Once more: German geeking!
Jul. 12th, 2004 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperHaven't done this in a while, but since I have more time on my hands now thanks to my contract being over, I thought it was high time to return to Der kleine Hobbit. Glancing back at the first couple pages of this thing, I'm finding my recollection of what I read through a couple of months ago to be unfortunately fuzzy. But well heck, I don't want to have to re-read it, and Bilbo needs to get going! So, onward!
When last we left our intrepid Abenteurerin, she had gotten as far as Gandalf showing up on Bilbo's doorstep to try to haul him off on his merry little treasure hunt! Except, well, I got hung up at the beginning of that paragraph and couldn't make it past the first few words. After tonight's little excursion back into Deutschland (or at least, the German version of Hobbiton), I have at last now gotten Gandalf actually on camera. But I'm stopping there, because my brain is full.
als: when? See below for the notes on noch.
bis: As far as, until, till, to. I think I saw this one earlier in the text, too, but I'm not sure, so I'm noting it again here.
enorm: This threw me for a loop, but only a small one. It wasn't too difficult to figure out with the help of the English/German dictionary link that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
apel had given me that this is more or less "enormous". What I'm less certain about is why, in the text, it has no ending while the words that surround it to. The relevant bit of text is "eine enorm lange Holzpfeife".
ereignete sich: Past tense of "to happen".
es gab: Again, see the notes below for noch. This, I am assuming, is the past tense of es gibt, which I remember from basic German lessons as being an idiom that translates over to "there is" or "there are".
gebürstet: Taking a stab at this based on the English, I'd say this would be "brushed". But I'm thinking it must be the pluperfect form of the verb bürsten, as there is also a waren in the phrase.
Geräusche: Noises.
glücklich: I feel like I ought to know this one. It looks familiar. *checks dictionary* Hrmm. I wanted to say that it meant "merry" or "happy", and I apparently wasn't far off, though my dictionary seems to like "lucky" or "fortunate" a little more for this word. The English uses "prosperous" in the same section, so I would imagine that the translator intends the "lucky" flavor of definition here.
Holzpfeife: Hrmm. This seems to break down to the "wooden pipe" mentioned in the English text, and might perhaps be the same sort of weird word-combining thing as happened way back in the first paragraph of the chapter with the word Kieshöhle.
kam vorbei: Came past, came over.
merkwürdig(er): This is a cool word! Strange, odd.
nahezu: This is a weird new fun word for me: "almost".
noch: This seems to have a couple of different meanings according to my dictionary, but the one that seems to make the most sense in context is "still". The relevant chunk of text is "als es noch wenig Geräusche und mehr Grün gab".
rauchte: Past tense of "to smoke".
reichte: Past tense of "to reach". And oh look, an idiomatic phrase that seems relevant to the sentence this goes in: "reichen bis zu", "to reach up to". This makes sense for the "bis zu" I saw earlier in the sentence.
sauber: Clean, neat.
vor langer Zeit: This seems to be an idiom of some kind that I can't quite parse together from my dictionary. The relevant bit of text from the English version is: "By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world". So this seems to map over to the "long ago" part, but I'm not sure how this would literally translate--or if it would literally translate.
wenig: Little, few. See the notes above for noch.
wollig(en): Woolly.
zahlreich: I remembered this one from the first page of the story! Numerous! But I'm noting it again here out of general pleasure for having figured it out.
Zehen: Toes.
Zufall: Chance.
When last we left our intrepid Abenteurerin, she had gotten as far as Gandalf showing up on Bilbo's doorstep to try to haul him off on his merry little treasure hunt! Except, well, I got hung up at the beginning of that paragraph and couldn't make it past the first few words. After tonight's little excursion back into Deutschland (or at least, the German version of Hobbiton), I have at last now gotten Gandalf actually on camera. But I'm stopping there, because my brain is full.
als: when? See below for the notes on noch.
bis: As far as, until, till, to. I think I saw this one earlier in the text, too, but I'm not sure, so I'm noting it again here.
enorm: This threw me for a loop, but only a small one. It wasn't too difficult to figure out with the help of the English/German dictionary link that
apel had given me that this is more or less "enormous". What I'm less certain about is why, in the text, it has no ending while the words that surround it to. The relevant bit of text is "eine enorm lange Holzpfeife".ereignete sich: Past tense of "to happen".
es gab: Again, see the notes below for noch. This, I am assuming, is the past tense of es gibt, which I remember from basic German lessons as being an idiom that translates over to "there is" or "there are".
gebürstet: Taking a stab at this based on the English, I'd say this would be "brushed". But I'm thinking it must be the pluperfect form of the verb bürsten, as there is also a waren in the phrase.
Geräusche: Noises.
glücklich: I feel like I ought to know this one. It looks familiar. *checks dictionary* Hrmm. I wanted to say that it meant "merry" or "happy", and I apparently wasn't far off, though my dictionary seems to like "lucky" or "fortunate" a little more for this word. The English uses "prosperous" in the same section, so I would imagine that the translator intends the "lucky" flavor of definition here.
Holzpfeife: Hrmm. This seems to break down to the "wooden pipe" mentioned in the English text, and might perhaps be the same sort of weird word-combining thing as happened way back in the first paragraph of the chapter with the word Kieshöhle.
kam vorbei: Came past, came over.
merkwürdig(er): This is a cool word! Strange, odd.
nahezu: This is a weird new fun word for me: "almost".
noch: This seems to have a couple of different meanings according to my dictionary, but the one that seems to make the most sense in context is "still". The relevant chunk of text is "als es noch wenig Geräusche und mehr Grün gab".
rauchte: Past tense of "to smoke".
reichte: Past tense of "to reach". And oh look, an idiomatic phrase that seems relevant to the sentence this goes in: "reichen bis zu", "to reach up to". This makes sense for the "bis zu" I saw earlier in the sentence.
sauber: Clean, neat.
vor langer Zeit: This seems to be an idiom of some kind that I can't quite parse together from my dictionary. The relevant bit of text from the English version is: "By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world". So this seems to map over to the "long ago" part, but I'm not sure how this would literally translate--or if it would literally translate.
wenig: Little, few. See the notes above for noch.
wollig(en): Woolly.
zahlreich: I remembered this one from the first page of the story! Numerous! But I'm noting it again here out of general pleasure for having figured it out.
Zehen: Toes.
Zufall: Chance.