{"id":37021,"date":"2020-01-12T23:06:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T03:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37021"},"modified":"2020-01-12T23:09:52","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T03:09:52","slug":"sonderling-sunday-idle-braggadocio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37021","title":{"rendered":"Sonderling Sunday – Idle Braggadocio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Surprise! After several months off, it’s time for Sonderling Sunday<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Sonderling Sunday is when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s book and making a very silly phrasebook of Useful Phrases To Know in German — that I challenge you to ever actually use in any language.<\/p>\n

Since it’s been so long since I’ve written a post, tonight I’m going back to the book that started it all, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge<\/a><\/em>, by James Kennedy<\/a>, known in the original English as The Order of Odd-Fish<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

We left off last time<\/a> on page 348 in the English edition, Seite 442 auf Deutsch<\/em>. We left off when Jo and Fiona were about to start their duel. Since duels begin with threats, this is going to be especially fun.<\/p>\n

I like to begin by translating a complete sentence, and this is a good one:<\/p>\n

“Fiona had already dismounted and started the threats:”
\n= Fiona war bereits abgestiegen und hatte begonnen, ihre Drohungen auszusto\u00dfen:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Silver Kitten of Deceit” = Silbernes K\u00e4tzchen der Arglist<\/em><\/p>\n

“Know the terror of your doom!”
\n= Erkenne den Schrecken deines Untergangs!<\/em><\/p>\n

“the All-Devouring Mother” = die All-Vershlingende Mutter<\/em><\/p>\n

“Tonight your deceits shall be overthrown, your silver fur gnashed between my all-masticating jaws!”
\n= Heute Nacht werde ich deinen T\u00fccken ein Ende bereiten und dein silberner Pelz wird zwischen meinen alles zermalmenden Kiefern zerfetzt werden!<\/em><\/p>\n

“boos” = Buhrufen<\/em> (“Boo-cries”)<\/p>\n

Here’s something you may want to try on the next person who threatens you in German:
\n“Boasting in speech, yet paltry in deed!”
\n= Du prahlst mit Worten und bist doch so erb\u00e4rmlich in deinen Taten!<\/em><\/p>\n

“my meow is your death sentence” = mein Miauen wird deine Todesstrafe sein<\/em><\/p>\n

“my purr, your despair” = mein Schnurren deine Verzweiflung<\/em><\/p>\n

“my litterbox, your grave!” = mein Papierkorb dein Grab!<\/em><\/p>\n

“Let fly your thrashing tongue, your gnawing teeth, your gulping throat”
\n= Lass nur deine widerliche Zunge fliegen, deine Z\u00e4hne bei\u00dfen, deine Kehle schlucken!<\/em><\/p>\n

“I choke your esophagus with the foodstuffs of destruction”
\n= Ich werde deine Speiser\u00f6hre mit dem Labsal der Vernichtung stopfen<\/em><\/p>\n

“I fill your greedy maw with the meal of dishonor!”
\n= Ich werde dein gieriges Maul mit den Speisen der Schande f\u00fcllen!<\/em><\/p>\n

“savor your doom” = genie\u00dfe deinen Untergang<\/em><\/p>\n

I like this one, because I don’t think it’s a direct translation:
\n“The crowd went wild.”
\n= Die Zuschauer flippten aus.<\/em>
\n(“The spectators flipped out.”)<\/p>\n

“sneered” = schnaubte<\/em><\/p>\n

“wearable” = tragbaren<\/em><\/p>\n

“idle braggadocio” = alberne Prahlerei<\/em><\/p>\n

“weakling” = Schw\u00e4chling<\/em><\/p>\n

“pusillanimous” = zaghaft<\/em><\/p>\n

I write out this whole sentence for the sake of the big long word at the end in German, but I dare you to find a way to utter this sentence:
\n“Do you not know, Aznath, that I, Ichthala, the All-Devouring Mother, shall gather unto myself a thousand living scorpions and sew them into a pair of scorpion underwear?”
\n= Wei\u00dft du nicht, Aznath, dass ich, Ichthala, die All-Vershlingende Mutter, tausend lebende Skorpione versammelt und zu einer Skorpionunterw\u00e4sche gen\u00e4ht habe?<\/em><\/p>\n

“unmentionable places” = unaussprechlichen Stellen<\/em><\/p>\n

“writhing, poisonous underwear” = windenden giftigen Unterw\u00e4sche<\/em><\/p>\n

“retorted” = konterte<\/em><\/p>\n

“stitching disgraceful underwear” = schamlose Unterkleidung zusammenzuflicken<\/em><\/p>\n

“thin twine” = d\u00fcnnen Schn\u00fcren<\/em><\/p>\n

They’ve got a word for this!
\n“second least favorite song” = vorletztes Lieblingslied<\/em>
\n“least favorite song” = letztes Lieblingslied<\/em><\/p>\n

“spicy gumbo” = w\u00fcrzigen Gumboschotensuppe<\/em><\/p>\n

“intestines” = Eingeweide<\/em><\/p>\n

“dollhouses” = Puppenh\u00e4usern<\/em><\/p>\n

Now here’s an insult:
\n“your dark, unholy, malformed, unnatural, godless, nauseating, cancerous, wretched, crap-spackled heart”
\n= dein d\u00fcsteres, unheiliges, missgestaltetes, unnat\u00fcrliches, gottloses, widerw\u00e4rtiges, geschw\u00fcrgleiches, verdammtes, m\u00e4chtiges Herz<\/em><\/p>\n

The duel is about to begin!<\/p>\n

I’m going to finish by showing how the translator rendered their last cries at each other before they engage in battle:<\/p>\n

“Avaunt!” = Hinweg mit dir!<\/em>
\n“Hark!” = H\u00f6rt, h\u00f6rt!<\/em>
\n“Fie!” = Pfui!<\/em>
\n“Alack!” = Ach weh!<\/em>
\n“Egad!” = Oh Gott!<\/em> (I’m not sure I agree with this translation.)
\n“Forsooth!” = F\u00fcrwahr!<\/em>
\n“Aaaaaaaagh!” = [Not translated] Mit einem lauten Schrei\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Now if you ever want to spout off some alberne Prahlerei<\/em> in German, you’ll know what to say!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surprise! After several months off, it’s time for Sonderling Sunday! Sonderling Sunday is when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s book and making a very silly phrasebook of Useful Phrases To Know in German — that I challenge you to ever actually use in any language. Since it’s been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174,184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-der-orden-der-seltsamen-sonderlinge","category-sonderling-sunday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37021"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37025,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37021\/revisions\/37025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}