world:  "The war has arisen!  Prepare yourselves!"

     And they prepared themselves.  It was as if the whole world rumbled with the footsteps of deploying troops, with the hoofbeat of saddled horses.  Through the forests and fields went the frenzy of the important time.  In their formidable strength stood the trees, the slender trunks neatly in a row, as if ready to march.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Although it's describing fields, not a tree, the relative clause "which yielded their fruits in their time" seems to borrow from Psalm 1:3:  "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers."  In the original German novel text, it's "die ihre Früchte brachten zu ihrer Zeit," and in the German Psalter, it's "der seine Frucht bringt zu seiner Zeit."

The phrase "Friede auf Erden" also comes from the Bible.  Luke 2:14:  "Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe und Friede auf Erden bei den Menschen seines Wohlgefallens."  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."

This is the end of chapter twenty-four and the beginning of chapter twenty-five

Month 79: Pages 125-126

This Month's Installment

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

     "Were there even many people with you?"

     "A few men who wanted to say goodbye before they go in the field.  They must leave behind business and work and part from wife and children.  But you should have heard with what confidence and joy they went, all of them!  One took his boys with, whom I had just confirmed; and when his wife cried, he said, 'Mudder, laß jut sein... 's is Anstandspflicht jejens Vaterland.'"

     After the meal, he lay down and immediately fell into a death-like sleep.

     He must have rested for a long time because it was already softly getting dark when Else step into his room.  He could barely pull himself together, he didn't know where he was.  All of a sudden, it occurred to him:  "Oh, yes, it is war!"  Then he was very awake.

     "I have disturbed you reluctantly, but Seydelmann was just here.  A few more people have come who move out to-morrow morning and wish Holy Communion."

     He stood up immediately and put on his cassock.

     "The one asked for you specifically, he is a son of Bärwalder Kutscher."

     "What?  Of old Schikorr himself?  I married him here only in May - and now also with!"

     Two couples stood in the sacristy, in which he distributed Holy Communion at such a late hour:  the young Schikorr, who in his civilian occupation was a locksmith and now made a martial impression as a cavalryman, and then an-other.  In the dim twilight, he couldn't recognize the uniform.  But he stood so quietly and calmly at the side of the pale blonde woman

---125---

that he thought:  "Perhaps one who must not go directly into the fire, a military officer or something like that."

     After the ceremony, he approached him, as he was in the habit of doing.  Now he saw that he belonged to the navy.  "Chief engineer on a submarine."  He answered so quietly and firmly, as if it were a small trial run.  And the young blond woman at his side brushed away a tear, as if she was ashamed of herself.

     Hans had also said a few friendly words to young Schikorr.  When he left the sacristy, he saw that his left foot was dragging.

     "What's wrong, Schikorr?  Something with your leg?"

     "Yes, but, Pastor, it is nothing."

     "But you are limping."

     A bright smile.

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

When Hans quotes one of his parishioners, it's spelt in what is apparently the man's dialect, and I understand only a few words of it, so I just left it as it is.

I had been translating Sakristei as vestry because this is the only translation that my dictionary provides.  I'd suspected that it could also mean sacristy, and the context here seemed to favor this (why hold Communion in the vestry?), so I lookt up sacristy in the English-to-German section of my dictionary and found Sakristei.  I'm sure there are a few earlier instances I should change now.

Month 78: Pages 122-124

This Month's Installment

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

     It sounded like a cry out of deepest need, like a confession at the same time of confidence and of faith, the mountain moves and rising tides ebb.  Now confidence and victory were also in his soul, enthusiastically and in high spirits as never before, he went to the pulpit, he read the text:

     "Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.  There is a river

---122---

whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.  God will help her when morning dawns.  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

     One had never before heard him speak as on this day.  Usually, his sermon was full of intellect and deep thoughts, this time it was like a thriving fire of his words that, restrained only with effort, burned out of everyone and inflamed all who heard them.  And there was not one in the large church who went away from this service not lifted and purified.

     "That was the man whom we needed, especially for such a difficult time!  I saw it straight away back then and have made the right choice," said Mayor Stoltzmann to his wife at the exit.

     Edith went silently between the two.  The conversation again reminded her that she had not had Hans Warson in her home for a long time.

     After the service, the Lord's Supper was held in the church.  Again a large congregation gathered at the high altar:  men whom Hans knew only in their peacetime occupations, salesmen, civil servants, craftsmen, workers.  Now all in uniform, prepared for marching off:  officers, sergeants, corporals, privates.  And beside them their wives.  Then mothers and fathers to the side of their very young son who was going to war.  The women wept softly, even the eyes of the men shimmered with a trace of tears.  And yet everyone's composure was calm and strong.  How filled and loaded by the force of the moment.

---123---

     And he, who so many times had carried bitter lamenting in his despondent heart that humanity had broken away from God's gentle purpose, he distributed bread and wine and in this hour experienced what to him only a few days ago would have appeared impossible.

     But when he came home after uninterrupted work, he felt that he was at the end of his strength.  The hasty trip with its unpleasant incident, the sleepless night with its rushing thoughts, but more than that:  this morning with its great elevation and spiritual excitement had surely exhausted his delicate and soft-voiced organism.  He was annoyed at himself, he did not want to let it arise.  He spoke thoroughly and warmly with the people who waited for him in his study, he went into the church several times in order to hold war marriages and to baptize children whose fathers were going into the field.  And there he never did anything superficially but did everything with his whole soul, so that this all touched his heart.

     When, around two o'clock in the afternoon, he went out of the church for the last time and into his apartment, he suddenly felt such an intense, black flickering before his eyes that he had to hold on to the banisters in order not to collapse.  But he fought like a champion, took off his cassock, proceeded to the dining room, where Else already waited for him, showed a cheerful face, and forced himself to eat.

     "You have had a desperately hard day," she said.

     "But a great, a wonderful day!  I have experienced what I longed for with the entire fervor of my soul, on whose fulfillment I already despaired; now I have seen it with my own eyes.  This war has worked wonders in one day!"

---124---

Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae

The reading ("Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way...") is from Psalm 46, although some verses are dropt out.  The quoted text contains verses 3-5, 6b, and 8 in the German Psalter, where the versification is slightly different.  This corresponds to verses 2-4, 5b, and 7 in English translations.  Rather than do my own translation, I simply used the ESV translation.  It's a fitting reading to come after "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," since this is the Psalm that Luther used as a basis for that hymn.

This is the end of chapter twenty-three and the beginning of chapter twenty-four.

Month 77: Pages 120-122

This Month's Installment

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

     Upstairs in his study, Hans Warsow sat and workt on his sermon for Sunday to-morrow.  The day was already getting dark when he put down his pen.  Until then, he had spoken to his congregation in peace and about peace.  It was the first war sermon that he had written in his life.

     Now he had gone to bed.  Although he was tired from the strenuous trip and the long night work, he did not find sleep.  Too violent were the feelings that rushed at him, who was easy to take hold of.  He felt that an old world was now going to ruins, a new one was rising up.  Everything that he had until now thought and written, what he had read, planned, mulled over, appeared so empty and pointless to him in these hours lying awake at night; the entire structure that his never-idle spirit had organized in industrious work fell together like a house of cards; the outlook on life that he, after long years of inner struggling, after long doubting and hesitating, thought he had firmly established for his life, the events of a few days had raged over it like a storm tide and had torn gaps and holes in it that could not be filled again.  And he was become anew a searcher who set out on a journey for new values to put in the place of the old ones.

---120---

     Certainly, he had sometimes thought about the war, but it had always been just a game in his thoughts.  Now it was here and with it a completely new time.

     When he came to the breakfast table around six o'clock, he found Else already there.  She prepared the tea for him, she poured for him, she made a piece of bread for him, all in her faithful, homely way.  A solemn calm lay on her plain features and at the same time, a firm, strong confidence.

     Hans had never before seen his church so full as on this Sunday.  He wanted not to believe his eyes:  even half an hour before the start of the church service, all seats were occupied, the people were crowing in the walkways; as the organ started playing its prelude when the clock struck ten, no corner in the enormous church was empty, like a black wall the crowd stood in the wide aisles.  And above it towered the high Gothic vault.  Softly bathed in sun-gold, the old whitewashed sandstone pillars rose heavenwards.  The spider webs and the venerable dust that had gathered on them in the course of the centuries made them gleam and glow in this lightning, as if they were made of marble.  Through the old church windows, the bright daylight peered from above like a greeting eye and let its light play over the expensive, carved council pew.

     There sat Mayor Stoltzmann with his wife, just like back at his trial sermon.  But that was already over a year ago, and he had never seen him here again since then.  Now, however, he had come and his councillors with him, and not one was missing.  As if the whole city with its head in the lead wanted to bow before

---121---

God, Who now showed that despite all worldly powers and wisdom, He alone held the government in His hands.

     With slow steps, Hans paced up and down through his vestry, once more working through his sermon in his mind.  The thought of speaking in such an hour to such a gathering, to those who moved out to give their lives in death for their fatherland, to those who stayed behind and with heavy hearts saw them leave, caused in this hour nothing but a deep hesitation and worry in his soul.  With a fervor and purity, at the same time with an elemental force, like a storm sweeping away everything with it, as he had not heard them until now, the Luther tune rang out through the enormous church, into his quiet vestry:

A mighty fortress is our God,

A trusty shield and weapon;

He helps us free from ev'ry need,

That hath us now o'ertaken.

The old evil foe,

Now means deadly woe;

Deep guile and great might

Are his dread arms in fight;

On earth is not his equal.

 

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

A note (because I myself had forgotten):  this is the beginning of chapter twenty-three.

I don't know if it was intentionally composed this way or if it turned out this way just because of German grammar, but there's quite a distance between the subject and the verb in this relative clause:  "die er nach jahrelangem innerlichem Ringen, nach langem Zweifeln und Zagen endlich festgefügt für sein Leben wähnte."  I tried to keep this feature in my translation:  "that he, after long years of inner struggling, after long doubting and hesitating, thought he had firmly established for his life."

Some of the sentences near the end of this installment ("The thought of speaking in such an hour..." and "With a fervor and purity...") are so long that it was difficult to translate them well.  I'm unsure of the antecedent for the "sie" ("them") in the last sentence ("as he had not heard them").  Apparently, it's the members of the congregation.

Rather than try to translate "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" myself, I just used the translation in The Lutheran Service Book (#656).  I don't think I'd ever seen the original German though and was surprised to encounter it under these circumstances.  Here's the German text:

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,

Ein gute Wehr und Waffen;

Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,

Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.

Der alte böse Feind,

Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint;

Groß Macht und viel List

Sein grausam Rüstung ist,

Auf Erd ist nicht seinsgleichen.

Month 76: Pages 117-120

This Month's Installment

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

     "And I, in my unawareness, I noticed nothing, not in the least!  And only now does it fall from my eyes like scales:  the puzzling and contradictory nature of this girl, her secret beach walks, her fervent interest in the warship, her total reserve then with the arrival of the foreigners, the

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shared work until late into the night, - everything so clever, like the final plan that the two had cookt up when despite all their calculation, they were unexpectedly surprised by the events:  that she wanted to place herself as a harmless travel companion under my protection until the border and then bring herself in safety into the Russian territory at night.

     "That was certainly a wicked sequel!" said Else after a longer silence.  "Now your poor appearance no longer surprises me."

     "That is the least of it.  For me the matter is an unpleasant adventure and over with.  It is something quite different that I can't get over:  with what methods, Else, one already works against us, even before the war had begun!  Just such a nest of spies as here on the east border, they should have pulled out of the west.  Today already we are surrounded by betrayal on all sides, we in our German honesty and gullibility!"

     "May God still avert the worst from us!" said Else.

     Somebody knockt at the door.  Seydelmann, the sexton from St. Nikolai, stept in.  He had for a longer time been a sergeant; something soldierly had stayed in his character and in his bearing.

     "I have to report to the pastor that His Majesty the Kaiser has just ordered the general mobilization for the entire German army at sea and on land."

     Hans stood up.  "I expected it, we all did.  Now, however, that it is here - but it is good that it is here.  All uncertainty and all wavering are over now - God will be with us!"

     "It has further been ordered that

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to-night from eight to nine o'clock all church bells should toll for an hour long." - 

     The bells ring, through the whole city they ring, their brass mouth sounds in the lanes and over the markets, into the houses it calls, in the parlors, where the people sit at their work or at dinner, to the beds of the children it carries the news, and in the places where the sick restlessly toss and turn on their pillows.  "War!  War!  War!"  Ding-dong, ding-dong...  As a darkly surging, never interrupted line flowed the stream of people through the city.  Silently, some go, their gaze bowed to the ground, others talking lively and with their arms cutting complete circles through the air.  A few horsemen, armed for battle, come dispersed along the main street, a train of soldiers follows.  Loudly the captain's command resounds, the drums roll.  Tamtamtamtam!  War!  War!  War!

     Merchants announce extras, they sell quickly although they report only what everyone knows.  A detachment of infantrymen, their bundles under their arms, marches up.  "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" sounds from their lips.  In a coffee house in the market, violin and viola play patriotic songs, cheerful, confident of victory, courage-inducing.  But then they strike up an-other melody:  "Morgenrot, Morgenrot, leuchtest mir zum frühen Tod!"

     Three soldiers, just kitted out, sing along, without thinking anything of it.  A plainly dressed woman remains standing, her watery eyes shimmering.  It is the only thing that they take with to-morrow.  Brighter and louder the bell tone floods over the market.  "War!  War!  War!"  Ding-dong, ding-dong...

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     Now it falls silent.  A light rain falls, the beam of light of the city street lamps, which to-day appear to burn more sparsely and wearily than on previous days, reflects dully on the polished paving stones, the horn of a car sounds.  It is the urban.  The first mayor goes once again to the town hall.  A busy time is come for him.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

Hans' "And only now does it fall from my eyes like scales" is a reference to Acts 9:18:  "And immediately something like scales fell from his [Saul's] eyes...."  Or in German:  "Und jetzt erst fällt es wie Schuppen von meinen Augen" and "und sogleich fiel es von seinen Augen wie Schuppen."

I'm not sure if I have the right sense of "Eben solches Nest von Spionen, wie hier an der Ostgrenze, sollen sie im Westen gezogen haben."  Ziehen (inflected here as "gezogen") can mean "put in" or "take out," and between this ambiguity and the unidentified antecedent of the pronoun "sie," Hans could be saying either that they (the spies) should have established a presence in the west or that they (presumably some authorities in the west) would have dealt with a nest of spies more effectively than authorities in the east.

I translated it more prosaically as "on all sides," but the phrase "an allen Ecken and Enden" actually means "on all corners and ends."

Lest my translation be thought in error:  there really is a shift to present tense starting with "The bells ring..." ("Die Glocken klingen...").  I think this may be intended to illustrate the dramatic shift in the story here, where war is announced throughout the city.

As with "Lieb Vaterland, kannst ruhig sein," I didn't translate "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" or "Morgenrot, Morgenrot, leuchtest mir zum frühen Tod!" because they're song titles.

I'm not sure if there's meant to be a comparison (or contrast) implied between the three singing soldiers and the teary-eyed woman, but I wanted at least to note that while I couldn't think of a way to include this in my translation, the descriptions of them have some similarity.  The three soldiers are described as "eben eingekleidete" (just kitted out) and the woman as "schlichtgekleidete" (plainly dressed).  Both of these adjectives are derived from kleiden, to dress.

This is the end of chapter twenty-two.

Month 75: Pages 115-117

This Month's Installment

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

     "Do you think I had gotten a taxi or a valet?  Everything has disappeared!  Now everyone is pointed to himself.  We will have to learn still other things."

     They were gone upstairs.  He proceeded to his study and cast a quick glance at the notes that had arrived.

     "It is nothing important," she said.

     He also had his mind on other things, she noticed.  She didn't like the look of him at all, his complexion was indeed tanned, but his eyes were dull and sunken, and although he had also pulled himself together, the restlessness that lay over his entire being and his movements could not escape her.

     "I had hoped I would find you more refreshed after your long vacation."

     He laughed stiffly.  "The upheaval came a little suddenly.  Out of the deep peace of Zoppot so quickly into this uncertainty!  Give me just

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a little to eat, and everything will be fine.  I haven't gotten anything yet, our train had no dining car, and there was such a rush at the stations that one preferred to stand back."

     She led him into the dining room.  The tea kettle bubbled on the table, bread, butter, and cold cuts were set there.  He sat down, he even helpt himself.  But even before the first bite, he stopt.

     "There is great unrest in the city," he said, "I heard paper money would not be accepted anymore, and the businesses were often closed for hours on end."

     "It is not so bad and will soon ease up again."

     "And in the congregation?  Has anyone askt about me? ...  How many would have to go with if it would really come so far!  One still hopes, yes, but I fear the chances are only very small."

     "Don't you want to tell me about your trip?"

     "An-other time.  It all lay so far behind me, as if it had been a hundred years ago; now there is nothing in me but the seriousness of the hour."

     "No," she said quickly and with worried eyes lookt him firmly in the face, "that is not it.  Something has happened to you-"

     "How do you know?"

     "You see, now you admit it yourself.  And now tell!"

     He pushed the plate away from himself and with agitated, sometimes faltering, then again overly fast voice told her his adventure up until the moment when his travelling companion was arrested as a dangerous Russian spy and he had also been led away out of the train.

     "And then?" she askt in breathless suspense.  "What did they do with you?  And how did you get free again?"

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     "Right away they put me in the train station in an already stopt, closed carriage and led me through the dark night to the guard.  There they started a short interrogation with me.  They were probably convinced of my innocence, but they did not set me free, I had to spend time in a not very cosy room until the next morning.  Then a higher officer came.  He did not doubt for a moment the truth of what I told him, regretted with hospitable sympathy the serious mishap that had befallen me through no fault of my own, added however that it would have been impossible for his officers to let me travel farther because my statement as a witness would be of great importance.  I found out that it had to do with a wide-ranging nest of Russian spies.  They had their accomplices everywhere, made plans and sketches, wrote and received traitorous letters.  And they knew how to act so cleverly that one tracked them down only yesterday, and this was possible only through the showing-off of one of theirs who had wanted to take revenge on the head of the band, a German-Russian by the name Sandkuhl.  That was the man that that ill-fated creature had introduced to me as a higher Russian officer.  He was of course not her master, but rather her partner, who had her quite in his control.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

In the original text, "up to the moment when his travelling companion was arrested as a dangerous Russian spy and he had also been led away out of the train" is in active voice with the indefinite pronoun "man":  "bis zu dem Augenblick, wo man seine Reisegefährtin als gefährliche russische Spionin verhaftet und auch ihn aus dem Zuge mit fortgeführt hätte."  I flipt it to passive voice simply because I thought it sounded better, but in this context, passive voice also illustrates the lack of agency that Nuscha and Hans had in that situation.