This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / Diary of a teenage girl in 1934
German term or phrase:Anna nahm sich Umsteige
I'm translating the diary of a German teenage girl in the 1930s. Some of it is very hard to read. This sentence doesn't seem grammatically correct to me so I'm wondering if I might have misread 'nahm' (the 'n' only, I'm sure about the rest of the word), but 'Umsteige' is definitely what's written, at the end of a paragraph. I'm wondering if it's a contraction involving 'sollte'. Here's the context:
Anna wollte in der Stadt noch Besorgungen machen. Dazu hatten wir einen Koffer mitgenommen. Ich sollte am Opernhaus aussteigen und Anna nahm sich Umsteige. Als das Opernhaus da war, schob Anna mir den Koffer zu, ich sollte ihr wahrscheinlich damit volgen. Ich dachte aber, ich mußte noch in der Bahn bleiben.
She realises then that she has stayed on the tram by mistake when she should've got off. She is in an unfamiliar city.
Many thanks if anyone can help me make sense of this!
Explanation: It seems to me that we are dealing with some dialect expressions here. Since the writer is a teenage girl, her writing skills might also be lacking and she is just expressing some vernacular language. The verb volgen is probably a spelling mistake.
Hi Jo, I actually deleted my comment as I thought it didnt make sense after I wrote it! But I also got a mail about an entry from hazmatgerman which seems to be gone too - I guess you got it, about the 1941 Duden entry? So it seems to have been common enough which would make "Anna got/bought transfer tickets" right! I would think plural too.
Jo Simons (X)
ASKER
19:59 Apr 8, 2012
Dear Orla, I don't know why I can't see your kind input on here but yes, they were definitely meant to be going shopping together - Anna wouldn't leave her on her own, a teenager in a strange town. I'm wondering if she went to get transfer tickets plural, leaving the diarist with the Koffer which she was supposed to pick up and get off the tram, but that doesn't fit the grammar very well I agree. And she does mostly talk about 'wir...' Do others think transfer tickets plural would work? Thanks again!
This is quite cheeky of me so feel free to ignore, but I'm also stuck on the word 'entzinkend', used in the following context when the diarist is describing what a film star she met looked like: 'Sie war in ein rotbraunes Samtkleid gekleidet, hatte das dunkle Haar schön zurechtgemacht und sah entzinkend aus, obwohl sie geschminkt war.' I've researched zinc, which was used as a make up and hair product back then, but she seems to be suggesting the opposite. Does she look pale, maybe? Thanks again!
Anna went on her shopping tour alone, possibly using her transfer ticket. Makes sense.
Jo Simons (X)
ASKER
21:23 Apr 5, 2012
@Freekfluweel I think 'took a transfer' seems a very good bet. But they were meant to be going shopping together it seems, and Anna was expecting the diarist to get off with her, but I don't know why she would push the Koffer towards my diarist. While still on the tram, my diarist saw Anna looking around for her, then saw her still sitting on the tram. They lose each other after that and are reunited at Anna's parents' place hours later.
Jo Simons (X)
ASKER
@Franglish
21:17 Apr 5, 2012
Sorry, the diarist stayed on the tram by mistake and saw Anna had got off and was looking for her. Once the tram got moving the diarist realised her mistake.
Jo Simons (X)
ASKER
@Franglish
21:16 Apr 5, 2012
The writer ran back to the apartment and many hours later Anna appeared laughing about it all and called her a Träumlieschen.
So what did Anna do meanwhile? Does the writer mention anything? I gather she stayed on in the tram. Anyway, my reading og "Umsteige" is the same as Trudy's.
Jo Simons (X)
ASKER
21:06 Apr 5, 2012
Sorry, that was my mistake: it should read 'folgen'. The writer is German.
That's very possible, but the diarist doesn't tend to use abbreviations and if she does they are very neatly marked with a full point after them. She ends up getting off the tram at the next stop and runs back to Anna's parents' house, so I'll never know if she was meant to change trams!
Could it be a 'transfer ticket' or 'pass'? (Umsteigekarte). She may have wanted to switch to another tram.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
6 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
Anna got a transfer ticket
Explanation: It seems to me that we are dealing with some dialect expressions here. Since the writer is a teenage girl, her writing skills might also be lacking and she is just expressing some vernacular language. The verb volgen is probably a spelling mistake.
grundmargi Local time: 13:39 Specializes in field Native speaker of: German PRO pts in category: 4
peer agreement (net): +3