More German geeking

[annathepiper]

So, because I've been Writer's Block girl for the last couple of days, I thought I'd spend some time playing with some German in the interests of doing something completely unrelated to my words. (And you folks thought I'd given up on that, hadn't you?)

Accordingly, while mamishka came over tonight to get caught up on Lost (and to watch the new one with us), I worked on translating the first paragraph of Mariana, by Susanna Kearsley. Or, I should say, translating the first paragraph of the German translation back into English. I have not been able to find this novel in English for the life of me; it's out of print, and although I have it on my Amazon wish list, it's been unavailable via Amazon directly for some time and I don't feel like risking trying to buy a used copy from somebody else. But I found a German translation of it at a local Barnes and Noble--go fig.

(Of course, now tonight I finally realize that, since Susanna Kearsley apparently lives in Ontario, it could behoove me to look on amazon.ca instead of amazon.com, and lo and behold, THERE are available copies of Mariana to order. Along with copies of another of her novels I want as well, The Splendour Falls. Note to self: investigate this later, and/or conspire with my Canadian spies to acquire copies. ;) HOWEVER, it would almost be cheating to go ahead and get an English copy of the novel, neh?)

Anyway, I worked on translating the first paragraph tonight, and learned of amusing German words such as gemäß (in accordance with, according to), tatsächlich (actually), and Lieblingstante (favorite aunt, which gave me a devil of a time until I realized it broke down as Lieblings + tante, rather than Liebling + stante). Also, German's affection for splitting up verbs in such a way that it takes me forever to realize that the "hatte" at the tail end of an enormous sentence actually goes with the "Schuld an" at the beginning continues to drive me nuts. And, as a general note, when one is transcribing German text into a file for easier translation, it's best to SPELL ALL THE WORDS CORRECTLY, lest you spend twenty whole minutes trying to translate a word that doesn't actually exist.

Or, er, ahem, so I've heard.

But now I know what the first paragraph says, more or less. Go me!

Comments

[shaylith.livejournal.com]

Woo! Isn't German a frustratingly fun language? I do adore it so. ;)

Viel Spass wuensche ich Dir! ;)

[annathepiper]

Yes, yes it is! And ohh, now that I know I can get the English version of this novel off amazon.ca, I am tempted. But it'd almost be cheating, and some deeply nerdy part of me is amused by the idea of slowly translating my way through the German and then seeing how close I get to the original English. ;)

(Und danke schoen!)

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

you can always hold off getting the english until you're on the last chapter of your translation :)

[annathepiper]

Of course, if I wait that long, it might be another ten years. Did I mention how SLOW I am at translating German? ;)

[annathepiper]

Susanna Kearsley schriebt Mariana. Wenn liest Barbara Michaels oder Elizabeth Peters gern, man liest auch Susanna Kearsley gern.

Ich kannte nicht, daß Schmetterlings lesen. ;)

[silme711.livejournal.com]

Nawwww. Es ist ja so süss, wenn english speaking folk versucht deutsch zu lernen. *hearts*.

Yes, we really like to split up verbs :) It's the same with Lust auf and hatte. For example: An jenem Tag war es so kalt, dass er Lust auf einen sehr heissen Kaffee hatte.

And you can use Lieblings in front of everything. Food, drink, flower, actor, song...

[annathepiper]

Heh! I took German for two and a half years in high school, as I might have mentioned to you at one point--and I keep wanting to refresh my memory about it and improve my vocabulary. I retain pretty decent sentence structure at this point, but the vocab, not so much. I have to look everything up. But I do have a good dictionary and a good verb book as well. The verb book helps especially with letting me figure out past tense verbs and verbs that split up across a sentence.

Let me see if I can take a stab at that sentence without resorting to the dictionary... "On any day where it's so cold, one has a great desire for very hot coffee". How close did I get? ;)

About Lieblings, cool. So I could, for example, say:

Russell Crowe ist mein Lieblingsschauspieler.

(Wow, that's an impressively long noun there!)

[silme711.livejournal.com]

Same here. I'd be lost without my english online dictionary. Though I don't have to look everything up anymore :)

Your translation is perfect! *g*


And you could also say:

Alan Doyle ist mein Lieblingsneufundlaender.
hihi.

[annathepiper]

*does dance of successful translation*

I think that I'll have to pick one day a week and practice my German by writing German LJ posts. :)

[cow.livejournal.com]

Die Kuh sagt, "mmuuh".

Which is probably totally wrong, but it's what the internets told me to say.

(Or, as Caesar's cows said: mugio!)

[annathepiper]

*giggle* Hiya! And actually, that's pretty much right. ;) "Die Kuh" = "the cow". "Muh" = "moo". "muhen" = "to moo". So says my German dictionary.

Glad to have you aboard!