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, sort of a Very Silly Phrasebook for Travelers.
A couple weeks ago at the Newbery Banquet, I met Shannon Hale again, and she mentioned that she’d sent me a copy of the German version of Book of a Thousand Days, Das Buch der Tausend Tage, for Sonderling Sunday. So in her honor, I’m going back to this lovely book tonight.
Last time we looked at this book, we left off at the start of Day 268. The first sentence of that day is one I’d really like to know how to say in German:
“She’s devoured our dried fruit, every crumb, and all the sugar’s gone but dust.”
= Sie hat unsere Trockenfrüchte verschlungen und vom Zucker ist nur noch ein wenig Staub übrig.
Too bad. This one lost the image in translation:
“Though I grumble enough to put any piglet to shame.”
= Aber ich bin besorgt deswegen.
(Google translate: “But I’m worried about that.”)
“wheel of cheese” = Laib Käse (“Loaf cheese”)
“The rats will be heartbroken.”
= Das wird den Ratten das Herz brechen.
“careful” = sorgsam
“coffin” = Sarg
“dizzy” = schwindelig
“I swore an oath.” = Ich habe einen Eid geschworen.
“dimple” = Grübchen
“How she droops and moans”
= Wie sie stöhnt und sich hängen lässt
“purpose” = Lebenszweck
“chief of animals” = Tieroberin
“real person” = leibhaftigen Menschen
“headache or bellyache”
= Kopfschmerzen oder Bauchweh
(“head-pain or belly-woe”)
“whatever troubles her inside”
= was sie innerlich quält
“wail” = Wehklagen (“Woe-complaint”)
“throat” = Kehle
“curled up against me”
= schmiegte sich an mich
“pea toss” = Erbsenwerfen
“progress” = Fortschritte
More images disappearing in translation:
“crooked-brained” = verdreht (“twisted”)
It always surprises me when German is shorter:
“perhaps daring one another to draw near”
= vielleicht in einer Art Mutprobe
(“maybe in a kind of courage-test”)
“uncovered hole” = deckellose Loch
“haul (up)” = hochhieven
“shivering dark” = bebende Dunkelheit
“She looks at the whole world as though it crouches over, ready to pounce.”
= Sie betrachtet die ganze Welt, als ob sie nur darauf warten würde, ihr wehzutun.
(“She looks at the whole world, as if it’s only waiting to bring woe to her.”)
“Her eyes wandered.”
= Sie konnte den Blick nicht stillhalten.
(“She could her gaze not steady-keep.”)
“where the barest slip of breeze comes through the crack between bricks”
= wo sich nur der Hauch einer Brise durch die Ritzen fädelt
“arrows” = Pfeilen
And the final sentence for tonight, the last sentence of Day 640:
“The heat is so huge, I have no space left for thoughts.”
= Die Hitze ist so gewaltig, dass für Gedanken kein Platz mehr in mir ist.
That’s all for now! Now the challenge is to try to use your new German words this week!
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