More German geeking
Nov. 23rd, 2005 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperSo, 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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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!
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!