It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! Time to play with language by looking at the German translations of children’s books. Tonight I’m going back to the book that started it all, many years ago now, The Order of Odd-fish, by James Kennedy, known in German as Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge.
We are so close to the end! Last time, we finished up Chapter Twenty-Six, so now I’m on the next-to-last chapter, which begins on page 374 in the English edition and Seite 474 auf Deutsch.
I have fond hopes that the phrases chosen, besides giving you interesting and pithy things to say in German, will inspire and intrigue you enough to pick up the books they are selected from, in whichever language you prefer.
I’ve realized I should give credit to the translators. Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge was translated by Wolfgang Thon.
I like to begin with the first sentence of the next section:
“The tent bounced and jiggled as the Silent Sisters carried it up the mountain.”
= Die Sänfte hüpfte und schaukelte, als die Stummen Schwestern sie den Berg hinauftrugen.
“cut off from the world” = von der Welt abgeschnitten
“dizzying patterns” = verwirrenden Mustern
“muddled by the incense” = benommen von dem Weihrach
“maddening jewels” = aufdringlichen Juwelen
“everything was slipping away”
= irgendwie entglitt ihr die Kontrolle
[“somehow slipped away from her the control”]
“a nauseous chill” = eine ekelhafte Kälte
“crooked” = krummen
“weak and delicate”
= schlaff und zerbrechlich
“blur” = Schleier
“bony fingers” = knorrigen Fingern
“jelly” = Wackelpudding [“wobble-pudding”!]
“shrouds” = Stofffetzen [“fabric-scraps”]
“chalices” = Kelche
“flickering match” = flackerndes Streichholz
“whispered chant” = flüsternd vorgetragener Gesang
“emeralds” = Smaragde
Here’s a rhyme!
“a slow thump in her bones”
= ein bedächtiges Pochen in ihren Knochen
Here’s something I hope you’ll never need to use:
“shockingly enormous, a looming blob of sagging, scabbed, sewn gray flesh”
= ein furchtbar riesiger gewaltiger Haufen von schlaffem, schuppigem, zusammengeflicktem grauem Fleisch
[Google translate: “a horribly huge heap of flabby, scaly, patched-together grey flesh”]
“bubbling” = blubbernd
“snuffling and groaning” = sabberte und stöhnte
“wrapping around her” = umschlangen sie
“scabs” = Schuppen
“flung” = geschleudert
“spit” = Speichel
“saliva” = Spucke
“gnashing teeth” = zermalmenden Zähnen
“flushed down” = hinabgespült
“a dense stew” = ein Mischmasch
“quivering funnel” = bebenden Trichter
And the last sentence for tonight:
“She kept sliding toward the frothing acid.”
= Sie rutschte immer weiter auf diese schäumende Säure zu.
That’s all for tonight! I hope you won’t have much use for most of these phrases, but now you’re prepared if you ever experience a Pochen in your Knochen. And I may start calling jelly “Wobble-pudding” myself.
Bis bald!