Tag: Jinx

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.

I let Sonderling Sunday lapse for a long time, but now I’m reviving it in eager anticipation of my 60th birthday trip in a month and a half, when after 18 years away, I’m going to go back and visit the place where I lived for ten years.

So, yes, Sonderling Sunday! Today I pulled out a kids’ fantasy book that I loved when I read it, Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, called Jinx und der magische Urwald in German. I’m appalled to discover that while I have used Jinx before for Sonderling Sunday, the last time was in 2015. Far, far too long!

So we will begin where we left off, the third chapter “Strange Feet,” on page 25 in English, Drittes Kapitel “Fremdes Füße,” Seite 31 auf Deutsch.

The first sentence is:
“Winter settled in to stay.”
= Der Winter richtete sich zum Bleiben ein.

“Simon was away a lot.”
= Simon war viel unterwegs.

“he often came back in a foul mood”
= Oft kehrte er übellaunig zurück

“terrifying” = Furchterregendes

“gradually” = allmählich

“cooking mood” = Kochlaune

“cranky” = mürrisch

“fed them” = bewirtete sie

“south wing” = Südflügel

“clearing” = Lichtung

“Try as he might” = Sosehr Jinx es auch versuchte

“inside and out” = drinnen wie draußen

“slid off” = hinuntergerutscht

“on purpose” = mit Absicht

“gnarly feet” = schwielige Füße (Google translate: “calloused feet”)

“had nothing in common with tree roots” = nichts mit Baumwurzeln gemein hatten

“time ran together in a blur”
= Zeit verschwamm zu einem großen Ganzen
(“Time blurred to one big whole”)

“icky” = klebriges (“sticky”)

“Alarmed, he gave a loud snore”
= Erschrocken schnarchte er laut auf

“bristles” = Borstiges

I like this word:
cat-repellant spell = Katzenabwehrzauber

“my business” = meine Angelegenheit

“testily” = gereizt

“shooting star” = Sternschnuppe

“She had a formidable nose.”
= Ihre Nase war beeindruckend.
(“Her nose was impressive.”)

“something more polite” = etwas Höflicheres

“And wives were kind of hard to miss.”
= Ehefrauen waren kaum zu übersehen.

“was already becoming fuzzy in his memory”
= in seiner Erinnerung immer verschwommener wurde

“Everyone was afraid all the time on general principle”
= Alle hatten grundsätzlich immer Angst
(“Everyone was basically always afraid.”)

“to hide his confusion” = seine Verwirrung zu verbergen

“poker” = Schürhaken

“smooshed” = zerquetschte

“midnight meeting” = Mitternachtstreffen

“sizzle” = knisterte

“Were they all dead before you met my husband?”
= Waren sie alle schon tot, bevor du meinen Mann kennengelernt hast?

And that’s it for Chapter Three! I hope by the next time I come back to Jinx I won’t be saying Zeit verschwamm zu einem großen Ganzen!

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, creating a Very Silly Phrasebook for Travelers.

This week, let’s go back to Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, known in German as Jinx und der magische Urwald.

Last time, we finished Chapter One, so this week we’re starting Zweites Kapitel, Das Haus des Zauberers, “The Wizard’s House.”

We’ll look at interesting phrases and how they are translated. My sister’s visiting Germany this week, so bonus points to her if she can think of ways to use these phrases.

The first sentence (its own paragraph) of this chapter is interesting enough to write out in its entirety here:
“And that is how Jinx came to live with a possibly evil wizard and twenty-seven cats in a huge stone house that stood alone in its own clearing, protected by invisible wards that kept monsters out but let some very strange visitors in.”
= So kam es, dass Jinx bei einem möglicherweise bösen Zauberer und seinen siebenundzwanzig Katzen einzog, in ein großes Haus aus Stein, das einsam auf einer Lichtung stand, beschützt von unsichtbaren Wachen, die Monster fernhielten, einige sehr merkwürdige Besucher jedoch einließen.

“a very satisfactory dinner” = ein höchst schmackhaftes Mahl

“pie” always seems to get translated Kuchen, though it’s not really the same thing. (But Kuchen isn’t really the same as “cake,” either.)
“pumpkin pie” = Kürbiskuchen.

“rafters” = Dachbalken

“barrels and shelves” = Fässern und Regalen

“probably something evil” = vermutlich für etwas Böses

“Jinx was annoyed at being laughed at.”
= Jinx ärgerte sich über den Spott.

“hasten the process” = den Prozess beschleunigst

“drop dead” = tot umfällt

“formidable enemy” = einflößender Feind

“Put that nonsense out of your head.”
= Schlag dir diesen Unsinn aus dem Kopf.

Try finding a reason to say this:
“bottle-shaped blob of terror”
= flaschenförmigen Schreckensklecks

“swear word” = Schimpfwort

“chipmunk” = Streifenhörnchen

This is fun:
“worse and worse” = immer schlimmer

“How darling!” = Wie reizend!

“puff” = Lufthauch

“spiral staircase” = Wendeltreppe

“scattering cats” = verscheuchte mehrere Katzen

“a many-colored patchwork skirt” = einen bunten Flickenrock

Now isn’t it lovely to have one word for this?
“mustache of foam” = Schaumschnurrbart

“dragon scales” = Drachenschuppen

“a red polka-dot kerchief” = ein rot getupftes Tuch

“worrying” = nachgrübeln

“wormwood” = Beifuß

“cackled” = gackerten

“suck your soul out with a straw”
= den Menschen die Seele mit einem Strohhalm aussaugte

“stack your bones up crisscross”
= ihre Knochen kreuzweise übereinanderstapelte

“campfire” = Lagerfeuer

“scrubbed” = schrubbte

“night-blooming bindweed” = Nachtblütenwinde

“zipped” = sausten

“hurtling” = brauste

“He saw footprints, hoofprints, and claw prints frozen in the mud.”
= Er sah gefrorene Spuren von Füßen, Hufen und Tatzen im Matsch.

“zooming” = schwindelerregend

“shakily” = mit wackligen Beinen

“Simon flickered irritation at him.”
= Simon funkelte ihn ärgerlich an.

And that’s it for Chapter Two! I hope things won’t get immer schlimmer and you won’t encounter any flaschenförmigen Schreckensklecks. But now if you see a Schaumschnurrbart, you’ll know what to call it.

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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.

This week, I’ve got the third book of the Jinx trilogy waiting for me to read it, so in the spirit of anticipation, today I’m going to look again at the translation of the first book, Jinx und der magische Urwald.

When I started looking at Jinx, we left off on page 6 in the English version, Seite 12 in German.

It’s all in the name of handy-dandy phrases to know:

“valuable curse” = wertvollen Fluch

“the fear was ripply with greed” = seine Angst kräuselte sich vor Gier

“a crunching sound” = ein Knacken zu hören

“terrifying gloom” = schaurige Finsternis

“a rotten cabbage leaf” = ein verfaultes Kohlblatt

“the hollow scrabble of clawed feet on the forest earth”
= das dumpfe Scharren von Tatzen auf dem Waldboden

“Several things happened at once.”
= In diesem Moment passierten mehrere Dinge gleichzeitig.
(“In this moment passed more things at the same time.”)

“heavy, ragged breathing” = schwerem, keuchendem Atem

“a smell like rotting meat” = Verwesungsgeruch
(I like that there’s a single word for this. “Decay-smell”)

“they were so big and tusky”
= sie waren riesig und hatten gewaltige Stoßzähne
(“they were giant and had huge tusks”)

This is more dramatic in German:
“The wizard reached out and grabbed Jinx.”
= Blitzschnell packte der Zauberer Jinx.
(“Lightning-fast grabbed the magician Jinx.”)

And here’s another cool single word:
“cloud of calm” = Ruhewolke

And again:
“howled with glee” = johlten

But then this takes more:
“and danced about” = und vollführten einen Freudentanz
(“and performed a joy-dance”)

“breeze” = Luftzug

“swallowed up” = verschluckt

This time the translation seems slightly stronger:
“the smell of rotting meat” = der Verwesungsgestank

“a very small thing” = eine Winzigkeit

Interesting! The translator completely left out a sentence: “He assumed that everyone did this and that everyone could see what he saw.” Then again, I’m using an Advance Review Copy of the book, and it’s quite possible that sentence was left out of the final version of the book.

A sonder-sentence:
“I don’t expect you’ll miss him very much”
= Du wirst ihn bestimmt nicht sonderlich vermissen
(“You will him certainly not especially miss”)

“a red cloud of anger” = eine rote Wutwolke

“But now what?” = Aber was nun?

“clearings” = Lichtungen

“stealthy rustlings” = verstohlene Geräusche

“I have some bad habits.”
= Ich habe ein paar schlecte Angewohnheiten

There! That finishes Chapter One of Jinx

Aber was nun? Here’s hoping this week you encounter more Ruhewolken than Wutwolken.

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