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!
Tonight it’s already late, but it’s been a long time since I wrote a Sonderling Sunday post, so I’m going to try to do a short one.
I’m going back to one of my favorite books, Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale, Das Buch der Tausend Tage
[Okay, I just spent way too much time talking on Facebook about our upcoming Winter Storm. Now this post needs to be extra short.]
Last time, I covered Day 160 to 180 of Dashti’s days in the Tower.
Day 223 begins like this:
“This past week I was wishing for something new to happen so I could have a reason to write. It’s bad luck to make a vague wish like that, because Under, god of tricks, is bound to grant it with something unpleasant. And so he did.”
= Letzte Woche wünschte ich mir noch, etwas Neues zu erleben, das ich aufschreiben könnte. Solch schwammige Wünsche bringen nur Unglück, weil Unter, der Gott der Streiche, sie gerne mit etwas Unerfreulichem garniert, wenn er sie erfüllt. Und genau so ist es gekommen.
I love Shannon Hale’s turns of phrase:
“as though he called all the world to dinner”
= als würde er alle Welt zum Essen rufen.
“I want to punch him with all my strength”
= möchte ich ihn mit aller Kraft verprügeln
This has a nice sound in German:
“There was a knock on the flap” = Als jemand an die Klappe klopfte
“clanking and scraping” = klirren und kratzen
“burning straw” = brennende Stroh
“fiery chip” = brennender Span
I like this one:
“fizzled” = verpufften
“bright” = loderte
“ran and stomped and slapped” = rannte, trampelte und schlug
“My lady began to scream hysterics” = Meine Herrin fing an hysterisch zu schreien
“washcloth” = Waschlappen
“if the wood caught fire” = Wenn die Scheite erst mal zündelten
“partly charred mattress” = stellenweise verkohlten Matratze
“greasy black” = triefend schwarz
“willow flower” = Weidenblume
“chamber pot” = Nachttopf
“He hollered” = Er brüllte wie ein Stier
That section ends with:
“Then we lay back together and laughed in a tight way, as though we actually cried.”
= Rücken und bekamen einen Lachanfall, als würden wir heulen.
That’s all for tonight! This was a turning point and dramatic section. May you not need to use most of these phrases. And may all your troubles go verpufften.