Sonderling Sunday – Chapter 22 – Desolation Day is Coming

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books.

I’m afraid it’s actually been months since the last time I did Sonderling Sunday. When I was reading for the Cybils, it was hard to fit in, and then I got out of the habit… and went to ALA Midwinter Meeting….

So tonight, I’m going to write a short one, even though it’s late — the better to get back in the habit!

I’m going back to my stand-by, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, by James Kennedy, known in the original English as The Order of Odd-fish.

Last time, we finished a chapter! So we are now beginning Chapter 22, which is on page 296 in the English edition, and on Seite 376 in the German edition.

It’s always nice to start a chapter with the first sentence, and this time I’ll go with the first two:

“The rain kept coming. Two months into the rainy season, Jo found it hard to remember life without rain.”
= Es regnete unaufhörlich. Nach zwei Monaten Regenzeit konnte Jo sich kaum noch daran erinnern, wie das Leben ohne Regen gewesen war.

“a dull weariness” = eine dumpfe Trägheit

“colorless, drenched, and dead” = farblos, nass und tot vor

This just doesn’t have the same sound in German:
“when the rain pattered gently on her windowpane”
= wenn der Regen sanft an ihr Fenster klopfte

“bang of thunder” = Donnerschlag

“Jo tried to shove it into the back of her mind”
= Jo wollte den Gedanken eigentlich beiseiteschieben
(“Jo wanted the thoughts actually to aside-push”)

Here’s a nice long word:
“background noise” = Hintergrundgeräusch

“constant worry” = ständiger Furcht

“didn’t dull its edge”
= schmälerte das die Intensität des Gefühls nicht
(“reduced it the intensity of the feeling not”)

“She needed distractions.”
= Sie brauchte dringend eine Ablenkung.
(“She needed urgently a distraction.”)

“specialties” = Fachgebiete

“slept over” = genächtigt hatte

“but no, it was too nerve-wracking to think about”
= Doch nein, schon darüber nachzudenken, war eine zu große Belastung für ihre Nerven.
(“But no, already about that overthinking, was a too big burden for her nerves.”)

“Desolation Day” = der Tag der Verwüstung (“the day of devastation”)

“special festival” = besonderes Fest

“It was bad luck even to mention Desolation Day.”
= Es brachte bereits Unglück, wenn man den Tag der Verwüstung auch nur erwähnte.

And I’m going to stop there, with just the first section of Chapter 22 finished. But I’m going to look for reasons to talk about Hintergrundgeräusch this week.

Bis Bald!

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