It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! It’s the time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books. Tonight’s edition is brought to you by snow outside – snow that kept me home from my Sunday gaming group today.
And I’m in the mood to go back to Das Buch der Tausend Tage, Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale. Maybe because I’m celebrating #Sonderbooks25, my 25th year of posting Sonderbooks, and I’m getting sort of close to 2007, the year Book of a Thousand Days was my favorite book read.
Whatever the reason, it’s been a long time since we looked at this book, but last time we left off with Day 8 after our two main characters got out of the tower where they’d been imprisoned.
So let’s begin with the next chapter, Day 33, Tag 33:
“Three weeks we’ve been walking and still not another soul.”
= Wir sind jetzt drei Wochen unterwegs und immer noch niemandem begegnet.
“remains of some villages” = Überbleibsel einiger Dörfer
“Will we find the city gutted and full of the dead unburied?”
= Werden wir auch diese Stadt geplündert und voller Toter vorfinden, die niemand begraben hat?
“beset by darkness” = umnachtet
“a hollowed overhang by the stream”
= eine überwucherte Einbuchtung am Fluss
(“an overgrown indentation along the river”)
“She calmed at once.”
= Sie beruhigte sich auf der Stelle.
“sharpened a new stick” = einen neuen Stock angespitzt
“boiled the sting out of some nettle leaves”
= Nesselblätter gekocht, bis sie nicht mehr brannten
“speared a fish in the stream”
= einen Fisch im Fluss afgespießt
“Seven years of food isn’t worth trading for the sky.”
= Den Anblick des Himmels sollte man nicht gegen sieben Jahre Essen eintauschen.
“traders” = Kaufleuten
“wiped it out” = Erdboden gleichgemacht (“earth-floor the same made it”)
“cranky” = unleidlich
“breathlessly huge” = atemberaubend weit
“uncovered” = enthüllten
“dye pots” = Färbertöpfe
“bolts of silk” = Seidenballen
“skins of wine” = Weinschläuche
“bricks of incense” = Räuchersteine
“contortionists” = Schlangenmenschen (“snake-people”)
“storytellers” = Geschichtenerzähler
“merchant stalls” = Verkaufsbuden
“plain as plain” = Sonnenklar (“sun-clear”)
“snapped” = fauchte
“shouting and chasing” = riefen und rannten
Here’s a phrase that might come in handy:
“throwing wash water out the window”
= kippten Waschwasser aus dem Fenster
The German’s been more alliterative:
“fighting and kissing” = kämpften und küssten
“wasp’s nest” = Wespennest
“the laces on my boot” = meinen Schnürsenkeln
“calluses” = Schwielen
“squinted” = aus zusammengekniffenen Augen an
“washing hearth” = Spülfeuerstelle
And finally, a sentence I can definitely use:
“I’ll pay for this writing time tomorrow.”
= Morgen werde ich für diese Geschreibsel büßen.
That’s it for tonight! I finished at the end of Day 46, page 135, Seite 148 in the German edition.
Now think of ways you can use these phrases in a sentence on your next trip to Germany! Hopefully not Werden wir auch diese Stadt geplündert und voller Toter vorfinden, die niemand begraben hat?