On Mar 20, 2006, at 18:08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Clay) wrote:
Schneeverweht means snowflake - no argument about that.
Erm... There is, actually <g> Schneeverveht means "snowbound" (from
"Schnee" - snow and "verwehen" - "to cover up (something)" or "to blow
over (something)"); "snowflake" is Schneeflocke. German has that
peculiar habit of stringing independent words together to form a
totally new one. English does it sometimes too, but nowhere nearly as
much... I vaguely remember encountering _one word_ which took more than
a line, and meant something like "the field first-aid station for
wounded and dead soldiers" (in Remarque's "All's Silent on the Western
Front"). Blew my mind away <g>
But she described durchgedreht as snowdrifts/blowing snow,
Except that it has to be a verb, I think; a past participle of "drehen"
(to turn, to roll). With the "durch" (through) indicating just how
thorough the process had been. Her titles are as difficult to translate
- properly - into English as poetry is, which is probably the reason
they never are, even if the rest of the text is.
Noelene wrote:
Fun topic - is there a double meaning to her
"Motive in Tull" (with two dots over the u)?
The English translation in the book just says "Designs in Bucks Point
Lace".
The literal translation would be "Motifs in Point Ground" or "Motifs in
Net". If there is a play on words there, it would, I think, be on the
word "motive/motif", both of which are spelled the same in German.
And in Polish <g> In fact, a lot of German phrases "play" in Polish
better than they do in English, once they're been translated; the
_languages_ are totally different, but the _cultures_ (and the ways of
making linguistic associations) overlap quite a lot (due to geography
and history, both). Sometimes, I can understand the "linguistic path"
of a German phrase (if I can recognize the words in it, that is <g>)
without being sure how much of the understanding is due to Polish and
how much to English...
I was filling out my order to Fay for the "stylish blossoms/stylistic
bloopers" today (sent off via s-mail. Phew... _That's_ a relief after
the battle with the website <g>), and looked at some other Loehr titles
lited in the catalogue... Take "Der Anfang vom Ende/The Beginning of
the End" (a book about starts and finishes in lace). To me, the double
entendre is evident, because the same phrase (poczatek konca) is
commonly used in Polish to describe a point in the past when something
began to unravel/fall apart. But I don't remember seeing or hearing it
used in English, so I don't know how well it works there.
PS One of her books -- Butterfly and Moth -- doesn't seem to have a
German _title_ at all, even though the text is in both German and
English. So, no word play... Just plain old butterflies and moths in
Point Ground lace... :(
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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