It’s time for Sonderling Sunday, that time of the week when I play with language by looking at silly phrases in the German translations of children’s books.
Tonight I’m back to the book that started it all, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, by James Kennedy, otherwise known as The Order of Odd-Fish.
Last time we looked at this book, we left off on page 363 in the English edition, Seite 460 in the German edition, with the words, Wir sind hier, um eine Verhaftung vorzunehmen! So the beginning words for the new section won’t come as a surprise:
“Everyone saw the policemen.”
= Alle blickten auf die Polizisten
“why rain on her parade now?”
= Warum sollten wir ihr deshalb ihr Fest vermiesen?
(“Why should we for her because of this her party spoil?”)
“growled” = knurrend
“But tonight she will be exposed!”
= Heute Nacht werden wir ihr allerdings die Maske vom Gesicht reißen!
(Google translate: “Tonight, however, we’re going to rip the mask off her face!”)
“What are you talking about?”
= Wovon reden Sie?
“Jo’s stomach dropped.”
= Jo rutschte der Magen in die Kniekehlen.
(“Jo slipped her stomach to the back of her knees [knee-throats].”)
“unmistakably” = unverkennbar
“The room broke into screams.”
= Schreie gellten auf.
(“Screams rang out.”)
“The wound had become much worse.”
= Die Wunde war schlimmer geworden.
“All-Devouring Mother”
= All-Verschlingended Mutter
A handy phrase to know:
“But I’m not bad!”
= Aber ich bin nicht böse!
“lock her up”
= sperrt sie ein
“rumbles, scrapes, and cracks” = Poltern, Kratzen und Knacken
This is good in German:
“echoing all around the cavern”
= durch die Höhle hallte
(“through the cave echoed”)
“rage” = Wut
“heartbeat” = Herzschläge
“staggered” = taumelte
“to restore” = wiederherzustellen (“again-there-to-place”)
“crowd’s roar” = Getöse (“din”)
We’ll end with this sentence on page 366, Seite 464:
“The Silent Sisters were waiting for her.”
= Wo die Stummen Schwestern bereits auf sie warteten.
(“Where the Silent Sisters already on her waited.”)
That’s it for tonight! And now I’m ready to say, if confronted by Polizisten in Germany, Aber ich bin nicht böse!
Bis bald!