Wenn ein Liebes dir der TodAus den Augen fortgerückt,Such es nicht im Morgenrot,Nicht im Stern, der abends blickt. Such es nirgends früh und spät,Als im Herzen immerfort.Was man so geliebet, gehtNimmermehr aus diesem Ort. — Justinus Kerner Where to be found? If Death’s come to take away,Push a loved one out of sight,Look not to… Continue reading “Wo zu finden?”
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Theme change
Just changed the website format from the WordPress theme “2013” to “2021.”
More German adjective endings in English
In this post, I discussed whether to decline German adjectives when you use them in an English sentence. I don’t, but here’s somebody doing it on the Wikipedia page for Leo von König: He was not well thought of by Adolf Hitler, however, and his works were removed from the “Großen Deutschen Kunstausstellung” at the… Continue reading More German adjective endings in English
Practice makes worse
In Brideshead Revisited, Cordelia Flyte returns from her long sojourn in war-torn Spain and the narrator tells us: “She looked more than her twenty-six years; hard living had roughened her; constant intercourse in a foreign tongue had worn away the nuances of speech; she straddled a little as she sat by the fire, and when… Continue reading Practice makes worse
Under the lime trees
While doing research for a project, I came across this 1997 review of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s novel Petrolio . It was amusing, and since I’m from the future, I can answer this question: Is there any chance that, with the alleged collapse of Communism in the Western world, no one will ever again dismiss his… Continue reading Under the lime trees
Translators in Space IV: Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
This episode has always been popular – it’s inspired fan merch and was discussed at length in The Atlantic in 2014 – but it’s getting more attention lately as the social media hive mind wrestles with certain issues. The episode begins with the Enterprise receiving an invitation to establish relations with an alien race, the… Continue reading Translators in Space IV: Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Frohe Weihnachten / Merry Christmas
Notes on 155: The Kaprun Cover-Up
Yesterday, November 11, 2020, was the twentieth anniversary of the Kaprun disaster, where 155 people died in a train fire in a mountain tunnel. Journalists Hannes Uhl and Hubertus Godeysen investigated the accident and its aftermath and wrote a book – 155: Kriminalfall Kaprun – in 2014. They asked me to translate it into English… Continue reading Notes on 155: The Kaprun Cover-Up
Elderberry Hot
Machine translation systems still have trouble recognizing proper names. Recently I was proofreading English texts for an Austrian museum and came across a line that went something like this: The project was directed by Thomas Schmidt and Elderberry Hot. Now, a lot of the texts I work with are about artists and some of them… Continue reading Elderberry Hot
Dad’s tips for breaking into Spandau
While helping my mom clean out her basement, I found this 1976 newspaper clipping about the notorious SS officer Otto Skorzeny, who apparently used to boast that he would be willing and able to spring Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, and Baldur von Schirach out of Spandau prison for a tidy sum. The columnist,… Continue reading Dad’s tips for breaking into Spandau