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English to German: First ProZ.com Translation Contest 2007 - Entry #436
Source text - English When she moved into his tiny house in Stroud, and took charge of his four small children, Mother was thirty and still quite handsome. She had not, I suppose, met anyone like him before. This rather priggish young man, with his devout gentility, his airs and manners, his music and ambitions, his charm, bright talk, and undeniable good looks, overwhelmed her as soon as she saw him. So she fell in love with him immediately, and remained in love for ever. And herself being comely, sensitive, and adoring, she attracted my father also. And so he married her. And so later he left her - with his children and some more of her own.
When he'd gone, she brought us to the village and waited. She waited for thirty years. I don't think she ever knew what had made him desert her, though the reasons seemed clear enough. She was too honest, too natural for this frightened man; too remote from his tidy laws. She was, after all, a country girl; disordered, hysterical, loving. She was muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight, squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious, forgot when to eat or ate all day, and sang when sunsets were red. She lived by the easy laws of the hedgerow, loved the world, and made no plans, had a quick holy eye for natural wonders and couldn't have kept a neat house for her life. What my father wished for was something quite different, something she could never give him - the protective order of an unimpeachable suburbia, which was what he got in the end.
The three or four years Mother spent with my father she fed on for the rest of her life. Her happiness at that time was something she guarded as though it must ensure his eventual return. She would talk about it almost in awe, not that it had ceased but that it had happened at all.
Translation - German Als sie in sein kleines Häuschen in Stroud einzog und die Pflege seiner vier kleinen Kinder übernahm, war Mutter dreißig und noch immer ziemlich ansehnlich. Ich nehme an, einem Mann wie ihm war sie noch nie begegnet. Dieser doch recht tugendhafte junge Mann, mit seiner ernsten Vornehmheit, seinem Auftreten und seinen Manieren, seiner Musik und seinem Ehrgeiz, seinem Charme, seinen intelligenten Gesprächen und seinem unbestreitbar guten Aussehen überwältigte sie auf den ersten Blick. Daher verliebte sie sich sofort in ihn, und auf ewig. Und da sie selbst ebenfalls hübsch, empfindsam und bewundernswert war, wirkte auch sie auf meinen Vater anziehend. Daher heiratete er sie. Daher verließ er sie später – und seine und noch einige gemeinsame Kinder dazu.
Nachdem er gegangen war, zog sie mit uns ins Dorf und wartete. Sie wartete dreißig Jahre lang. Ich glaube nicht, dass sie jemals erfuhr aus welchem Grund er sie verlassen hatte, obwohl es doch klar war. Sie war zu ehrlich, zu natürlich für diesen verschreckten Mann; so ganz anders als seine ordentlichen Gesetze. Sie war schließlich ein Mädchen vom Land; unordentlich, hysterisch, voller Liebe. Sie war wirr und schelmisch wie eine Elster, sie baute sich ihr Nest aus Lumpen und Juwelen, war glücklich wenn die Sonne schien, schrie lauthals bei Gefahr, bohrte nach und war unersättlich neugierig, vergaß das Essen oder aß den ganzen Tag, und sang wenn der Sonnenuntergang den Himmel rot färbte. Sie lebte nach den einfachen Gesetzen der Natur, liebte die Welt, machte keinerlei Pläne, hatte einen geradezu geweihten Blick für die Wunder der Natur, und konnte um keinen Preis einen geordneten Haushalt führen. Was mein Vater sich wünschte war ganz anderer Natur, etwas, das sie ihm nie geben konnte – die schützende Ordnung eines unanfechtbaren Vorstadtlebens, was er am Ende auch bekam.
Mutter zehrte den Rest ihres Lebens von den drei oder vier Jahren, die sie mit meinem Vater verbracht hatte. Ihre Glückseligkeit aus dieser Zeit war ein Gut, das sie hütete, als würde es irgendwann Vaters Rückkehr gewährleisten. Sie sprach davon fast mit Erstaunen, nicht, weil dieses Glück zu Ende gegangen sondern weil es ihr überhaupt widerfahren war.
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2007-02-12 15:06]
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Other - Nuernberger Fremdsprachenschule, Nuernberg, Germany
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Years of experience: 26. Registered at ProZ.com: Sep 2006.
I went to a Waldorf School in Germany, where English and French were introduced in first grade. With that, two semesters of Amerikanistik [American English] and the completion of the Foreign Language School, I have studied English for 15 years. I have also lived in the United States on and off for the past 30 years, for a total of 24 years so far, and have an Associates Degree from the University of Maryland, European Campus. I feel competent to translate into German as well as into English. My studies of French and Spanish have provided me with a good Romance-language base that has also been helpful.
Much of my early work was World War II related. This included police reports, witness interrogations, historical documents, and ca. 200 pages of a book on the persecution of Jews by the Nazis.
I have translated school and bank documents, magazine articles, a (unpublished) biography, current-time police reports and requests for legal assistance, and four novels for a major online retailer.
I love "getting it right" and take pride in producing a translation that conveys exactly the meaning of the source text.
This user has earned KudoZ points by helping other translators with PRO-level terms. Click point total(s) to see term translations provided.
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