Tag: Das Buch der Tausende Tage

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?

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday – that time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books.

Today I’m back to the book I love so much in English, Shannon Hale‘s Book of a Thousand Days, Das Buch der Tausend Tage.

Last time I looked at this book, I left off ready to begin Tag 33.

This is a random sentence, early on, that I think could be handy to know:
“Or was it right to let her sleep?”
= Oder war es richtig, sie schlafen zu lassen?

Here’s another good sentence:
“You’re an antelope who bounds through life.”
= Ihr seid eine Antilope, die durchs Leben hüpft.

“feverish hot” = lichterloh

And who knows but when you might need to say this?
“Your ankles are skinnier than a jackrabbit’s ribs.”
= Eure Knöchel magerer sind als die Rippen eines Hasen.

“trying to hold in the laugh made me snort like a camel”
= das unterdrückte Lachen brach sich in einem kamelartigen Schnauben Bahn

I like the way this sounds:
“didn’t want to wake the guards”
=die Wachen nicht wecken wollte

“How my side ached!”
= Ich hatte solches Seitenstechen!

“laughing with” = herumzualbern (Google: “fool around”)

“my skin tingling” = einem Prickeln auf der Haut

There’s a special word for tears of laughter:
“I’d wiped the tears from my face”
= ich mir die Lachtränen abgewischt hatte
(“I from myself the laugh-tears wiped had.”)

“wild dog” = Wildhund (Nothing surprising there, but always fun to say.)

“crazy” = wahnwitzig

I always like the long words:
“sword practice” = Schwertkampftraining

“swimming while dry” = trockenen Körpers schwimmen

“shy” = schüchtern

“ease suffering” = lindern Leiden

“resting my head on my hands” = stützte den Kopf in die Hände

“squinting” = mit zusammengekniffenen Augen

“something furry that mewed”
= etwas Flauschiges Maunzendes

“riverbed clay” = Lehm im Flussbett

And this one rhymes:
“heartache” = Herzschmerz

That’s it for Day 33. May you never know Herzschmerz and may the only tears you know be Lachtränen.

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