Category: Sonderling Sunday

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday, otherwise known as Nerd Sonntag, otherwise known as A Bizarre German-English Phrasebook, otherwise known as Language Fun for Silly People.

What I’m doing is looking at translations found in Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge of the so-interesting words and sentences from The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy. I’m hoping to finish Chapter One today.

I left off last week on page 8 of The Order of Odd-Fish and page 15 of Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge.

Let’s pick up where Lily Larouche returns after having been missing for forty years and where she meets Jo:

“LILY LAROUCHE RETURNS!
(WITH A ‘DANGEROUS’ COMPANION)

“Lily Larouche had awakened in her dusty bed, in her ruby palace. But she had no idea how she had got there. And she had no idea what she had been doing for the past forty years.

“Then she heard a distant crying. She followed the sound to her laundry room — and there, inside the washing machine, she found a baby.

“She also found a note:

“This is Jo. Please take care of her.
But beware.
This is a DANGEROUS baby.”

In the German translation, these paragraphs read:

“LILY LAROUCHE KEHRT ZURÜCK!
(MIT EINER ‘GEFÄHRLICHEN’ GEFÄHRTIN)

“Lily Larouche war in ihrem staubigen Bett in ihrem Rubinpalast aufgewacht, hatte aber keinerlei Ahnung, wie sie dorthin gekommen war. Ebenso wenig wusste sie, was sie in den letzten vier Jahrzehnten gemacht hatte.

“Sie hörte ein leises Wimmern. Daraufhin folgte sie dem Geräusch bis zu ihrer Waschküche und dort, in der Waschmaschine, fand sie ein Baby.

“Und eine Nachricht.

“Das ist Jo. Bitte kümmere Dich um sie.
Aber sei vorsichtig.
Sie ist ein GEFÄHRLICHES Baby.”

Okay, there’s a super good one here, right at the start:

“DANGEROUS COMPANION” = “GEFÄHRLICHEN GEFÄHRTIN”

How lovely! This is another serendipitous one to say three times fast: Gefährlichen Gefährtin. Gefährlichen Gefährtin. Gefährlichen Gefährtin.

As far as I can tell, it is simple happy circumstance that these sound so much alike. This is a case where the translation trumps the original by at least ten points.

Some other words from these paragraphs:

“dusty” = “staubigen”

Instead of “forty years,” the translator used “four decades” = “vier Jahrzehnten.”

“crying” = “Wimmern”

“sound” = “Geräusch”

“laundry room” = “Waschküche” (Wash kitchen)

Let’s move on. I simply must tell you how this paragraph is translated:

“‘Balderdash,’ said Aunt Lily. ‘Whoever left that note was just having their little joke. The girl’s as dangerous as a glass of milk. Lived with her for thirteen years, so I should know. Not a peep, not a pop.’

“Jo glared at Aunt Lily.”

In German:

“‘Papperlapapp’, erklärte sie. ‘Wer diese Nachricht hinterlassen hat, hat sich einfach nur einen kleinen Scherz erlaubt. Das Mädchen ist genauso gefährlich wie ein Glas Milch. Ich lebe jetzt seit dreizehn Jahren mit Jo zusammen, sollte es also wissen. Sie ist so still wie ein Mäuschen.’

“Jo warf ihrer Tante einen bösen Blick zu.”

Okay, I think this is my favorite translation so far:

“Balderdash” = “Papperlapapp” Too fun!

As for the rest, we’re going to encounter this one later:

“joke” = “Scherz”

I’m a little disappointed with the translation of “Not a peep, not a pop.” They just said, “She is as quiet as a mouse.” (Something with peep and pop would have gone so very well with Papperlapapp, too!) And they don’t really say Jo “glared” at Aunt Lily, more that she gave her an evil look.

Ah! In the next paragraph we have a new translation of daffodil! Here’s the German:

“Der Oberst wirkte ein wenig enttäuscht und selbst die Osterglocke auf seinem Kopf schien ihre Blätter ein wenig hängen zu lassen. Doch dann erholte er sich. ‘Blödsinn. Ich wei? von höchster Stelle, dass Jo Larouche tatsächlich gefährlich ist und dass ein extrem bedeutungsvoller Gegenstand, ein Gegenstand, der in den falschen Händen möglicherweise sogar gefährlich sein könnte, noch heute Abend hierher geliefert wird, an ebendiese. . .'”

This is translated from:

“Colonel Korsakov looked disappointed — even the daffodil on his head seemed to droop a little — but then he rumbled, ‘Nonsense. I have it on excellent authority that Jo Larouche is dangerous — and that an extremely important item, an item that may even be unsafe in the wrong hands, will be delivered here tonight, to this very — ‘”

Yes! This time “daffodil” is translated as “Easter bell,” “Osterglocke.” Oh, the delights of language! And the daffodil doesn’t just droop. It “lets its leaves hang a little,” “schien ihre Blätter ein wenig hängen zu lassen.”

Of course, you have to catch this one:

“Nonsense” = “Blödsinn”

“important” = “bedeutungsvoller” (which I would have translated “meaningful”)

“possibly” = “möglicherweise” (I knew that one already, but it’s just fun to say.)

Well, I simply must include the dramatic next paragraph:

“But Korsakov never finished. A futuristic white sports car burst out of nowhere, skidded through the rosebushes, and spun to a stop in the sand. Its door flew open and the hedgehog leaped out, shouting, ‘All right, where is he? Let me at him!'”

This translates as:

Der Russe kam nicht dazu, seinen Satz zu beenden. Ein futuristischer wei?er Sportwagen tauchte wie aus dem Nichts auf, fegte durch die Rosenbüsche und kam schleudernd im Sand zum Stehen. Der Wagenschlag flog auf und der Igel sprang heraus. ‘Also gut, wo steckt er? Lasst mich zu ihm!'”

From these:

“skidded” = “fegte”

“spun to a stop in the sand” = “kam schleudernd im Sand zum Stehen” (I’ll give equal points to those phrases.)

“car door” = “Wagenschlag”

“hedgehog” = “Igel” (I still don’t get that one.)

Here’s another dramatic paragraph:

“There was a shrieking blast of wind that sent sand flying, paper lanterns swaying. A plane roared far above — and something fell from the sky, down into the garden, and down onto the hedgehog’s head.”

This becomes:

“Ein kreischender Windsto? wirbelte Sand auf und lie? die Papierlampions heftig schaukeln. Hoch über ihnen dröhnte ein Flugzeug hinweg und etwas fiel vom Himmel in den Garten und dem Igel auf den Kopf.”

We’ve got:
“shrieking blast of Wind” = “kreischender Windsto?”

“sent sand flying” = “wirbelte Sand auf” (might mean “whirled sand up”?)

“paper lanterns flying” = “Papierlampions heftig schaukeln” (“paper lanterns violently rocking”)

“plane roared” = “dröhnte ein Flugzeug” (“droned the flying thing”)

And let’s finish up the chapter with the final paragraphs:

“Jo scrambled back, just barely avoiding Korsakov as he thudded into the sand, and tripped over the thing that had fallen from the sky — a brown cardboard package, with these words written across the top:

“TO: JO LAROUCHE
FROM: THE ORDER OF ODD-FISH

“After that, everyone had the leisure to start screaming.”

Auf Deutsch:

“Jo krabbelte hastig zurück. Es gelang ihr gerade noch, sich vor der massigen Gestalt Korsakovs in Sicherheit zu bringen, als der Russe mit einem dumpfen Aufprall auf dem Sand landete. Dabei stolperte sie über das Ding, das aus dem Himmel gefallen war. Es war ein brauner Pappkarton, auf dem die Worte geschrieben standen:

“EMPFÄNGER: JO LAROUCHE
ABSENDER: DER ORDEN DER SELTSAMEN SONDERLINGE

“Dann endlich hatten sich alle so weit erholt, dass sie loskreischen konnten.”

Some final goodies:

“scrambled back” = “krabbelte hastig zurück” (“crawled quickly back.” I picture her crawling backwards like a crab.)

“just barely avoiding Korsakov” talks about in the nick of time avoiding his massive body safely.

“tripped” = “stolperte”

“cardboard package” = “Pappkarton”

“screaming” = “loskreischen”

There you have it! We’ve gotten through one chapter, and it only took three weeks! Isn’t this fun?

I just have one more thing to say:

Papperlapapp! And beware of gefährlichen Gefährtin!

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Okay, last Fall, when James Kennedy sent me a copy of Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge, I was super excited and promised to blog about reading it. Then last night, when I was thinking about how I’d finally get my review of The Order of Odd-Fish posted today, I wondered when I would start blogging about the German version.

I’ve been following Liz Burns’ reading of Frankenstein, reading along and enjoying her blog posts for “Frankenstein Friday.” That’s when it hit me: I’ve got the perfect title with “Sonderling Sunday.” So that means I simply have to start tonight!

You know, I’d love to have others join me. Since one translation of “Sonderling” is Nerd, maybe some members of the Nerdy Book Club would like to celebrate Sonderling Sundays in their own special way? Maybe it’s something Nerdfighters should celebrate? Then again, it’s going to be about the fun of words and translating a story between languages, so maybe my sister, a self-proclaimed Word Lover, would like to take part? Anyone who thinks of a way to celebrate Sonderling Sundays with me, please let me know in the comments! Meanwhile, let me begin with Chapter One.

The Order of Odd-Fish, Chapter One: 12 pages
Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge, 1. Kapitel: 14 pages.

With this first chapter, I don’t have to worry about spoilers. With all the chapters, I think it would be nice to give the first sentence in each language (where that won’t cause a spoiler, anyway).

“The desert was empty, as though a great drain had sucked the world underground.”
“Die Wuste war leer, als hätte ein gro?er Abfluss die Welt weggesaugt.”

Weggesaugt. That’s a good word. (Vay-ga-sowgt) You can almost hear the giant sucking sound.

The paragraph about the costume party has some good words:
“A man dressed as an astronaut chatted with a devil.”
“Ein Mann, der wie ein Astronaut gekleidet war, plauderte mit einem Teufel.”

“A gang of cavemen sipped fizzing cocktails.”
“Eine Rotte Höhlenmenschen nippte an sprudelnden Cocktails.”

“A Chinese emperor flirted with a robot, a pirate arm-wrestled a dinosaur, a giant worm danced with a refrigerator — it was Lily Larouche’s Christmas party, and all her old friends had come.”
“Ein chinesischer Kaiser flirtete mit einem Arbeiter, ein Pirat spielte mit einem Dinosaurier Armdrücken und ein gigantischer Wurm tanzte mit einem Kühlschrank. Es war Lily Larouches Weihnachtsmaskenball und all ihre alten Freunde waren gekommen.”

I don’t know about you, but doesn’t a “Weihnachtsmaskenball” sound more fun than a simple Christmas party? And it includes that it’s a masked ball. I don’t think it was a stretch for the translators to include that detail, given the characters we’ve already seen.

Interesting. When they translate the sentences where we meet Jo Larouche, they don’t include the final phrase:
“It was a thirteen-year-old girl, small and thin, with brown skin and black bobbed hair. Her name was Jo Larouche. She was Lily Larouche’s niece. She also lived at the ruby palace, and she was spying.”
“Es war ein dreizehnjähriges Mädchen, ein kleines, dünnes Ding mit brauner Haut und schwarzen, zu einem Bob gestutzten Haaren. Sein Name war Jo Larouche. Es war Lily Larouches Nichte, die ebenfalls im Rubinpalast wohnte.”

You see? Nothing at all about her spying. You think they decided the earlier information that she was hiding in a bush was enough?

They do translate a sentence in the next paragraph:
“Jo never talked to Aunt Lily’s friends, but she loved spying on them.”
“Sie sprach zwar nie mit Tante Lilys Freunden, liebte es jedoch, ihnen nachzuspionieren.”

There’s another word I can’t help but love: “nachzuspionieren.” something like “to spy upon” but so much cooler sounding!

Here’s another sentence for which I just have to check the translation:
“A couple of feet away, a woman disguised as an enormous eggplant was talking to a man dressed like a UFO.”
This becomes:
“Ein Stück neben ihr redete eine als gewaltige Aubergine verkleidete Frau mit einem Mann, der wie ein UFO ausschaute.”

There you have it. Who wouldn’t want to know the German words for “an enormous eggplant”? “Eine gewaltige Aubergine.” That’s got to be useful knowledge.

Oh, and an even more useful phrase comes up in the very next paragraph:
“‘Did you see?’ whispered the eggplant. ‘Lily’s gone nuts again.'”
“‘Hast du das gesehen?’, flüsterte die Aubergine. ‘Lily is wieder mal völlig durchgeknallt.'”

Okay, I think that “gone nuts” is easier to say than “völlig durchgeknallt.” But maybe that’s just me.

The man’s response is definitely not as good as the English one “Cracked as a crawdad.” In German, he says, “Sie ist verrückt wie ein Flusskrebs.” No, sorry, not as good. It’s charming in English because it’s alliterative. Take that away, and I don’t think it really works.

Here’s a good paragraph, where the fat Russian Jo noticed earlier turns up again:

“Es war der fette Russe. Wo war er blo? so plötzlich hergekommen? Er war ein schwerfälliges, schäbiges, gewichtiges und auf absurde Weise würdevolles Mammut von einem Mann, mit einem zuckenden wei?en Backenbart in einer glänzenden Uniform, und schwang einen gro?en schwarzen Gehstock.”

Oh, and what that means is:
“It was the fat Russian again — where had he come from? — a lumbering, shaggy, harrumphing, absurdly dignified mastodon of a man, with twitching white whiskers and a gleaming uniform, swinging a great black cane.”

I could be wrong, but I don’t think the translator even made an attempt at translating “harrumphing.” What a shame!

Okay, here’s another exquisite English paragraph. How will this translate?

“‘Do you understand what it means to disturb my digestion, sir?’ said the Russian. ‘That even now, my stomach rumbles with contempt? That my kidneys flood with excruciating acids? That my entire gastrointestinal tract revolts at your ungentlemanly conduct?'”

I don’t know. That’s an awfully high standard to hit. Here’s the translated version:

“‘Ist Euch klar, was es bedeutet, meine Verdauung zu stören, Sir?’, erkundigte sich der Russe. ‘Was es hei?t, dass in diesem Moment mein Bauch vor Verachtung brodelt? Dass meine Nieren in unerträglichen Säuren schwimmen? Mein gesamter Gastrointestinaltrakt angesichts Eures unhöflichen Verhaltens revoltiert?'”

(I don’t know how to get German quotation marks on my computer, so I’m just substituting English ones.)

I kind of like the way the kidneys sentence turned out: “Dass meine Nieren in unerträglichen Säuren schwimmen?”

I like this one:
“‘I am a daffodil,’ he murmured uncomfortably.”
This translates to
“‘Ich gehe als Glockenblume’, erklärte er murmelnd, fühlte sich jedoch sichtlich unwohl dabei.”

A few more words than the English version this time! But what I like about it is the translation of “daffodil,” which I hadn’t seen before. “Glockenblume” is a portmanteau word (like so many German words) meaning “bell flower.” Isn’t that nice?

Well, I’ve taken far too long on this, and Sunday is over, so I won’t finish the first chapter tonight. But what a fun way to increase my German vocabulary, don’t you think? Forgive me if this is boring for those who don’t have a smattering of German, but I’m afraid I’m enjoying it very much. So tune in next week for the next Sonderling Sunday!

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Those who read my blog should know by now that Sonder is a German prefix meaning “special.” I put that statement at the bottom of every page.

You may also realize that I have a thing about my name. I get a thrill any time I see it in print, spelled correctly. All my years in school, teachers who had just met me would always, or it seemed always, read my name as “Sandy.” I had one Sunday School teacher who, for a few years, called me Sandra. I did not like him.

The story went that my parents named me “Sondy” instead of “Sandy” because they wanted to have a boy named “Randy,” and that would be too much alike. (And I do indeed have a little brother named Randy.) My mother’s mother had a piano student named “Sondra,” and they decided they liked the name and would use that. Some time or other, my Mom told me they expected me to go by Sondra, but they called me “Sondy,” and so that’s what I went by when I got to school age. If Sandra’s can go by Sandy, it seems perfectly logical for Sondra to go by Sondy, right?

But somehow, people can’t seem to read the name “Sondy.” They always seem to think they’re not seeing it right, or it’s spelled wrong or something. I also found that when I went by a display of Name souvenirs — like California license plates with people’s names, or necklaces with people’s names, or key chains, or whatever you might hope to find — well, there was never a Sondra or a Sondy in the crowd. I know. I always looked.

So, I got to Germany. I very very quickly spotted that Sonder is a prefix meaning “special.” There was a town relatively near us called Sonderhausen (“special houses”). I looked on a map for more Sonder towns, and about popped my eyes out when I discovered an actual village that shared my name. I dragged my family three hours to get a picture with the sign. (We went to a castle while we were at it, of course.)

Stores would offer a Sonderangebot (“special offer”). Of course, childishly, my very favorite German word quickly became Sonderfahrt (“special trip”).

I looked in my German dictionary for more Sonder words, knowing that in German, the dictionary will by no means list them all. I found some fun ones: Sonderaustellung, “special exhibit”; Sonderfall, “special case”; sonderlich, “remarkable”; Sondernummer, “special edition”; Sonderpreis, “special price”; Sonderstellung, “exceptional position”; Sonderurlaub, “emergency leave”; and Sonderzug, “special train.”

As I was so pleased to read all the ways Sonder means special, I was a bit embarrassed when I read the definition of Sonderling: “queer (or eccentric) fellow, crank.” But all my years in Germany, I never heard anyone use that word or saw it written, so I decided I could safely focus on the “special” meaning.

With all that, you can see why the name of my website was easy to choose. In fact, I talked about making a website called “Sonderbooks” for quite some time before I actually did it.

Okay, many years after starting my website, I attended the 2010 ALA Conference in Washington, DC. At the YA Coffee Klatch, I met James Kennedy.

When James described his book, The Order of Odd-Fish, the sense of humor struck me as quirky and clever and delightful. I was sure my sons would love it, since it reminded me of Douglas Adams, so I bought a copy for my younger son’s 16th birthday.

Well, a year later, I was on my way to ALA Annual Conference again. My son still hadn’t read it, and I still hadn’t read it, but James Kennedy’s name was in the program, and I thought how I’d hate to meet him again without having read his book. So I brought it along and began it on the flight there, and finished it on the flight back.

As luck would have it, I did meet James again, this time at the Newbery Banquet. And I was able to tell him that I was reading his book!

I also had the fun of tweeting my reactions as I finished the book while traveling. (Completely fun book!)

Okay, so a few months ago, James announced on his website that The Order of Odd-Fish was being translated into German.

Dear Reader, imagine my delight when I learned the title: Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge! Yes, that’s right! Remember the “queer or eccentric fellow” the “crank”? Seltsamer basically means “strange” and Sonderlinge is simply the plural form of that delightful word Sonderling. (By the way, I was very happy to learn that more modern dictionaries include the word “nerd” in the definition.)

Well, I expressed my delight via Twitter to James, and he very kindly promised me a German copy.

And it arrived last night! Actually, I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t check my mail the day before yesterday, so it may have come then. When I found it, I suddenly felt much better!

I was especially delighted that my son, who is in his fourth year of studying German, and has actually begun The Order of Odd-Fish now, snagged the German edition before I could look at it very hard. We looked up important things. Like, how did they translate “the Belgian Prankster”? Answer: der Belgische Scherzkeks. Looking up the parts of that word in my German dictionary, prankster is basically “joke-cookie.” Don’t you love those German compound words?

We both were compelled to read the jacket copy on the back aloud, and were both delighted with the parts we understood. For example, I quickly grasped “Jo trifft auf eine sprechende Riesenkakerlake,” which means “Jo met a giant talking cockroach.”

The first thing you notice about the German edition is that it looks much bigger than the English edition. Here’s another view that shows this even more clearly:

The English edition is 403 pages, but the German edition is 511. James put a note in the book suggesting that perhaps they added scenes when translating. That would be fun to discover, but I think a simple listing of random sentences will show a simple truth: German sentences take more space to write than English ones.

Let’s look at the first sentence:
“The desert was empty, as though a great drain had sucked the world underground.”

Auf Deutsch:
“Die Wüste war leer, als hätte ein gro?er Abfluss die Welt weggesaugt.”

Okay, that one does not prove my point. Let’s try another:

“A giant cockroach had walked into the room, three feet tall, wearing a purple velvet suit with a silk shirt, cravat, and bowler hat.”

Auf Deutsch:
“Eine gigantische Kakerlake hatte den Raum betreten. Sie war mindestens einen Meter fünfzig gro?, trug einen violetten Samtanzug, darunter ein Seidenhemd, eine Krawatte und einem Bowler auf dem Kopf.”

That one’s more what I expected. Though why do you suppose they had to mention he had the Bowler on his head (auf dem Kopf)? Maybe a Bowler isn’t always a hat?

Anyway, surely you can see how much fun this is going to be.

Now, I’m horrified as I write this to realize I never did review The Order of Odd-Fish. I’m pretty sure it got out of my big To-Review pile this summer when my son did decide to finally read it. So I’m going to remedy that soon. However, though I can read German, I don’t read it very fast, so it would take who-knows-how-long for me to read the whole book and then report back.

So. I foresee a continuing feature. I mean surely the first time I see Sonderling actually used in print, I simply HAVE to feature it on Sonderbooks? I think after each chapter, I hope about once a week, I will post about my journey through this translation. I’ll explore how they express different unusual concepts and anything else that strikes my fancy. Since the book is definitely quirky, I hope I can work in some quirky observations.

I hope that my readers will enjoy joining me on my Sonderfahrt through Der Orden der Seltsamer Sonderlinge!

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