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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask German speakers to help?

51 replies

Florence1960 · 15/02/2022 16:43

I need help translating a couple of bits of German - just one or two sentences which I am struggling to put into good English. Please can anyone help?

OP posts:
Mumof3dogs · 15/02/2022 20:56

Phew

Original poster
Florence1960 · 15/02/2022 20:57

Not to worry, Dogmum - yanbu 😀

OP posts:
Original poster
Florence1960 · 15/02/2022 20:59

Hard to read, as you can see.

To ask German speakers to help?
OP posts:
ThreeLocusts · 15/02/2022 21:13

German native speaker here. Is this a literary text, perhaps to do with early GDR re-education? Am intrigued.

Service rank? (As in, military rank or rank in a civil service type organisation) That was educated out of us in painstaking detailed work. Vocation/job? That makes sense, for the latrine service after the tune of 'who can play the piano'.

pointythings · 15/02/2022 21:14

It's either very old or typed on a non-German machine, given that it has no Umlauts but uses the form ue instead

I'm intrigued by the context - that sentence 'one step closer to the homeland' and then 'Admittedly, this [word unclear] does not look unconquerable from below'.

ThreeLocusts · 15/02/2022 21:14

.... and with that you would be back out of the hall. A step closer to home. Admittedly, this obstacle doesn't look unsurmountable from below.

pointythings · 15/02/2022 21:15

ThreeLocusts I was thinking possible literary text too. We read 'Im Westen Nichts Neues' at school and it has a similar vibe time wise.

pointythings · 15/02/2022 21:16

ThreeLocusts is nailing it.

Original poster
Florence1960 · 15/02/2022 21:20

Hi, it is indeed both old and typed on , I assume, an English machine. Not a literary text exactly. thanks so much for your thoughts!

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ThreeLocusts · 15/02/2022 21:22

It's the term 'latrine service' that makes me think of a camp-like/military setting. I had a friend who'd done his military service in the last years of the GDR, and he was once made to clean latrines for a week after losing something called a practice grenade, as a punishment.

Could be a Nazi-era camp too, but then what would the 'educating out of' rank be about? Enjoy OP, whatever this is. And thanks pointythings

Original poster
Florence1960 · 15/02/2022 21:32

I've been trying to PM a few people but I can't work out what to do. Very happy to give more info privately. If you would like to know more, please let me know.
There are another couple of sections which I just can't put into proper English, I'll try to sort them out tomorrow and post again.
I had no idea there was a Facebook German translation group, I, off to look for that too!

OP posts:
Pigglesworth · 15/02/2022 21:37

OK update from my German mum who is also an English teacher (native level skill in both languages) who thinks: "Translation is along the lines of: (This is) for the service (provided by) the toilet (based on) the melody "Who can play piano?"

Opus17 · 15/02/2022 21:38

Dh is German...
For the toilet cleaners: to the melody of the song entitled "Wer kann .. "

Opus17 · 15/02/2022 21:42

I speak fluent German and I found that sentence really confusing 😅

Original poster
Florence1960 · 16/02/2022 17:34

The fact that it clearly isn't straightforward makes me feel much better!
I'm just typing the next bit...

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Fahrted · 16/02/2022 18:02

@Opus17

I speak fluent German and I found that sentence really confusing 😅
Likewise!
EerieSilence · 16/02/2022 18:24

Is the text really German? As in German German? There's no Umlauts and the sentences make very little sense.
I am a fluent German speaker.

Original poster
Florence1960 · 16/02/2022 18:32

It was clearly typed on an English typewriter. In the late 40's. It is not the writing of an educated person, necessarily, but I do believe that it is written by a German person.

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Original poster
Florence1960 · 16/02/2022 18:32

It is a bit stream of consciousness, isn't it? 😊

OP posts:
Webshite · 16/02/2022 18:47

The person feels humiliated or belittled by being demoted / having their Dienstgrad (rank) taken away or being forced to do menial tasks "Kleinarbeiten"

More context needed in order for meaningful help to be given.

EvokeFlow · 16/02/2022 19:07

This looks like a German POW's account of being processed by allied/British forces. They ask: 'What's your profession', you say Piano player and you end up cleaning the toilets (all soldiers tell that story). Then you're out of the hall and one step closed to the homeland. etc.

Original poster
Florence1960 · 16/02/2022 19:27

A few people have offered for me to PM them but I don't know how😢. I can't find it on the site. Please can anyone help?

OP posts:
Fahrted · 16/02/2022 20:44

You need to click on 'message poster' above their posts, @Florence1960

I have just re-read, and it would seem to me, based on the extract, that it would be something along the lines of:

Qualifications? - our answer to this question would condemn us to some kind of tedious menial work. Job? - Ah. Now I understood. In the same way that anyone who said "Pianist" got to do latrine duty, and they would then get chucked out for being no use to anyone. So they'd be one step closer to home. Although, it's true to say [can't read the next bit - sorry!]

Fahrted · 16/02/2022 20:46

Oder, vielleicht besser:

"our answer to this question would determine to which kind of menial work we would be condemned."

Original poster
Florence1960 · 16/02/2022 21:22

Thank you so much. I am now working on a paragraph which is even worse! 😱

OP posts: