Surprise! It’s time for Sonderling Sunday, that time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translations of children’s books, showing you handy phrases for quirky travelers.
I now am generally playing games on Sunday evenings, so these posts have become fewer and far between. But tonight there’s Covid at the hosts’ house, so I’m going to seize the day and have fun with a Sonderling Sunday post. And I’m going to go back to the book that started it all, The Order of Odd-Fish, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, by James Kennedy. (In brief, James Kennedy, whom I’d meant at an ALA conference, announced he had the German translation of his book. I saw “Sonderling” in the title – basically a nerd – and asked if I could have a copy. And so it began.)
We are getting awfully close to the end of this book. I hope I’ve intrigued some of you enough to pick it up by now. Last time we left off on page 380 in the English edition, and Seite 482 in the German edition. Our hero, Jo, is having a showdown with the Belgian Prankster, der Belgische Scherzkeks (“Joke-cookie”).
I like to start with sentences I don’t imagine anyone has ever said before. Here’s a good one.
“She couldn’t even see him, but his blubbery arms picked her up, crushing her.”
= Sie konnte ihn nicht einmal sehen, doch seine dicken Arme hoben sie hoch, drohten sie zu zerquetschen.
Here’s one much longer in German:
“Jo choked.”
= Jo bekam keine Luft mehr. (Jo got no more air.)
“The world reeled dizzyingly around.”
= Die Welt um sie herum schien sich zu drehen und ihr wurde schwindlig.
(“The world around her seemed to spin and she felt dizzy.”)
“Aunt Lily’s ostrich came hurtling out of the sky” (Find an opportunity to say that!)
= stürtzte sich Tante Lilys Strauß vom Himmel
“collapsed into the bubbling spit”
= brach in dem blubbernden Speiche zusammen
Jo’s heart leaped.
= Jos Herz hämmerte heftig.
(“Jo’s heart pounded hard.”)
“a wormy army of tentacles exploded out”
= eine Wurmarmee aus Tentakeln explodierte nach außen
“with a slash of her axe” = mit einem einzigen Hieb ihrer Axt ab
“skewering the monster with spears” = durchbohrten das Monster mit Speeren (“through-drilled the monster with spears”)
“mashed” = zerquetscht
“She could hardly hold on to the gold thread.”
=Sie konnte den goldenen Faden kaum noch festhalten.
“like a huge, monstrously beaked bird”
= wie ein gewaltiger, monströser, mit einem riesigen Schnabel bewaffneter Vogel
(“like a gigantic, monstrous bird armed with a huge beak”)
“In a flash of feathers and armor”
= Federn schimmerten und Rüstung funkelte
(“feathers shimmered and armor sparkled”)
“ignited” = entzündete
“as rapid and merciless as a machine”
= so schnell und erbarmungslos wie eine Maschine
“beaklike stinger”
= schnabelförmigen Stachel
“a chewed-up, half-melted mass”
= eine zerkaute, halb geschmolzene Masse
“like a snuffling foghorn”
= wie ein verschnupftes Nebelhorn
“in a sloshing gurgle”
= in einem schwappenden Gurgeln
“startled and off-balance”
= erschreckt und aus dem Gleichgewicht gebracht
“every second becoming more slippery and steep”
= von Sekunde zu Sekunde schlüpfriger und steiler zu werden
(“from second to second slipperier and steeper becoming”)
“scrambled” = hochzukrabbeln
“Trust me” = Vertrau mir
“esophagus” = Kehle (“throat”)
“sliding into the shimmering pool”
= in das schimmernde Becken glitten
“crumpled in the corner” = zusammengekauert in einer Ecke
And let’s end with this sentence you actually might find an occasion to use:
“I had the strangest dream.”
= Ich hatte einen höchst merkwürdigen Traum.
I honestly hope you don’t find occasions to use many of the above phrases, but aren’t they fun to learn? Until next time! Bis zu nächsten Mal!