Sonderling Sunday – Chapter Two

Time for another Sonderling Sunday, where I use Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, the German Translation of The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy, as a bizarre German-English phrasebook. It’s also where I use some surprising and delightful German translations to open my eyes to a completely different way of looking at something. It’s also where I learn some German words that are terribly fun to say.

This week, I’m beginning Chapter Two.
The Order of Odd-Fish: pages 13-26
Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge: Seite 21-38

Let’s begin with the first paragraph:

“There was something ridiculous about the ruby palace by day. It looked tired, not exuberant; its concrete walls were cracked, its paint faded and stained. The debris of last night’s party lay strewn about in the harsh daylight — ripped streamers, broken champagne glasses, burnt-out torches, and some guy’s underwear floating in the pool.”

Auf Deutsch:

“Tagsüber wirkte der Rubinpalast ein bisschen lächerlich. Er sah eher morbide aus, nicht strahlend; die Betonwände waren rissig, die Farbe verblasst und schmutzig. Das helle Tageslicht beleuchtete den Müll der gestrigen Party, zerrissene Wimpel, zerbrochene Champagner gläser, ausgebrannte Fackeln und irgendjemandes Unterwäsche, die im Pool trieb.”

Some notable translations:
“ridiculous” = “lächerlich” (“laughly,” or, more properly, “laughable”)
“tired” = “morbide” (That’s not the translation I learned to say I’m tired!)
“exuberant” = “strahlend”
“cracked” = “rissig” which you can see is the same root as in:
“ripped streamers” = “zerrissene Wimpel”
“burnt-out torches” = “ausgebrannte Fackeln”
“underwear” = “Unterwäsche” (“Underlaundry” Is that because Germans wash more than we do or just a more polite way to talk about it?)

Later on the page, we’ve got a choice sentence:
“Her little bed, plastic table, and scattered clothes were dwarfed inside the vast sparkling gaudiness, as if lost in a giant jeweled egg.”

“Ihr kleines Bett, der Plastiktisch und die überall verstreute Kleidung wirkten in dieser riesigen funkelnden Buntheit winzig, wie verloren in einem gigantischen juwelengeschmückten Ei.”

Here we have
“scattered” = “verstreute”
“dwarfed” = “wirkten. . . winzig”
“sparkling gaudiness” = “funkelnden Buntheit” (I think “Buntheit” is color-ness)
But the greatest word here?
“jeweled” = “juwelengeschmückten” (I think this means something like decorated with jewels.)

Another paragraph:
“Who was Colonel Korsakov? Jo went to the bathroom, splashed cold water on her face, and squinted at herself in the mirror. In the morning light, she found it hard to believe Korsakov really existed. Still, she could hear him grunting and shifting upstairs; it made her uneasy, as if there were a wild rhinoceros in the house.”

This becomes:
“Wer war Oberst Korsakov? Jo ging ins Bad, spritzte sich kaltes Wasser ins Gesicht und musterte sich kritisch im Spiegel. Bei Tageslicht betrachtet, konnte sie kaum glauben, dass der Russe tatsächlich existierte. Trotzdem konnte sie hören, wie er sich oben stöhnend herumwälzte; sie verspürte Unbehagen, so als wäre ein wildes Nashorn im Haus.”

“splashed” = “spritzte” (We’ve borrowed that one, it’s so good.)
“squinted at herself” = “musterte sich kritisch” (I think that’s something like “looked at herself critically”)
“made uneasy” = “verspürte Unbehagen”
And the really good one?
“rhinoceros” = “Nashorn” (“nose horn”)

Interesting. Further down, the translation of “Jo padded out of the bathroom” is “Jo ging auf nackten Fü?en aus dem Bad.” I believe the literal translation of that would be “Jo went on naked feet out of the bathroom.” That pretty much describes “padding,” don’t you think?

This is a bit more awkward in German: “fumbling with an antique shoebox-sized remote control” becomes “fummelte ungeschickt mit einer antiken Fernbedienung herum, die die Grö?e einer Schuhschachtel hatte.”
“remote control” = “Fernbedienung,” which I think is roughly “far service.”

And then, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: The introduction of the Belgian Prankster!

Here he is on TV:
“Aunt Lily clicked the remote and the television slowly came to life. A goggled man in furs was rampaging around the streets of Copenhagen on a dogsled, chasing screaming Danes. ‘The Belgian Prankster!’ said Aunt Lily, and her eyes glazed.”

“Tante Lily drückte auf die Fernbedienung und das Fernsehgerät erwachte langsam zum Leben. Ein Mann mit einer grünen Skibrille und einem Pelzmantel fegte mit einem Hundeschlitten durch die Stra?en von Kopenhagen und hetzte schreiende Dänen vor sich her. ‘Der Belgische Scherzkeks!’ Tante Lilys Augen glänzten.”

Yes, the Belgian Prankster is “der Belgische Scherzkeks.” Remember how last week I said “joke” = “Scherz.” This is basically “joke cookie.”

I also find it interesting that “goggled man” is translated “Mann mit einer grünen Skibrille.” That would be “man with green ski glasses.” Okay, but why are they green?

“Dogsled” is “Hundeschlitten,” which is a good one.

The next paragraph is also interesting:

“Jo lag im Sarkophag, hatte die Augen geschlossen und versuchte, das Gequatsche des Belgischen Scherzkekses auszublenden. Sie sollte in einer Stunde auf ihrer Arbeitsstelle sein, allerdings war noch etwas Zeit, sich nach der erschöpfend kurzen Nacht zu entspannen. Das innere des Mumiensarges war mit schwarzen Samtkissen ausgekleidet und überraschend gemütlich. Als sie jetzt darin lag, fühlte sie sich auf angenehme Weise tot.”

That is translated from:
“Jo lay in the sarcophagus, her eyes closed, and tried to block out the yammering of the Belgian Prankster. She was expected at work in an hour, but there was still some time to relax after her exhausting late night. The inside of the mummy’s coffin, lined with black velvet cushions, was surprisingly comfortable. Lying in it, she felt pleasantly dead.”

I like these ones:

“yammering” = “Gequatsche”
“block out” = “auszublenden” (like she’s trying to get those noises to blend with the background)
“exhausting” = “erschöpfend”
“relax” = “entspannen”
“surprisingly comfortable” = “überraschend gemütlich”

Now, the German translation says nothing about fish in this paragraph:
“Jo frowned. ‘It also said something about fish . . . have you ever heard of that? The Order of Odd-Fish?'”

“Jo runzelte die Stirn. ‘Au?erdem stand etwas von Sonderlingen darauf . . . Hast du schon mal etwas davon gehörrt? Von diesem Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge?'”

And “frowned” becomes basically “wrinkled her forehead” — “runzelte die Stirn.”

Here’s a nice rhyming phrase:
“Sie sa?en beide stumm in dem bröckelnden Glanz des Ballsaals, und obwohl Jo in der Hitze schwitzte, fröstelte sie.”

That’s from: “Jo and Aunt Lily sat silently in the crumbling ballroom’s gloom, and even though Jo was sweating in the heat, she shivered.”

Okay, looking closer, it doesn’t quite rhyme, but I still love that “sweating in the heat” becomes “in der Hitze schwitzte.” It’s also a lovely tongue twister to pull out this summer. Another good one is “shivered” = “fröstelte.”

One more sentence:

“The Belgian Prankster was pouring tons of cottage cheese down the streets of Copenhagen, burying his fleeing victims; the audience roared with delight.”

“Der Belgische Scherzkeks kippte Tonnen von Hüttenkäse in die Stra?en von Kopenhagen und begrub seine flüchtenden Opfer darunter. Die Zuschauer brüllten vor Entzücken.”

I like that “cottage cheese” = “Hüttenkäse,” which means, basically, “cottage cheese.”
“begrub” = “burying” (Graben means “grave,” so this is be-graving someone.)
“fleeing victims” = “flüchtenden Opfer”
“audience” = “Zuschauer”
“roared with delight” = “brüllten vor Entzücken.”

Okay, that’s enough for today. I got up to page 25 in German, and page 16 in English.

Today I think my favorite phrase was “in der Hitze schwitzte.”

Tune in next week, when we continue with Chapter Two!

Sonderling Sunday — Chapter One, Part Three

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday, otherwise known as Nerd Sonntag, otherwise known as A Bizarre German-English Phrasebook, otherwise known as Language Fun for Silly People.

What I’m doing is looking at translations found in Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge of the so-interesting words and sentences from The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy. I’m hoping to finish Chapter One today.

I left off last week on page 8 of The Order of Odd-Fish and page 15 of Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge.

Let’s pick up where Lily Larouche returns after having been missing for forty years and where she meets Jo:

LILY LAROUCHE RETURNS!
(WITH A ‘DANGEROUS’ COMPANION)

“Lily Larouche had awakened in her dusty bed, in her ruby palace. But she had no idea how she had got there. And she had no idea what she had been doing for the past forty years.

“Then she heard a distant crying. She followed the sound to her laundry room — and there, inside the washing machine, she found a baby.

“She also found a note:

This is Jo. Please take care of her.
But beware.
This is a DANGEROUS baby.

In the German translation, these paragraphs read:

“LILY LAROUCHE KEHRT ZURÜCK!
(MIT EINER ‘GEFÄHRLICHEN’ GEFÄHRTIN)

“Lily Larouche war in ihrem staubigen Bett in ihrem Rubinpalast aufgewacht, hatte aber keinerlei Ahnung, wie sie dorthin gekommen war. Ebenso wenig wusste sie, was sie in den letzten vier Jahrzehnten gemacht hatte.

“Sie hörte ein leises Wimmern. Daraufhin folgte sie dem Geräusch bis zu ihrer Waschküche und dort, in der Waschmaschine, fand sie ein Baby.

“Und eine Nachricht.

Das ist Jo. Bitte kümmere Dich um sie.
Aber sei vorsichtig.
Sie ist ein GEFÄHRLICHES Baby.

Okay, there’s a super good one here, right at the start:

“DANGEROUS COMPANION” = “GEFÄHRLICHEN GEFÄHRTIN”

How lovely! This is another serendipitous one to say three times fast: Gefährlichen Gefährtin. Gefährlichen Gefährtin. Gefährlichen Gefährtin.

As far as I can tell, it is simple happy circumstance that these sound so much alike. This is a case where the translation trumps the original by at least ten points.

Some other words from these paragraphs:

“dusty” = “staubigen”

Instead of “forty years,” the translator used “four decades” = “vier Jahrzehnten.”

“crying” = “Wimmern”

“sound” = “Geräusch”

“laundry room” = “Waschküche” (Wash kitchen)

Let’s move on. I simply must tell you how this paragraph is translated:

“‘Balderdash,’ said Aunt Lily. ‘Whoever left that note was just having their little joke. The girl’s as dangerous as a glass of milk. Lived with her for thirteen years, so I should know. Not a peep, not a pop.’

“Jo glared at Aunt Lily.”

In German:

“‘Papperlapapp’, erklärte sie. ‘Wer diese Nachricht hinterlassen hat, hat sich einfach nur einen kleinen Scherz erlaubt. Das Mädchen ist genauso gefährlich wie ein Glas Milch. Ich lebe jetzt seit dreizehn Jahren mit Jo zusammen, sollte es also wissen. Sie ist so still wie ein Mäuschen.’

“Jo warf ihrer Tante einen bösen Blick zu.”

Okay, I think this is my favorite translation so far:

“Balderdash” = “Papperlapapp” Too fun!

As for the rest, we’re going to encounter this one later:

“joke” = “Scherz”

I’m a little disappointed with the translation of “Not a peep, not a pop.” They just said, “She is as quiet as a mouse.” (Something with peep and pop would have gone so very well with Papperlapapp, too!) And they don’t really say Jo “glared” at Aunt Lily, more that she gave her an evil look.

Ah! In the next paragraph we have a new translation of daffodil! Here’s the German:

“Der Oberst wirkte ein wenig enttäuscht und selbst die Osterglocke auf seinem Kopf schien ihre Blätter ein wenig hängen zu lassen. Doch dann erholte er sich. ‘Blödsinn. Ich wei? von höchster Stelle, dass Jo Larouche tatsächlich gefährlich ist und dass ein extrem bedeutungsvoller Gegenstand, ein Gegenstand, der in den falschen Händen möglicherweise sogar gefährlich sein könnte, noch heute Abend hierher geliefert wird, an ebendiese. . .'”

This is translated from:

“Colonel Korsakov looked disappointed — even the daffodil on his head seemed to droop a little — but then he rumbled, ‘Nonsense. I have it on excellent authority that Jo Larouche is dangerous — and that an extremely important item, an item that may even be unsafe in the wrong hands, will be delivered here tonight, to this very — ‘”

Yes! This time “daffodil” is translated as “Easter bell,” “Osterglocke.” Oh, the delights of language! And the daffodil doesn’t just droop. It “lets its leaves hang a little,” “schien ihre Blätter ein wenig hängen zu lassen.”

Of course, you have to catch this one:

“Nonsense” = “Blödsinn”

“important” = “bedeutungsvoller” (which I would have translated “meaningful”)

“possibly” = “möglicherweise” (I knew that one already, but it’s just fun to say.)

Well, I simply must include the dramatic next paragraph:

“But Korsakov never finished. A futuristic white sports car burst out of nowhere, skidded through the rosebushes, and spun to a stop in the sand. Its door flew open and the hedgehog leaped out, shouting, ‘All right, where is he? Let me at him!'”

This translates as:

Der Russe kam nicht dazu, seinen Satz zu beenden. Ein futuristischer wei?er Sportwagen tauchte wie aus dem Nichts auf, fegte durch die Rosenbüsche und kam schleudernd im Sand zum Stehen. Der Wagenschlag flog auf und der Igel sprang heraus. ‘Also gut, wo steckt er? Lasst mich zu ihm!'”

From these:

“skidded” = “fegte”

“spun to a stop in the sand” = “kam schleudernd im Sand zum Stehen” (I’ll give equal points to those phrases.)

“car door” = “Wagenschlag”

“hedgehog” = “Igel” (I still don’t get that one.)

Here’s another dramatic paragraph:

“There was a shrieking blast of wind that sent sand flying, paper lanterns swaying. A plane roared far above — and something fell from the sky, down into the garden, and down onto the hedgehog’s head.”

This becomes:

“Ein kreischender Windsto? wirbelte Sand auf und lie? die Papierlampions heftig schaukeln. Hoch über ihnen dröhnte ein Flugzeug hinweg und etwas fiel vom Himmel in den Garten und dem Igel auf den Kopf.”

We’ve got:
“shrieking blast of Wind” = “kreischender Windsto?”

“sent sand flying” = “wirbelte Sand auf” (might mean “whirled sand up”?)

“paper lanterns flying” = “Papierlampions heftig schaukeln” (“paper lanterns violently rocking”)

“plane roared” = “dröhnte ein Flugzeug” (“droned the flying thing”)

And let’s finish up the chapter with the final paragraphs:

“Jo scrambled back, just barely avoiding Korsakov as he thudded into the sand, and tripped over the thing that had fallen from the sky — a brown cardboard package, with these words written across the top:

“TO: JO LAROUCHE
FROM: THE ORDER OF ODD-FISH

“After that, everyone had the leisure to start screaming.”

Auf Deutsch:

“Jo krabbelte hastig zurück. Es gelang ihr gerade noch, sich vor der massigen Gestalt Korsakovs in Sicherheit zu bringen, als der Russe mit einem dumpfen Aufprall auf dem Sand landete. Dabei stolperte sie über das Ding, das aus dem Himmel gefallen war. Es war ein brauner Pappkarton, auf dem die Worte geschrieben standen:

“EMPFÄNGER: JO LAROUCHE
ABSENDER: DER ORDEN DER SELTSAMEN SONDERLINGE

“Dann endlich hatten sich alle so weit erholt, dass sie loskreischen konnten.”

Some final goodies:

“scrambled back” = “krabbelte hastig zurück” (“crawled quickly back.” I picture her crawling backwards like a crab.)

“just barely avoiding Korsakov” talks about in the nick of time avoiding his massive body safely.

“tripped” = “stolperte”

“cardboard package” = “Pappkarton”

“screaming” = “loskreischen”

There you have it! We’ve gotten through one chapter, and it only took three weeks! Isn’t this fun?

I just have one more thing to say:

Papperlapapp! And beware of gefährlichen Gefährtin!

Sonderling Sunday – Chapter One, Part Two

It’s Sonderling Sunday again! Roughly translated, that means “Nerd Sonntag.” So do something nerdy to celebrate!

My own choice is using The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy, along with Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, the German translation of the same, to make a sort of phrase book with translations of bizarre phrases and sentences into German.

We left off last week on page 6 of The Order of Odd-Fish and Seite 13 of Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge.

The first paragraph of the next section is:
“The inside of Lily Larouche’s palace was all red and gold. Crimson velvet curtains with gold embroidery hung in the windows, ancient and frayed; far above, hundreds of scarlet candles burned in gold chandeliers, dripping wax onto the shaggy carpet.”

Auf Deutsch:
“Das Innere von Lily Larouches Palast war vollständig in Rot und Gold gehalten. Vor den Fenstern hingen rote Samtvorhänge mit goldenen Stickereien. Sie waren uralt und verschlissen. Hoch oben unter der Decke brannten Hunderte roter Kerzen in goldenen Lüstern, von denen das Wachs auf die schäbigen Teppiche herabtropfte.”

Some fun ones there. “Frayed” = “verschlissen” “Embroidery” = “Stickereien” “dripping on” = “herabtropfte” I find it rather amusing that “Lüstern” seems much less descriptive than “chandeliers.”

Oh! The next paragraph has some fun ones! Remember, a costume party is going on. See if you can spot the German word for “squid.” (It’s as good as “Raccoon” = “Waschbär.”)

German first:
“Mittlerweile hatte sich die Party nach drinnen verlagert und man hatten begonnen zu tanzen. Ein Tintenfisch glitt über den Tanzboden und umschlang mit seinen Tentakeln eine zierliche Geisha. An einem Tisch spielten in Smokings gekleidete Tausendfü?ler Whist, während ein Rudel Hexen und Affen über Politik debattierte. Ein Pinguin, der auf einer dicken Zigarre herumkaute, marschierte durch den Saal, schüttelte Hände und schlug den Leuten auf den Rücken. In einer Ecke kicherte obszön ein Vampir.”

In English:
“The party had moved inside and the dancing had begun. A squid glided across the dance floor, its tentacles wrapped around a dainty geisha. A table of centipedes in tuxedos played whist as a pack of witches and monkeys argued politics. A cigar-chomping penguin worked his way around the room, shaking hands and slapping people on the back. A vampire giggled obscenely in the corner.”

That’s right. “squid” = “Tintenfisch” (“inkfish”)! And did you catch the translation of “centipede”? “Tausendfü?ler”! (Yes, that means “thousand-footer”!) Some others I like are “wrapped” = “umschlang,” and “dainty” = “zierliche.”

So, I’ve gotten through two paragraphs….

Here’s another good one, a page down:
“Jo climbed up onto the organ, a baroque machine with five keyboards, fifty pedals, and hundreds of little dials and switches. As she started to play, she saw Colonel Korsakov shouldering his way through the crowd, the daffodil bouncing on his head, asking everyone for Worcestershire sauce. “You can’t mix a proper Flaming Khrushchev without Worcestershire sauce!” he insisted to a skeptical bear. Jo waved at Korsakov and pointed him toward Aunt Lily; maybe she knew where the Worcestershire sauce was.”

This translates to:
“Sie stieg die kleine Treppe zur Orgel hinauf, einer barocken Apparatur mit fünf Tastaturen, fünfzig Pedalen und Hunderten von kleinen Schaltern und Schiebereglern. Als sie anfing zu spielen, sah sie, wie sich Oberst Korsakov durch die Menge drängte. Die Glockenblume wippte auf seinem Kopf, während er jeden, an dem er vorbeikam, nach Worcesterso?e fragte. ‘Ohne Worcesterso?e kann man keinen ordentliche Flammenden Chruschtschow mixen!’, versicherte er einem skeptischen Bären. Jo winkte dem Russen zu und deutete dann auf Tante Lily; vielleicht wusste sie ja, wo die Worcesterso?e war.”

Interesting. Jo doesn’t just climb up onto the organ in German, she climbs up the little steps to the organ. (I wonder how it got little steps?) Say the phrase for “dials and switches” three times fast: “Schaltern und Schiebereglern. Schaltern und Schiebereglern. Schaltern und Schiebereglern.” I confess, I can’t do it very fast at all. Must practice. It’s much longer than “dials and switches,” but a lot more fun to say.

And did you notice the Glockenblume is back? Yay for bell flowers! (I wonder. Was the town of Bellflower in the Los Angeles area founded by Germans?)

Also fun: “bouncing” = “wippte.”

I wonder. Does “waved” really translate to “winkte,” or in German did Jo wink at him instead of waving?

This brings us to the section I quoted heavily in my review, where we learn about Jo’s mysterious beginnings and Lily Larouche’s scandalous headlines.

“The story of Lily Larouche was well known.
She had been a famous actress long ago, with a reputation for strange behavior. The tabloids knew she was good for at least one sensational rumor per week:

LILY LAROUCHE THROWS RODENT AT STARLET

LILY LAROUCHE ARRESTED AGAIN FOR RECKLESS HOT-AIR BALLOONING

HEARTSICK PRESIDENT SHAVES OFF OWN EYEBROWS IN DESPERATE BID TO WIN LILY LAROUCHE’S LOVE

The rumors usually proved true. Lily Larouche had hurled a live rat at another actress who had insulted her. For many years, her red hot-air balloon had been a nuisance over Los Angeles, regularly disrupting air traffic. And Lily Larouche still had on her desk, floating in a jar of formaldehyde, the lonely eyebrows of President Eisenhower.”

This becomes:
“Der Geschichte von Lily Larouche war allgemein bekannt.
Vor langer Zeit war sie eine berühmte Schauspielerin gewesen, stand jetzt jedoch in dem Ruf, sich vor allem merkwürdig zu benehmen. Die Boulevardpresse wusste, dass sie wenigstens für einen sensationellen Skandal pro Woche gut war.

LILY LAROUCHE WIRFT NAGETIER AUF STARLET

LILY LAROUCHE ERNEUT WEGEN RÜCKSICHTSLOSEN HEISSLUFTBALLON-FLUGES VERHAFTET

LIEBESKRANKER PRÄSIDENT RASIERT SICH IN VERZWEIFELTEM VERSUCH, LILY LAROUCHES LIEBE ZU GEWINNEN, AUGENBRAUEN AB

Diese Gerüchte stellten sich normalerweise als zutreffend heraus. Lily Larouche hatte tatsächlich einer anderen Schauspielerin, die sie beleidigt hatte, eine lebendige Ratte an den Kopf geworfen. Und viele Jahre lang war ihr roter Hei?tluftballon ein Ärgernis gewesen, weil er regelmä?ig den Luftverkehr über Los Angeles störte. Und in ihrer Schreibtischschublade verwahrte Lily Larouche noch immer in einem mit Formaldehyd gefüllten Glas die Augenbrauen von Präsident Eisenhower auf.”

Now, some phrases from this so interesting passage:

“actress” = “Schauspielerin” (“show-player”)

“strange” = “merkwürdig” (“mark-worthy”)

“tabloids” = “Boulevardpresse”

“rodent” = “Nagetier”

“reckless” = “rücksichtslosen” (“without hindsight”) (Kind of makes you wonder if our English word came from the German.)

and of course: “hot-air balloon” = “Hei?tluftballon”

“heartsick” = “liebeskranker”

“desperate” = “verzweifeltem”

“eyebrows” = “Augenbrauen”

“nuisance” = “Ärgernis”

“disrupting air traffic over Los Angeles” = “regelmä?ig den Luftverkehr über Los Angeles störte” (störte means “destroy” and regel means “rules” and Luftverkehr is air traffic, so I think this is saying that she destroys the rule-following air traffic over Los Angeles.)

Hmm. They don’t actually call the eyebrows “lonely” in German.

Well, I’m tuckered out. I still haven’t finished the first chapter. But I am definitely having lots of fun, so what’s the rush?

Tune in for next week’s Sonderling Sunday, when I will attempt to finish Chapter One!

Sonderling Sunday – Chapter One

Okay, last Fall, when James Kennedy sent me a copy of Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge, I was super excited and promised to blog about reading it. Then last night, when I was thinking about how I’d finally get my review of The Order of Odd-Fish posted today, I wondered when I would start blogging about the German version.

I’ve been following Liz Burns’ reading of Frankenstein, reading along and enjoying her blog posts for “Frankenstein Friday.” That’s when it hit me: I’ve got the perfect title with “Sonderling Sunday.” So that means I simply have to start tonight!

You know, I’d love to have others join me. Since one translation of “Sonderling” is Nerd, maybe some members of the Nerdy Book Club would like to celebrate Sonderling Sundays in their own special way? Maybe it’s something Nerdfighters should celebrate? Then again, it’s going to be about the fun of words and translating a story between languages, so maybe my sister, a self-proclaimed Word Lover, would like to take part? Anyone who thinks of a way to celebrate Sonderling Sundays with me, please let me know in the comments! Meanwhile, let me begin with Chapter One.

The Order of Odd-Fish, Chapter One: 12 pages
Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge, 1. Kapitel: 14 pages.

With this first chapter, I don’t have to worry about spoilers. With all the chapters, I think it would be nice to give the first sentence in each language (where that won’t cause a spoiler, anyway).

“The desert was empty, as though a great drain had sucked the world underground.”
“Die Wuste war leer, als hätte ein gro?er Abfluss die Welt weggesaugt.”

Weggesaugt. That’s a good word. (Vay-ga-sowgt) You can almost hear the giant sucking sound.

The paragraph about the costume party has some good words:
“A man dressed as an astronaut chatted with a devil.”
“Ein Mann, der wie ein Astronaut gekleidet war, plauderte mit einem Teufel.”

“A gang of cavemen sipped fizzing cocktails.”
“Eine Rotte Höhlenmenschen nippte an sprudelnden Cocktails.”

“A Chinese emperor flirted with a robot, a pirate arm-wrestled a dinosaur, a giant worm danced with a refrigerator — it was Lily Larouche’s Christmas party, and all her old friends had come.”
“Ein chinesischer Kaiser flirtete mit einem Arbeiter, ein Pirat spielte mit einem Dinosaurier Armdrücken und ein gigantischer Wurm tanzte mit einem Kühlschrank. Es war Lily Larouches Weihnachtsmaskenball und all ihre alten Freunde waren gekommen.”

I don’t know about you, but doesn’t a “Weihnachtsmaskenball” sound more fun than a simple Christmas party? And it includes that it’s a masked ball. I don’t think it was a stretch for the translators to include that detail, given the characters we’ve already seen.

Interesting. When they translate the sentences where we meet Jo Larouche, they don’t include the final phrase:
“It was a thirteen-year-old girl, small and thin, with brown skin and black bobbed hair. Her name was Jo Larouche. She was Lily Larouche’s niece. She also lived at the ruby palace, and she was spying.”
“Es war ein dreizehnjähriges Mädchen, ein kleines, dünnes Ding mit brauner Haut und schwarzen, zu einem Bob gestutzten Haaren. Sein Name war Jo Larouche. Es war Lily Larouches Nichte, die ebenfalls im Rubinpalast wohnte.”

You see? Nothing at all about her spying. You think they decided the earlier information that she was hiding in a bush was enough?

They do translate a sentence in the next paragraph:
“Jo never talked to Aunt Lily’s friends, but she loved spying on them.”
“Sie sprach zwar nie mit Tante Lilys Freunden, liebte es jedoch, ihnen nachzuspionieren.”

There’s another word I can’t help but love: “nachzuspionieren.” something like “to spy upon” but so much cooler sounding!

Here’s another sentence for which I just have to check the translation:
“A couple of feet away, a woman disguised as an enormous eggplant was talking to a man dressed like a UFO.”
This becomes:
“Ein Stück neben ihr redete eine als gewaltige Aubergine verkleidete Frau mit einem Mann, der wie ein UFO ausschaute.”

There you have it. Who wouldn’t want to know the German words for “an enormous eggplant”? “Eine gewaltige Aubergine.” That’s got to be useful knowledge.

Oh, and an even more useful phrase comes up in the very next paragraph:
“‘Did you see?’ whispered the eggplant. ‘Lily’s gone nuts again.'”
“‘Hast du das gesehen?’, flüsterte die Aubergine. ‘Lily is wieder mal völlig durchgeknallt.'”

Okay, I think that “gone nuts” is easier to say than “völlig durchgeknallt.” But maybe that’s just me.

The man’s response is definitely not as good as the English one “Cracked as a crawdad.” In German, he says, “Sie ist verrückt wie ein Flusskrebs.” No, sorry, not as good. It’s charming in English because it’s alliterative. Take that away, and I don’t think it really works.

Here’s a good paragraph, where the fat Russian Jo noticed earlier turns up again:

“Es war der fette Russe. Wo war er blo? so plötzlich hergekommen? Er war ein schwerfälliges, schäbiges, gewichtiges und auf absurde Weise würdevolles Mammut von einem Mann, mit einem zuckenden wei?en Backenbart in einer glänzenden Uniform, und schwang einen gro?en schwarzen Gehstock.”

Oh, and what that means is:
“It was the fat Russian again — where had he come from? — a lumbering, shaggy, harrumphing, absurdly dignified mastodon of a man, with twitching white whiskers and a gleaming uniform, swinging a great black cane.”

I could be wrong, but I don’t think the translator even made an attempt at translating “harrumphing.” What a shame!

Okay, here’s another exquisite English paragraph. How will this translate?

“‘Do you understand what it means to disturb my digestion, sir?’ said the Russian. ‘That even now, my stomach rumbles with contempt? That my kidneys flood with excruciating acids? That my entire gastrointestinal tract revolts at your ungentlemanly conduct?'”

I don’t know. That’s an awfully high standard to hit. Here’s the translated version:

“‘Ist Euch klar, was es bedeutet, meine Verdauung zu stören, Sir?’, erkundigte sich der Russe. ‘Was es hei?t, dass in diesem Moment mein Bauch vor Verachtung brodelt? Dass meine Nieren in unerträglichen Säuren schwimmen? Mein gesamter Gastrointestinaltrakt angesichts Eures unhöflichen Verhaltens revoltiert?'”

(I don’t know how to get German quotation marks on my computer, so I’m just substituting English ones.)

I kind of like the way the kidneys sentence turned out: “Dass meine Nieren in unerträglichen Säuren schwimmen?”

I like this one:
“‘I am a daffodil,’ he murmured uncomfortably.”
This translates to
“‘Ich gehe als Glockenblume’, erklärte er murmelnd, fühlte sich jedoch sichtlich unwohl dabei.”

A few more words than the English version this time! But what I like about it is the translation of “daffodil,” which I hadn’t seen before. “Glockenblume” is a portmanteau word (like so many German words) meaning “bell flower.” Isn’t that nice?

Well, I’ve taken far too long on this, and Sunday is over, so I won’t finish the first chapter tonight. But what a fun way to increase my German vocabulary, don’t you think? Forgive me if this is boring for those who don’t have a smattering of German, but I’m afraid I’m enjoying it very much. So tune in next week for the next Sonderling Sunday!

Review of The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy

The Order of Odd-Fish

by James Kennedy

Laurel-Leaf Books, 2008. 403 pages.
Starred Review
2011 Sonderbooks Standout: #7, Fantasy for Teens

It’s high time I reviewed this book. I first decided I had to read it when I met the author, James Kennedy, at the 2010 ALA Annual Conference when I attended the YA Author Coffee Klatch. It sounded very much like a book my sons would enjoy, since they are big fans of Douglas Adams, so I purchased a copy to give my younger son for his upcoming 16th birthday. (And the next March, I sent a copy to my older son for his 23rd birthday.)

Then 2011 ALA Annual Conference was coming up, and I saw James Kennedy’s name on the schedule. I still hadn’t read his book! So I tucked my son’s copy into my carry-on and began reading it on the plane. Sure enough, I saw James at the Newbery Banquet, and it was fun to be able to tell him where I was in the book and talk about it. On the way home from New Orleans, I tweeted my progress, and that was fun, too. I was impressed with how he pulled off an excellent ending, which I was wondering about along the way.

Then I could have sworn I had reviewed the book when I finally caught up on writing reviews last Fall. But it turned out it got out of my to-be-reviewed pile when my son decided to finally read it and took it to his room.

I highly recommend the book for fans of Douglas Adams or Jasper Fforde. Only, Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde have adult protagonists (not that that deters teen readers), but The Order of Odd-Fish has a teen protagonist. So this might be a good choice for teens whom you suspect will enjoy Douglas Adams or Jasper Fforde.

The first word that comes to mind every time I attempt to describe The Order of Odd-Fish is “bizarre.” Like the Hitchhiker’s Guide books, it’s got its own twisted and very funny logic that plays on traditional fantasy tropes.

Take our protagonist, Jo Larouche. She’s got a prophecy about her and is a “chosen” child, but it’s quite different than the Chosen One in more traditional fantasy novels. Make that very different.

Probably the simplest way to capture the spirit of this novel is to give you the description of Jo’s Aunt Lily, including the part where she found Jo:

“The story of Lily Larouche was well known.

“She had been a famous actress long ago, with a reputation for strange behavior. The tabloids knew she was good for at least one sensational rumour per week:

“LILY LAROUCHE THROWS RODENT AT STARLET

“LILY LAROUCHE ARRESTED AGAIN FOR RECKLESS HOT-AIR BALLOONING

“HEARTSICK PRESIDENT SHAVES OFF OWN EYEBROWS IN DESPERATE BID TO WIN LILY LAROUCHE’S LOVE

“The rumors usually proved true. Lily Larouche had hurled a live rat at another actress who had insulted her. For many years, her hot-air balloon had been a nuisance over Los Angeles, regularly disrupting air traffic. And Lily Larouche still had on her desk, floating in a jar of formaldehyde, the lonely eyebrows of President Eisenhower.

“Then came the most mysterious headline:

“LILY LAROUCHE DISAPPEARS!

“She had vanished. Her notorious ruby palace, which for years had hosted the wildest parties in Hollywood, was empty. Nobody knew where she had gone.

“Then, forty years later, there was a new headline:

“LILY LAROUCHE RETURNS! (WITH A “DANGEROUS” COMPANION)

“Lily Larouche had awakened in her dusty bed, in her ruby palace. But she had no idea how she had got there. And she had no idea what she had been doing for the past forty years.

“Then she heard a distant crying. She followed the sound to her laundry room — and there, inside the washing machine, she found a baby.

“She also found a note:

“This is Jo. Please take care of her.
But beware.
This is a DANGEROUS baby.”

As the book opens, Jo Larouche is now thirteen years old. Unbeknownst to her, she is about to travel to Eldritch City, meet the Order of Odd-Fish, see Aunt Lily regain her memory, and learn why she herself is so DANGEROUS.

And the story has only begun to be bizarre.

I’ll definitely be blogging more about this book. When James Kennedy noted that his book had been translated into German with the title Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge, I was so delighted, he promised me a copy. As all my readers surely know by now, Sonder is a German prefix meaning “special.” What I don’t proclaim so frequently is that I’d already known that a Sonderling is someone who’s “special” in the less flattering sense of the term — more recent translations include “nerd” and, well, “odd-fish.” But however you want to look at it, I maintain this proves that The Order of Odd-fish is a Sonderbook indeed! James Kennedy did send me a copy of the German edition, and I’m planning to blog about reading it — as soon as I get caught up on posting Sonderbooks Standouts.

Meanwhile, this is definitely a great choice for people who enjoy books that are bizarre, clever, and very funny.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/order_of_odd_fish.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book I purchased at ALA Annual Conference for my son, and had signed by the author.

Gained in Translation

Last Thursday, I posted about how happy I was to receive a copy of Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge direct from the author, James Kennedy. The first thing both he and I noticed about the translation was that it appeared much longer than the original book, The Order of Odd-Fish.

Now, I suspect this is simply because German takes more letters to say the same thing. James expressed the suspicion that perhaps they had gotten carried away and added episodes when translating (which you must admit would be quite interesting).

It occurred to me that I did have an easy method at hand to test my hypothesis. You see, when we moved to Germany, my very first purchase was a copy of one of my very favorite books, Momo, by Michael Ende, in its original language, German.

That did start a trend. Here are some of the books in my German collection (though none of these have “Sonderling” in the title!):

I especially liked getting books originally written in German, which is why you’ll find Drachenreiter (Dragonrider) and Tintenblut (Inkblood, translated Inkheart), by Cornelia Funke, and Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story), by Michael Ende, as well as the original version of my childhood beloved book Heidi. Der kleine Prinz (The Little Prince) was given to me by my German landlady as a favorite book of hers (with cassette to listen to it), and I purchased Püh der Bär and Stolz und Vorurteil (Winnie-the-Pooh and Pride and Prejudice) because it’s so much fun to have such great classics in another language. Besides, I have the originals just about memorized, so I can easily understand the German.

Then there’s ourHarry Potter collection:

We own the American edition, British edition, and German edition of all of the first six books. (And I definitely need to make a trip back to Europe to purchase the seventh in the UK and in Germany.)

As for the first book:

My husband did a lot of traveling with the Air Force Band, and soon buying a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the local language became a souvenir to get excited about. We have Book One in American, British, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Bulgarian, Czech, Chinese, and French. Okay, I’ve only actually read the editions in American, British, German, and French. But the others are fun to look at!

So, this seems like a pretty good sample to me. Do Germans need more pages to tell a story?

We already found the page counts for James Kennedy’s book:
The Order of Odd-Fish: 403 pages.
Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge: 511 pages.

Just for fun, let’s check all the editions of Harry Potter Book One first:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (original): 223 pages.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: 309 pages. (Looks like the Americans dragged this one out.)
Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen: 335 pages.
Hebrew version: 321 pages.
Japanese version: 191 pages.
Bulgarian version: 264 pages.
Harry Potter a Kámen mudrc? (Czech version): 285 pages.
Chinese version: 462 pages.
Harry Potter à L’École des Sorciers (French version): 232 pages.

Interesting. They are totally different lengths, and German is the second longest, beaten only by Chinese. (I’m surprised that Chinese and Japanese are so different, but it looks like Chinese doesn’t use as much of each page. Maybe they start a new line for a new paragraph?)

How about the rest of the Harry Potters?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (original): 251 pages.
American version: 341 pages.
Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens: 352 pages.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (original): 317 pages.
American version: 435 pages.
Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban: 448 pages.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (original): 636 pages.
American version: 734 pages.
Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch: 767 pages.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (original): 766 pages.
American version: 870 pages.
Harry Potter und der Orden des Phönix: 1021 pages.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (original): 607 pages.
American version: 652 pages.
Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz: 656 pages.

Those books are certainly consistent! Interesting how much longer the American books are than the British ones. It definitely looks like less words on a page. But the Germans still manage to be longer, every time.

Let’s check some more books translated from English to German:

Winnie-the-Pooh: 148 pages.
Püh der Bär: 157 pages.

Pride and Prejudice (my fancy edition): 367 pages.
Paperback at the library: Also 367 pages.
Stolz und Vorurteil: 452 pages.

The Little Prince (Okay, this one was originally in French): 97 pages.
Der Kleine Prinz: 125 pages.

Maybe it’s different if the book starts out in German, so let’s check those:

Momo (original): 285 pages.
Momo (fancy American hardback, with illustrations): 227 pages.

Die unendliche Geschichte: 428 pages.
The Neverending Story: 384 pages.

Heidi (original): 333 pages (with illustrations).
Heidi (American paperback): 198 pages.

Tintenblut: 707 pages.
Inkheart: 576 pages.

Drachenreiter: 448 pages.
Dragon Rider: 536 pages.

What’s this? My last example is the only one where the English version turns out longer. Looking inside, it does seem to pretty clearly have less words on a page.

Now, those math nuts among us could have further fun determining the percentage each German book is longer than the English one, but it’s getting late. Despite the one very last exception, it looks like it is perfectly normal for German translations to contain more pages than English ones. So I will still look sharp for cleverly concealed additions, but I think this is simply a case of needing more space. I would be very interested to find out if the German books also take longer to read. I suspect that would be much closer, but that one, I’m not going to sample.

Now, having sized up the task, in my next installment, I will tackle Kapitel Eins.

A Sonderbook Indeed!

Those who read my blog should know by now that Sonder is a German prefix meaning “special.” I put that statement at the bottom of every page.

You may also realize that I have a thing about my name. I get a thrill any time I see it in print, spelled correctly. All my years in school, teachers who had just met me would always, or it seemed always, read my name as “Sandy.” I had one Sunday School teacher who, for a few years, called me Sandra. I did not like him.

The story went that my parents named me “Sondy” instead of “Sandy” because they wanted to have a boy named “Randy,” and that would be too much alike. (And I do indeed have a little brother named Randy.) My mother’s mother had a piano student named “Sondra,” and they decided they liked the name and would use that. Some time or other, my Mom told me they expected me to go by Sondra, but they called me “Sondy,” and so that’s what I went by when I got to school age. If Sandra’s can go by Sandy, it seems perfectly logical for Sondra to go by Sondy, right?

But somehow, people can’t seem to read the name “Sondy.” They always seem to think they’re not seeing it right, or it’s spelled wrong or something. I also found that when I went by a display of Name souvenirs — like California license plates with people’s names, or necklaces with people’s names, or key chains, or whatever you might hope to find — well, there was never a Sondra or a Sondy in the crowd. I know. I always looked.

So, I got to Germany. I very very quickly spotted that Sonder is a prefix meaning “special.” There was a town relatively near us called Sonderhausen (“special houses”). I looked on a map for more Sonder towns, and about popped my eyes out when I discovered an actual village that shared my name. I dragged my family three hours to get a picture with the sign. (We went to a castle while we were at it, of course.)

Stores would offer a Sonderangebot (“special offer”). Of course, childishly, my very favorite German word quickly became Sonderfahrt (“special trip”).

I looked in my German dictionary for more Sonder words, knowing that in German, the dictionary will by no means list them all. I found some fun ones: Sonderaustellung, “special exhibit”; Sonderfall, “special case”; sonderlich, “remarkable”; Sondernummer, “special edition”; Sonderpreis, “special price”; Sonderstellung, “exceptional position”; Sonderurlaub, “emergency leave”; and Sonderzug, “special train.”

As I was so pleased to read all the ways Sonder means special, I was a bit embarrassed when I read the definition of Sonderling: “queer (or eccentric) fellow, crank.” But all my years in Germany, I never heard anyone use that word or saw it written, so I decided I could safely focus on the “special” meaning.

With all that, you can see why the name of my website was easy to choose. In fact, I talked about making a website called “Sonderbooks” for quite some time before I actually did it.

Okay, many years after starting my website, I attended the 2010 ALA Conference in Washington, DC. At the YA Coffee Klatch, I met James Kennedy.

When James described his book, The Order of Odd-Fish, the sense of humor struck me as quirky and clever and delightful. I was sure my sons would love it, since it reminded me of Douglas Adams, so I bought a copy for my younger son’s 16th birthday.

Well, a year later, I was on my way to ALA Annual Conference again. My son still hadn’t read it, and I still hadn’t read it, but James Kennedy’s name was in the program, and I thought how I’d hate to meet him again without having read his book. So I brought it along and began it on the flight there, and finished it on the flight back.

As luck would have it, I did meet James again, this time at the Newbery Banquet. And I was able to tell him that I was reading his book!

I also had the fun of tweeting my reactions as I finished the book while traveling. (Completely fun book!)

Okay, so a few months ago, James announced on his website that The Order of Odd-Fish was being translated into German.

Dear Reader, imagine my delight when I learned the title: Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge! Yes, that’s right! Remember the “queer or eccentric fellow” the “crank”? Seltsamer basically means “strange” and Sonderlinge is simply the plural form of that delightful word Sonderling. (By the way, I was very happy to learn that more modern dictionaries include the word “nerd” in the definition.)

Well, I expressed my delight via Twitter to James, and he very kindly promised me a German copy.

And it arrived last night! Actually, I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t check my mail the day before yesterday, so it may have come then. When I found it, I suddenly felt much better!

I was especially delighted that my son, who is in his fourth year of studying German, and has actually begun The Order of Odd-Fish now, snagged the German edition before I could look at it very hard. We looked up important things. Like, how did they translate “the Belgian Prankster”? Answer: der Belgische Scherzkeks. Looking up the parts of that word in my German dictionary, prankster is basically “joke-cookie.” Don’t you love those German compound words?

We both were compelled to read the jacket copy on the back aloud, and were both delighted with the parts we understood. For example, I quickly grasped “Jo trifft auf eine sprechende Riesenkakerlake,” which means “Jo met a giant talking cockroach.”

The first thing you notice about the German edition is that it looks much bigger than the English edition. Here’s another view that shows this even more clearly:

The English edition is 403 pages, but the German edition is 511. James put a note in the book suggesting that perhaps they added scenes when translating. That would be fun to discover, but I think a simple listing of random sentences will show a simple truth: German sentences take more space to write than English ones.

Let’s look at the first sentence:
“The desert was empty, as though a great drain had sucked the world underground.”

Auf Deutsch:
“Die Wüste war leer, als hätte ein gro?er Abfluss die Welt weggesaugt.”

Okay, that one does not prove my point. Let’s try another:

“A giant cockroach had walked into the room, three feet tall, wearing a purple velvet suit with a silk shirt, cravat, and bowler hat.”

Auf Deutsch:
“Eine gigantische Kakerlake hatte den Raum betreten. Sie war mindestens einen Meter fünfzig gro?, trug einen violetten Samtanzug, darunter ein Seidenhemd, eine Krawatte und einem Bowler auf dem Kopf.”

That one’s more what I expected. Though why do you suppose they had to mention he had the Bowler on his head (auf dem Kopf)? Maybe a Bowler isn’t always a hat?

Anyway, surely you can see how much fun this is going to be.

Now, I’m horrified as I write this to realize I never did review The Order of Odd-Fish. I’m pretty sure it got out of my big To-Review pile this summer when my son did decide to finally read it. So I’m going to remedy that soon. However, though I can read German, I don’t read it very fast, so it would take who-knows-how-long for me to read the whole book and then report back.

So. I foresee a continuing feature. I mean surely the first time I see Sonderling actually used in print, I simply HAVE to feature it on Sonderbooks? I think after each chapter, I hope about once a week, I will post about my journey through this translation. I’ll explore how they express different unusual concepts and anything else that strikes my fancy. Since the book is definitely quirky, I hope I can work in some quirky observations.

I hope that my readers will enjoy joining me on my Sonderfahrt through Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge!