Thread "Translation from german to english" in forum "Networking & Community Projects*"

Posted at 2:10PM, Oct. 22, 2007

Hello everybody, I'm looking for someone who can help me with my Lego-fantasy-comic Gross-Legotuerk aka Teneff. I've written it in german and do not exactly know how to translate it. There are puns, there are archaic expressions, rare idiomatic expressions… I would appreciate all help I could get.

Teneff is what I've drawn 2001, 2002 and 2004; I'm tryin to get all the 22+1 pages ready.

I also would invite everyone to build the scenes with their Legos and let me use them to continue Gross-Legotuerk which tells exatly the same story… vitually, Teneff is its storyboard.

Thanks in advance

Posted at 7:10AM, Oct. 24, 2007

Hey man

I know a fair bit of German, maybe I can be of some assistance? Just drop me a line or something, and I'll get back to ya!

Posted at 2:10PM, Oct. 25, 2007

Okay, here's a little dialogue:

Mir duenket, ich habe eine Idee! Folget mir! Gegen eine kleine Gebuehr werde ich jeden ueber den Fluss schweben lassen.

Bleibt dieser Streiter fortan fuer immerdar versteinert?

Nein, Ihr koennt beruhigt sein, in einer halben Stunde ist er so streitlustig wie zuvor.

(for the context see here)

And a name that's important to me, how would you try to translate it or deal with it? It's the name of an artifact:
"Sturmgewaehr", a pun on "Sturmgewehr" (assault rifle) which is an artifact that can shoot lightnings and means "guarantee/warranty of storm" here

Posted at 3:10PM, Oct. 25, 2007

My translation of the dialogue would be:

I think I have an idea! Follow me! For a small price/token I will hover you all across the stream.

Will this warrior remain stone forever?

No, you can relax/calm down, in half an hour he'll be as *streitlustig* as he ever was.

I'm not sure what to make of the name yet, but I'll give it some thought. Anyways, is that kinda what you meant?

Posted at 2:10AM, Oct. 26, 2007

Thanks. I like the word order in "For a small…" and the "as he ever was".

Could the expression "methinks" be used instead of "I think"? "Mir duenkt" was meant to sound archaic, just like "folget" (instead of "folgt" ); can "follow" end with "-eth"?

"streitlustig" means "belligerent, combative". The pun is the similarity between "Streiter" and "streitlustig".
Can I say "combatant" and "combative" to maintain the similarity or does it sound too like a technical description instead of an elevated style?

Posted at 2:10AM, Oct. 26, 2007

Methinks works, as does followeth. It's funny, 'cuz Arthur talks the same way, kind of :p

I'd go with combatant/combative for streitlustig, that seems to work best.

Anything else I can help you with?

Posted at 5:10AM, Oct. 26, 2007

i didn't know you were so good at german rutger ^^

Posted at 7:10AM, Oct. 26, 2007

I get by…lots of holidays in Austria :p