It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week (well, that occasional time) when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books – or, in this case, looking at the English translation of the classic children’s book, Momo, by Michael Ende – which was one of my very first purchases when my family moved to Germany in 1996.
Last time we looked at Momo, we finished Chapter Four. So tonight we’ll begin Chapter Five, Kapitel Fünf, which begins on Seite 49 in the German edition, and page 34 in the English edition. The chapter title in English is “Tall Stories,” but in German, it’s Geschichten für viele und Geschichten für eine, which means “Stories for many and stories for one.”
I like to start with the first sentence:
Nach und nach war Momo für Gigi Fremdenführer ganz unentbehrlich geworden.
= “As time went by, Momo became absolutely indispensable to Guido.”
unsteten leichtherzigen jungen Kerl
(“unsteady, light-hearted young fellow”)
= “footloose, fancy-free young man”
struppigen kleinen Mädchen
= “ragged little girl”
Geschichtenerzählen = “Making up stories”
Besonders dann = “Most of all”
blühte seine Phantasie auf wie eine Frühlingswiese
= “his imagination blossomed like a meadow in springtime”
Hmm. They changed the names in the story instead of just using the same made-up words.
Kaiserin Strapazia Augustina = “Empress Harmonica”
König Xaxotraxolus = “King Raucous II”
lachte sich ins Fäustchen = “laughed up his sleeve”
juwelengeschmückten Suppenterrine = “bejeweled soup tureen”
je größer, desto besser = “the bigger, the better”
Abgesandte = “envoy”
Unmengen Futter = “vast quantities of food”
Badewanne = “bathtub”
ihr ein und alles (“her one and all”) = “the apple of her eye”
Richtschnur = “motto”
And the end of that first story:
Sie sehen daraus, meine Damen und Herren, wohin die Leichtgläubigkeit führen kann!
(Google translate: “You can see from this, ladies and gentlemen, where credulity [‘light-belief’] can lead!”)
= “Which only goes to show, ladies and gentlemen, how unwise it is to believe all you’re told.”
Schirmmütze = “peaked cap”
Schleuse = “floodgate”
And I’ll finish with the wrap-up of that story:
und immer neue Erfindungen strömten und sprudelten hervor, ohne daß er überhaupt nachdenken mußte
= “releasing a torrent of new ideas that bubbled forth without his ever having to think twice”
And that’s all for tonight! I’m finishing on Seite 53, page 37. Bis nächste Zeit! Meanwhile, je größer, desto besser is not necessarily the best Richtschnur.