Guten Abend! It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when we find silly phrases translated into German from the texts of children’s books.
Tonight, I”m back to The Order of Odd-fish, by James Kennedy, with the German text Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge.. Last time, we had almost finished the twenty-sixth chapter (out of twenty-eight).
So tonight we start on page 370 in the English edition, Seite 469 auf Deutsch. We’re getting near the dramatic climax of the book, so I’ll try to only give teasers, not spoilers. The first sentence of the next section is:
“An hour later Audrey came back.”
[Side note: Yay! I’ve been doing Pimsleur German CDs in preparation for my trip, and I translated that sentence correctly!]
= Eine Stunde später kam Audren zurück.
I like the rhyme here:
“It’s getting worse out there.”
=Hier draußen wird es immer schlimmer.
(“Here outside becomes it always worse.”)
“escaped from the asylum”
= ist aus der Irrenanstalt ausgebrochen.
“lose their mind”
= verliert entweder den Verstand
“faint”
= wird ohnmächtig
[“become without-strength”]
“top of the mountain”
= Berggipfel
“a plan for you to escape”
= einen Fluchtplan für dich
“peephole”
= kleinen Spalt
[“little gap”]
“poked her eye”
= sie ins Auge gepikst
“waving torches”
= schwenkte Fackeln
“peephole” [again]
= Guckloch
[“look-hole”]
“veiled palanquin”
= verschleierte Sänfte
“elaborately draped”
= kostbar verzierten
“burly”
= stämmiger
“shaggy”
= zerzaustem
“angry chants”
= wütenden Sprechchören
[“angry Speak-chorus”]
I like this in German:
“Your plan isn’t working.”
= Dein Plan funktioniert nicht.
“stunned”
= verblüfft
“trapdoor”
= Falltür
“sagged” = sackte
“enterprise” = Schwung
Long words are always fun:
“jeweled drapery”
= juwelengeschmückter Überwürfe
“incense”
= Weihrauch
[“Consecration-smoke”]
Nice and dramatic in English, a bit more explanation in German, here’s the last sentence of the chapter:
“They had her.”
= Jetzt hatten die Stummen Schwestern sie.”
That’s it for tonight! And next week is the eve of my trip to Germany, so whether I do a post depends on how I’m feeling about the state of my packing! I will see how many of these phrases I can use on my trip, but I hope it will be more along the lines of juwelengeschmückter Überwürfe and Berggipfel than einen Fluchtplan für dich and Dein Plan funktioniert nicht.