Pages 175-176

This Month's Installment

    "Yes," he replied, "you are right:  one must not brood over all that; then one does not endure it.  We must give even the last and the best, some their body, others their home.  The work is our only escape.  Come, we must go over; the ambulance can be there right away."

    Again the telephone rang.  Lodge for the Golden Key:  Mrs. Lisa Stoltzmann.  Of the four wounded announced, only three would come; one had just died upon arrival.  A Russian.  A captain even, a wonderful guy.  He had sat upright on his mattress and stared at them with large, glazed eyes, as if he wanted to devour them even in death.  He hadn't said a word when they had spoken to him, only gathered the thick coat tightly to himself with his hand, which - by the way - was very delicate and slender; so had he collapsed.  Well, it wouldn't come further into consideration; he was indeed only a Russian.

    How then did it go otherwise?  The time would probably be difficult, but yet also great and uplifting.

    "It is undoubtedly the carriage that the Reckensteiner led," said Hans, as he went over to the hospital with Else, "we must keep Edith at a distance so that she does not find out about it from a hasty man."

    The wagon drove straight up; the stretchers were lifted out; the lightly wounded

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went propped up on the arm of the attendants or nurses; Doctor Moll was on hand; the patients were laid in bed; the bandages were inspected and in some cases replaced; everything was proceeding quickly and surely; everyone was already settled in to work.

    "Perhaps you would come to my room for a moment, Miss von Barrnhoff," Hans askt Edith after the most important work had been done.

    "I have the nightwatch to-day."

    "I would like to speak to you."

    "My father has fallen."

Grammatical Minutia/Commentary

There's a long sentence near the end of this selection ("The wagon drove straight up...") that contains eight individual clauses (they're separated by commas in the original text, but I standardized these to semi-colons).  The long, drawn-out sentence provides a sense of the great amount of activity taking place.

The clause "Doktor Moll war zur Stelle" is literally something like "Doctor Moll was at the place" (or more prosaically "Doctor Moll was there"), but I translated it as "Doctor Moll was on hand" to retain something of the structure of the original.

Pages 173-175

This Month's Installment

    "In this time, one concern always drives out the others; the greatest comes first.  His injury appears to be only of a light nature, thanks be to God."

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    "But all that he must have seen and experienced in such a short time!"

    The telephone, which stood on Hans' work table, rang.

    The mayor.  A larger carriage of wounded would just be arriving with the railway.  The city hospital would take a few, but now there would be no more free beds.  Would a few admissions in the parish hall still be possible?  His wife had also volunteered the lodge.

    Certainly, a few could still be accommodated.

    How many at most?

    Six, perhaps even seven.

    Good.  They would come immediately by ambulance; it went to the lodge first and from there to the parish hall.  There would probably be four.

    Would there be anything else?

    Yes, the refugees were rapidly increasing.  A few new cities would be evacuated; one must prepare oneself for a larger influx.  He would hold a conference to-morrow at the town hall, to which he had invited a number of men. It seemed desirable to him that Hans would also take part in it.

    At what time?

    One o'clock in the morning.

    Good, he would arrive.

    "Again new cities evacuated!" said Hans as he put down the receiver.  "The misery marches on.  Our poor country!"

    "It must take it upon itself.  It is like one of the severely wounded warriors; it sacrifices itself so that the whole will be saved."

    "Yes - it sacrifices itself."

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    He lookt before himself for a long time.  An endless sadness was on his face.  She walkt over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder.

    "You must tear yourself away from your melancholy thoughts, Hans," she said with a warm, urging voice, "one must not think about all this so deeply."

Grammatical Minutia/Commentary

I think I've translated "Vormittags ein Uhr" correctly as "one o'clock in the morning," although this seems like an odd time to have a meeting.  Still, in this sort of urgent situation, such a time may be necessary.

I also want to point out that the word that I've translated as "telephone" is "Fernrufer," which seems like an old fashioned term.

Pages 172-173

This Month's Installment

Miss Hanna Teichgräber, my loyal nurse, tells me however that after a short period of work here, she was called to a Rodenburg hospital that should be under your and Else's management.  So the heavy duty falls to you to inform her gently of the death of the old man, and I am writing to you as quickly as possible so that she hears about it from no other.  Tell her that he has fallen as a hero.

    If I should yet relate something of myself, such is it:  it's going well for me, actually too well for a soldier in such a war.  But the idylls and quiet of a parsonage in peacetime are so dear to me, too, and I am so well lookt after here,

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in the war, every soldier burns against the enemy.  I hope in a short time to be able to be in the field again and with my troops and by this prospect rein in my impatience.  Yester-day and the day before yester-day, it was hot here.  We have fought bravely.  But it has also cost very heavy casualties.  Be well!

    Your Fritz."

    Hans set the letter, which he had just read aloud to Else, before himself on the desk.  It was already late in the evening; they had just come out of the hospital, and Else had taken care of her refugees.

    "It will be hard on Edith," she said.

    "Wonderful," he replied, "I was never well-disposed towards the old man, nor he to me.  But now, after this death, I see him in a different light, like everything, actually.  He really was quite a guy!  To go into the war at such an age and to die like that... tremendous!"

    He fought against the movement that wanted to overcome him.  He was now easily moved.  Previously, it had never been like him.  "I will have Edith called over," he said.

    "Don't you want to wait until to-morrow?  She has the night watch to-day.  In the afternoon, when she has had a good night's sleep, you can tell her about it; she'll still find out about it early enough."

    He was undecided for a moment.  "No," he said then, "it's not right to delay it until to-morrow; she must hear it immediately.  It was for this purpose that Fritz has written so quickly.  Of him you say nothing at all."

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I'm not sure whether "Von ihm sagst du gar nichts" at the very end of this selection is meant as an indicative (which is how I translated it:  "Of him you say nothing at all") or an oddly phrased imperative ("Of him say nothing at all").  As I get further into the conversation, maybe it will become obvious.

Pages 171-172

This Month's Installment

    One minute later, the locomotive goes slowly, carefully over the uninjured stretch of track.  "Halt!" calls the assistant, who rides on the machine with the stoker, to him.  He stops; the assistant gets out; for a moment, he stands motionless, lost in thought.

    "It is really he... our commander!" he says then to the stoker, "it was the grenade that we just saw explode."

    "We are taking him with," he replies, "maybe something can still be done.  But quickly, there is no time to lose."

    Now he also climbs down; both grab his still warm body with their strong arms, lift him up gently, lay him on the machine, as well as it goes.  Then down to the carriage.

    The coupling has happened lightning fast; the train moves away slowly, heavily through raining bullets and howling grenades with its wounded soldiers and its fallen commander, up the elevation over which, just permeating a cloud veil, the bloody moon rises.

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    Dear Hans!  I am using the opportunity of a car that is going through here to send a heartfelt greeting to you and Else.  Do not be surprised at the scribbled handwriting; I am a little wounded in the arm and must lie in bed for a few days.  That is unacceptable, insofar as it keeps me away from the battleground on which every man, otherwise insignificant, is now indispensable.

    But the Reckensteiner has fallen.  The splinter of an exploding grenade killed him near the battle-shrouded Malkaynen train station, whose commander he was, as you probably know.  A beautiful death!  The rescue and recovery of a great number of wounded was his work; he died faithfully keeping watch over their endangered carriage.  He is therefore not to be lamented.  But Edith loses much with him; father and daughter had, especially after the mother's going away, tenderly stuck close to each other.  Now she really has no one more and was always concerned about the old man.  I hoped to find her here in Pronitten, where I have been brought to a quick recovery.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

I translated "dem Hingehen der Mutter" as just "the mother's going away," but it might also be a somewhat euphemistic expression regarding her death.

This is the end of chapter thirty-two and the beginning of chapter thirty-three.

Pages 170-171

This Month's Installment

Are prayers rising out of the shot-up breast to Heaven for the victory of his own?  Will he then gladly die?  Life appears as unimportant as death to him too.  Why did he take the bloke with?  Why didn't he leave him there on the field below, so that he died like an animal?  Oh, yes - for Fritz's sake; that is something else.  Otherwise... ugh, Reckensteiner, how hard and unfeeling you are become!

    It was only a short rest; the bullets hail more heavily.  Here a dull, there a stronger flash of fire.  Like silver flares that explode in the air, then again like fountains that rise out of the black depths - one can hardly see anything; everything is smoke, dust, darkness; only the section where the stretch of track runs is dully lit by the last light of the sun, which sinks under a thick bank of clouds.

    Now the restlessness grips the old man.  The locomotive ought to have done its work a long time ago and been back.  Could something have happened to it; could it even have fallen into the hands of the enemy?  Then they would all be lost, whom he with greatest effort had sought to turn away even from death.

    It holds him no more; he climbs up the ravine that leads upwards before him and has a look along the railway.  But even here he can see little, although he is standing high up.

    But there... no, he is not mistaken, a sound like that of quickly moving wheels, a puffing, and quiet chugging... there it turns around the bend

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at the end of a long gorge; there it comes closer... victory!  That's it, the eagerly awaited locomotive; his brave warriors, all of the wounded are saved!  "Victory!" his lips stammer, cheer once again.  And automatically, he folds his hands.

    There - a whistling through the air, a single whirring, howling sound close above him, a harsh, piercing noise.  Funnel-shaped, the ground bursts in front of him; the dark brown earth flies up several meters, sprays on all sides; the branches of a mighty fir tree splinter, whirl around... now he sees and hears nothing more; black flickers, swims before his eyes...

Pages 168-170

This Month's Installment

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

    How might it look in Reckenstein now?  Whether they will also

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set the marauding feet there one day, will throw firebrands in the peaceful fields, the full barns, as in that farm over there, from which smoke and flames go up, always more, always closer?  Could it be that everything is become so indifferent!  To him who has seen it, what do personal possessions, personal happiness mean!?  Also that on which one has set his whole life, that one built and added to with stubborn diligence, with never-resting effort - that the fire may devour it!

    He thinks about Edith.  She has always been a dear daughter to him.  Now she has chosen the occupation of the Samaritan and cares for the wounded.  It is indeed also so natural.  What else should she do in this time?  Since his separation he has received no news of her.  But even that gives him no qualms.  And yet, otherwise, he was the most affectionate father and always in worry and fear for his child when once he was separated from her.  But now?  Who has time now to send letters!?  And Edith is a brave kid and will know how to help herself.  And if not - she has never feared death.  Just as little as he.

    He looks at the clock.  He has already done it several times, thoughtlessly, mechanically.  He doesn't even know now which hour the hand pointed to; time itself is become meaningless.  Only the wounded there inside and their rescue are worth thinking about.

    The sun sinks deeper and colors the tops of the trees purple-red; long blue shadows fall ghostly on the valley below him; now and then it flashes through fire that is flaring up; it already burns in all places; but the roaring of the cannons is no longer so deafening.

    In the train everything is quiet; only here and there a groaning tone pierces,

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a fervent groaning out of the opened windows.  Like a specter, bathed in the blazing evening- and fireglow, the Russian sits on his coal car; more often and faster the left arm grabs the field coat.

Grammatical Minutiae/Commentary

In the original German, the sentence "He thinks about Edith" is structured in such a way to highlight the object of the man's thoughts:  "An Edith denkt er," "about Edith thinks he."

The phrase "keine Nachricht von ihr" could mean either "no message from her" or "no news of her."  I noted this ambiguity earlier in the novel, too.  Perhaps by design, these two instances are inversions of each other.  Here, the Reckensteiner refers to Edith, and in the previous instance, Edith refers to him.

In the original German, the clause "wenn er einmal von ihm getrennt war" is literally something like "when once he was separated from it."  The antecedent of "ihm" is "sein Kind" ("his child") from the previous clause.  The pronoun is the neuter ihm because it refers back to the neuter Kind, but since Edith is obviously feminine, I translated the pronoun as the feminine her:  "when once he was separated from her."

Pages 167-168

This Month's Installment

    Thus stands the long row of carriages below in the ravine between the two mountain ridges, and above them, the grenades sing through the air and often explode not very far from them and, bursting, whistle their splinters on the rails.

    The wounded lay on their seats and cushions; many hardly know what is happening; the seriously injured are indifferent; the others also have gradually become used to these noises; they no longer bring them out of their rest.

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    On his bed on the coal car, the Russian captain sits upright.  Or rather he crouches, half sitting, half lying; because his wounds burn.  But he does not grimace; his face remains pallid, waxen, iron; now and then his healthy left arm reaches for the gray field coat and draws it up quite close.  That is the only movement of his body, which is otherwise motionless like a stump.  No one is allowed to leave the train.  The old Reckensteiner alone remains outside, shouting to the carriages here and there.

    Out of the farmstead over there, fire blazes up; straight as an arrow, columns of smoke and flame rise in the motionless air.  And from the heights all around, the guns crackle; black clouds of dust and dirt roll over the raging earth; uprooted plants fly about, as if it were a world in turmoil and the entire universe were burning.

    The old man thinks about Fritz, about his other wounded.  Whether he will lead them out of this wild confusion well, whether the locomotive will come back on time.  But also that without excitement.  Only with compassionate care for the good, brave blokes who lay there in their wounds.  "God may grant it!" he says to himself.  Nothing further.

    Suddenly, his thoughts are in Reckenstein.  It was actually a nice time that he spent there, despite some bereavements and sorrows.  Now it lies behind him like something that once was and can never return again, not even in changed form, something that never really was, a dream that he dreamt once in some night of joy.

Grammatical Minutia

I moved around some elements in "wie eine kerzengerade Säule steigen Rauch und Flamme in die unbewegte Luft."  Literally, it's something like "like a straight-as-an-arrow column, smoke and flame rise in the motionless air," but I condensed this a bit and translated it as "straight as an arrow, columns of smoke and flame rise in the motionless air"

Pages 166-167

This Month's Installment

    An endless train.  Close behind the engine, the two ration carriages, then the hospital carriage and a number of others with wounded laid side-by-side, on top of each other, the doctors and medical soldiers among them, and where the narrowness of the space possibly allowed it, helping them.

    The locomotive did not have it easy:  groaning and puffing, it tows forward the boa constrictor connected to it.  But suddenly, a halt; it has arrived at a narrow pass; the stretch goes uphill; the locomotive stalls.  The

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commander has feared it.  Therefore, he has guided the train up to here.

    The spot is critical; it lies between the high ridges, against which the troops have drawn back, to use them as backing and defense positions against the rushing enemy.

    In fact, on the other hand, one sees little of men, only small groups on the other side of the angularly undulating line, behind which houses and farms anxiously duck.  But in the air, the same sound:  like whirring wings and the whistling of a storm and jets of water whizzing up.  Even out of the treetops, the rain of bullets rattles down, beside the rumbling and thundering and roaring of the cannons.  The battle is in full swing, and he with his train is caught in the middle of the fire!  What will he do?

    He does not consider long.  First, it was a matter of bringing the ration carriages to safety; they must not fall into the hands of the enemy.  He gives an order to go backwards a little to a spot that lies deeper and is protected by the hills.  Then he lets the carriages be uncoupled by the soldiers and sends the locomotive with the rations ahead, to Gumbinnen, when it goes.  But as quickly as possible, it should come back and fetch the wounded; he himself will stay with them!

Commentary

Almost by accident, I translated "wie schwirrende Flügel und Sturmespfeifen und aufzischende Wasserstrahlen" so that it alliterates:  "like whirring wings and the whistling of a storm and jets of water whizzing up."

Pages 165-166

This Month's Installment

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

For a few days you must, under all circumstances, wait for the healing."

    The doctor says it with a certainty that cancels any protest.

    "We'll take you to Rodenburg," the Reckensteiner butts in; "Your brother is there, and my daughter can look after you."

    "No, if it must be and does not go otherwise, then bring me to Pronitten; I have promised it and can just see that everything is in order in Bärwalde."

    "Good, we are going past there, and you can stop by."

    The doctor has turned to other wounded.  He has hard work.  The injuries are partly of a difficult sort; it takes effort to make the people merely fit to be moved.  Even the Reckensteiner contributes.  There is not much time to lose because the train must leave.  It will not at all be able to take along everyone.  It holds troops.

    When his glance falls on Fritz's neighbor, a Russian captain with a slender, wiry body,

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his face motionless and waxen, his eyes lifeless, dead almost, his uniform disheveled and bloody, he sees a dead man similar to a living one.

    But the old man knows no sympathy; fury wins the upper hand and smothers the human feeling.  "He whom you leave behind has time!  And not much pomp at all is to be made with the bloke!"

    Not the slightest movement goes over the parchment face; coldly and calmly, the dead eyes stare at the commander.  But Fritz, who just wants to get into the train, turns around again.

    "Nothing there, Commander, the man must come with!  He has fought bravely and moreover passed his bottle to a wounded German soldier who lay near him and was crying for water."

    "I recommend what the Captain says," adds the doctor, who has just bandaged the wounded Russian, "he has three different wounds, one of which looks nasty.  Let someone put him here, so he is taken care of."

    "A great misfortune," rants the commander, "yet for the captain's sake - it's alright with me!  But now forward!  Otherwise, we will drive straight into the enemy's arms."

Pages 164-165

This Month's Installment

    "Come on!" says the old man.  "And we're taking the others right away; come here, Rudolf; two such strict blokes are indeed a bit much!"

    The Reckensteiner has been tough and hard his whole life long.  But the comradeship up until death that shows itself to him here forces tears into his eyes; he is not ashamed of them.  "And yet there writes one, who does not understand it, that men become beasts when self-preservation comes into question!" he mutters in the ice-gray moustache.  "Absolutely wrong, like so much that I have learned out of books.  After this war, I'll read no more books at all."

    "Mr. von Barrnhoff!" it sounds up to him.  The voice is known to him; he has often heard it in his life.  And not only known, but loved and trusted for many years.  He looks around himself and sees a wounded officer with whom a young doctor is occupied.

    "Fritz, my dear boy... it's really you!  And look... the confounded gang!  You had a cursed, difficult position.  The dogs lay near you eight hundred meters.  But you will even manage it... even manage!"

    Never in his life had he called him by his first name, never "dear boy," but rather always quite formally with his title or surname.  But in a moment like this what are title and

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formality!  On this bloody border wall of time and eternity, where hands reached out to him and death and life in an unending alternating dance!

    "A small graze, Major - or no, Commander, I must say now," replies the other, and his face shines with joy over this unexpected reunion with the Reckensteiner -, "here on my left arm, just as I wanted to put the binoculars up to my eyes.  They are bandaging me, and I will go right back into the field, right, doctor?"

    "By no means, Captain; the wound, which indeed is negligible now, would get worse, and you could become unfit for service for a long time.