Part 1
Transcriber’s Note: Font changes are indicated in this text using the following symbols.
Fraktur: +plus sign+ italics: _underscores_ bold: =equals sign= gesperrt: ~tildes~
Sometimes, more than one applies, such as +=bold Fraktur text=+.
Clarendon Press Series
LANGE’S GERMAN COURSE
_COMPOSITION_
HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK
Clarendon Press Series
GERMAN COMPOSITION
_A THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE ART OF TRANSLATING ENGLISH PROSE INTO GERMAN_
BY HERMANN LANGE LECTURER ON FRENCH AND GERMAN AT THE MANCHESTER TECHNICAL SCHOOL AND LECTURER ON GERMAN AT THE MANCHESTER ATHENÆUM
THIRD EDITION
_With the German Spelling revised to meet the requirements of the Government Regulations of 1880_
Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M DCCCC
Oxford PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
PREFACE.
‘German Composition’ is intended to be a Theoretical and Practical Guide to the Art of Translating English Prose into good and idiomatic German. It is arranged in such a manner that students who have reached the fiftieth Lesson of the ‘German Manual’ may commence and advantageously use it conjointly with that book. Being complete in itself, it is likewise adapted for the use of any other students who, possessing a knowledge of German Accidence and having had some practice in reading German Prose, wish to acquire the Art of Translating English Prose into German.
The book is calculated to serve the requirements of the B.A. Examinations of the London and Victoria Universities, the Competitive Examinations for the Civil and Military Service, the Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations for Senior Students, the Examination of the College of Preceptors for First Class Candidates, and of similar Public Examinations—all of which require the candidates to translate English Prose into German.
I may conscientiously say that I have done all I could to make the book attractive and useful. The selection of the Extracts has been made with the greatest care directly from the works of the various authors, and is the result of many years’ attentive reading and research. The pieces have been almost exclusively chosen from the works of the best modern English and American writers, and, it is hoped, will be found as interesting and instructive as they are well adapted for translation into German. They represent all the various styles of English Prose Composition, and contain a great variety of subjects, as a glance at the various pages will show; whilst the fact that the specimens, with only one or two exceptions, are no mere fragments, but complete pieces in themselves, must necessarily add to their value.
The Biographical Sketches of famous men and women, which at intervals appear in the Notes and are always given in German, form a special feature of the book. (Comp. S. 127, N. 1; S. 138, N. 12; and S. 156, N. 1.) They are of various lengths, according to their importance, and have been written to add to the interest of the work and at the same time to offer the student some useful material for reading German.
With respect to the help given in the Notes, I may state that I have proceeded with the utmost consideration and care. The great object I placed before me was to show, by precept and example, that a good translation cannot be produced by the mere mechanical process of joining together a number of words, as the dictionary may offer them at first sight: but that it requires great thought and analytic power; that every sentence, nay, almost every word, has to be weighed and considered with respect to its true bearing upon the text; and that a good rendering is only possible when the translator has grasped the true meaning of the passage before him.
I have endeavoured to give neither too little nor too much help, but whenever I found a difficulty which a student of average ability could not fairly be expected to overcome, I have stepped in to solve it. For this purpose I have made use of English equivalents and periphrases and of Rules and Examples, and in cases where neither of these helps was considered practicable I have not hesitated to give the German rendering of the word or passage to be translated. The last mode of procedure, however, I have adopted only when I found that the dictionaries in ordinary use were insufficient, as is so frequently the case, and more especially with respect to idiomatic passages, which it is impossible to render successfully unless the translator is well versed in both languages, and at the same time has undergone a thorough training in the Art of Translating English into German, which the present volume professes to teach. The plan of indicating the rendering of words and phrases by means of English equivalents and periphrases must be of evident advantage to the learner, for it teaches him how to think and analyse, whilst it leads him to render the word or phrase correctly without giving him the translation itself.
The Notes of Sections 1 to 150 and the Appendix contain in a concise and lucid form almost all the rules relating to the German Syntax, and in most instances these rules have been illustrated by practical examples and models. The Appendix gives in thirty-seven paragraphs the Rules referring to the Construction, the use of the Indicative, Subjunctive (or Conjunctive), and Conditional Moods, which for convenient reference have been reprinted from my ‘German Grammar,’ and to facilitate the student’s work I have added an Index to the Grammatical Rules and Idiomatic Renderings.
In a work containing such a great number of Extracts as the present, there are, of course, many idioms and passages which may be correctly translated in various ways, and I can therefore scarcely hope that all my renderings will meet with the approval of every German scholar. I may, however, confidently affirm here that I have devoted much thought and labour to this publication, and that I have tried with all my heart to make it acceptable to teachers and students alike.
In conclusion I respectfully tender my best thanks to the publishers—
Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, Edinburgh, ” Chapman and Hall, } ” Longmans and Co., } ” Sampson Low and Co., } ” Macmillan and Co., } Mr. Murray, } London, Messrs. T. Nelson and Sons, } ” Smith, Elder, and Co., and } ” Stanford and Co., }
and to the Editors of—
The Daily News, } ” Daily Telegraph, } ” Globe, } London, ” Standard, and } ” Times, }
for their very kind permission to make use of the Copyright Extracts in this publication, and for the cordial manner in which they granted my request.
Page ix contains a few Hints and Directions for using the Book which I consider of great importance, and to which I beg to draw attention.
HERMANN LANGE.
HEATHFIELD HOUSE, LLOYD STREET, GREENHEYS, MANCHESTER, _September, 1883_.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
A second edition of this volume having been called for, I wish to express my cordial thanks to the numerous colleagues and friends who adopted it as a text-book for their classes.
As I am engaged in preparing, besides this book, a third edition of two other volumes of my ‘German Course,’ and, at the request of the Delegates of the University Press, also a Key to this volume, ‘German Composition,’ I think the present moment opportune for introducing the reformed German spelling which, by Government regulations, has been taught in German schools for the last five or six years, and is becoming more generally used from year to year in friendly intercourse, papers, periodicals, literature, and commercial correspondence. It is but fair that the students of German in this country should be taught to spell in the simplified way now universally practised by their German contemporaries. They will at least have nothing to unlearn then; and, although the present spelling-reform may be considered but a compromise between the older and the younger schools, there being a tendency in the younger men to go even further than their older colleagues in the simplification of our orthography and to make it still more phonetic and uniform in principle, it will take a long time before the Government will be moved to make modifications of any importance in their regulations. I confidently trust that the great trouble I have bestowed upon the revision of the present edition will be appreciated by teachers and students alike. It will easily be seen that the alterations of the orthography in the various books forming this ‘German Course’ must have necessarily entailed a very considerable additional expense; but the publication having met with much approval on the part of the public, I was anxious to leave nothing undone in order to adapt it in every respect to the requirements of the times and to make it still more useful.
On examination it will be seen that the changes made are not so many as may be supposed, and that the principles underlying the German spelling-reform are simple and easy to understand.
=At the end of the Appendix will be found a Synopsis of the principal changes the German spelling has undergone, accompanied by Examples and a few Exceptions to the general rules.=
HERMANN LANGE.
HEATHFIELD HOUSE, LLOYD STREET, GREENHEYS, MANCHESTER, _December, 1886_.
DIRECTIONS FOR USING THE BOOK.
Each Section should first be prepared for _viva voce_ translation, _with_ the assistance of the Notes in class; then translated in writing; carefully corrected; and finally practised, by comparing the English text with the corrected German version, FOR A SECOND _viva voce_ TRANSLATION =until the student is able to translate the English text, _without_ the assistance of the Notes in class, just as readily into correct German as if he were reading from a German book=.
The Grammatical Rules given in the Notes should always be carefully studied, and the reading of previously given Rules and the various paragraphs of the Appendix referred to in the text should never be omitted.
=The strict and conscientious observance of these directions is earnestly requested.=
THE SECOND _viva voce_ TRANSLATION _without_ the assistance of the Notes in class, as explained above, is especially of the greatest importance to the student’s progress in the Art of Translating English into German, and is the only way of mastering all the idiomatic and syntactic difficulties contained in the Lessons and explained in the foot-notes. It commends itself likewise as the best way of committing to memory the great number of words and the various forms of construction occurring in the text, and will gradually, but surely, lead to the acquisition of a good and thorough German style of writing.
To be quite clear the Author ventures to propose the following
PLAN OF WORKING.
FIRST LESSON.
Prepare for _viva voce_ translation Sections 1 and 2, WITH the assistance of the Notes in class.
SECOND LESSON.
Translate in Writing Sections 1 and 2; and prepare for _viva voce_ translation Sections 3 and 4, WITH the assistance of the Notes in class.
THIRD LESSON.
PREPARE FOR FLUENT AND CORRECT _viva voce_ TRANSLATION Sections 1 and 2, WITHOUT the assistance of the Notes in class, by comparing the English text with the corrected German version; translate in Writing Sections 3 and 4; and prepare for _viva voce_ translations Sections 5 and 6, WITH the assistance of the Notes in class.
FOURTH LESSON.
PREPARE FOR FLUENT AND CORRECT _viva voce_ TRANSLATION Sections 3 and 4, WITHOUT the assistance of the Notes in class, by comparing the English text with the corrected version; translate in Writing Sections 5 and 6; and prepare for _viva voce_ translation Sections 7 and 8, WITH the assistance of the Notes in class;
Then proceed in the same way throughout the book.
=It need scarcely be added that the quantity of work pointed out here may be diminished or increased according to circumstances, and that the longer sections towards the end of the book will in most cases require the former course.=
The frequent attentive study of German literature will be a powerful auxiliary to this book in imparting the Art of Translating English Prose into German.
ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGNS EXPLAINED.
Acc. Accusative. adj. adjective. adv. adverb. App. Appendix art. article. Comp. compare. comp. compound. conj. conjunction constr. construction. contr. contracted. Dat. (_or_ dat.) Dative. def. definite. +d. h.+ (+das heißt+), that is. demonstr. demonstrative. e.g. (exempli gratia) for example. etc. (et cetera), and so forth. Expl. Example. fem., _or_ (f.) feminine. +geb.+ (+geboren+), born. Gen. Genitive. i.e. (id est), that is. Impf. Imperfect. impers. impersonal. indef. indefinite. Inf. Infinitive. insep. inseparable. intr., _or_ intrans. intransitive. Liter. Literally. m., _or_ (m.) masculine. N. Note n. noun. neut., _or_ (n.) neuter. Nom. Nominative. p. p. Past Participle. p. ps. Past Participles. pers. person. persnl. personal. posses. possessive. prep. preposition. Pres. Present. pres. p. Present Participle. pron. pronoun. refl. reflective. reg. regular. relat. relative. S. Section. Sing. Singular. str. strong. Subj. Subjunctive. tr., _or_ trans. transitive. +u. a.+ (+und andere+), and others. +u. s. w.+ (+und so weiter+), and so forth. v. verb. viz. (videlicet), namely, to wit. w. weak. § paragraph. † (+gestorben+), died. = is equivalent to.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface v
Directions for Using the Book ix
Abbreviations and Signs Explained xi
SECT.
1. A Good Maxim.—Sir Thomas Buxton 1
2. What is Eternity?—Rev. R. K. Arvine 1
3. The Action of Water.—Dr. Lankester 2
4. Of what Use is it?—S. Smiles 2
5. Wealth.—Rev C. Cotton 3
6. Mendelssohn in Birmingham.—Athenæum 3
7. To Forgive is to Forget.—Rev. H. W. Beecher 3
8. What is Capital?—Rev. Dr. Macduff 4
9. A Good Rule.—S. Smiles 4
10. England under the Rule of Queen Victoria.—W. M. Thackeray 5
11. Concentration of Powers.—T. Carlyle 5
12. Coolness.—W. C. Hazlitt 6
13. Religious Toleration.—Rev R. K. Arvine 6
14. How Hugh Miller became a Geologist.—S. Smiles 7
15. Extremes Meet.—Rev. R. K. Arvine 7
16. Poor Pay.—Rev. R. K. Arvine 8
17. The World is a Looking-glass.—W. M. Thackeray 8
18. Give the honour to God alone.—Rev. R. K. Arvine 9
19. How did Cuvier become a Naturalist?—S. Smiles 9
20. On the Choice of Books.—Lord Dudley 10
21. An apparently insignificant fact often leads to great results.—S. Smiles 10
22. Oats.—Nelson’s Readers 11
23. Spring Blossoms.—Rev. E. M. Davies 11
24. The Winking Eyelid.—Prof. G. Wilson 11
25. A Good Example.—Rev. J. Burroughs 12
26. Description of a Glacier.—Mrs. Beecher Stowe 12
27. Without Pains no Gains.—S. Smiles 13
28. The Magna Charta.—Lord Macaulay 14
29. Honesty.—Dr. B. Franklin 14
30, 31. Formation of a Coral-Island.—M. Flinders 15, 16
32. Reynard Caught.—Anonymous 16
33, 34. The Means of Conveyance in the Time of Charles II.—Lord Macaulay 17
35. Sir William Herschel.—Rev. Dr. Leitch 18
36, 37. The Air-Ocean.—Maury 19, 20
38. Cheerful Church-Music.—Rev. R. K. Arvine 20
39. Our Industrial Independence depends upon Ourselves.—S. Smiles 21
40. England’s Trees.—Hewitt 21
41-45. The Indian Chief.—Washington Irving 22-24
46. Rice.—Nelson’s Readers 25
47-53. The White Ship.—Charles Dickens 26-30
54. Barley.—Nelson’s Readers 30
55. The soldier and his Flag.—General Bourrienne 31
56. Our cultivated Native Plants.—Hewitt 32
57, 58. The Bequest.—Anonymous 32, 33
59. Wheat.—Nelson’ Readers 33
60. Occupation of the Anglo-Saxons.—Milner 34
61-68. Tender, Trusty, and True.—Rev. Robert Collyer 34-39
69. Despatch of Business.—Sir Walter Scott 39
70, 71. On Perfumery.—Prof. Ascher 40, 41
72. On Instinct.—Rev. S. Smith 41
73. Peter the Great and the Monk.—Anonymous 42
74, 75. The Beauty of the Eye.—Prof. G. Wilson 43
76. A Funeral Dance.—Sir S. Baker 44
77. Absolution Beforehand.—Rev. R. K. Arvine 45
78, 79. Stand up for whatever is True, Manly, and Lovely.—T. Hughes 46, 47
80. Work is a great Comforter.—Anonymous 47
81. Perseverance finds its Reward.—N. Goodrich 48
82. The Necessity of Volcanoes.—Rev. Prof. Hitchcock 49
83. The Power of Beauty.—Lord Shaftesbury 49
84. The English Climate.—Hewitt 50
85, 86. The London Docks.—The “Globe” Newspaper 50, 51
87. Dr. Johnson on Debt.—S. Smiles 52
88-94. A Curious Instrument.—Jane Taylor 53-57
95. Anglo-Saxon Dress.—Milner 57
96, 97. The Glaciers at Sunset.—Mrs. Beecher Stowe 58, 59
98, 99. The Lost Child Found.—Jacob Abbott 59, 60
100. Perspiration.—Rev Dr. Dick 61
101-107. The Drama of the French Revolution of 1848.—Essays from “The Times” 61-69
108. Experience is the best Teacher.—W. C. Hazlitt 69
109. On Self Culture.—William Chambers 70
110, 111. Goethe’s Death.—G. H. Lewes 70, 71
112. On Travelling.—Charles Kingsley 72
113. The Management of the Body.—Sidney Smith 73
114. The Sources of Water.—Dr. Lankester 73
115. The Art of Oratory.—Henry Clay 74
116. Early Privations.—S. Smiles 75
117, 118. The Blessedness of Friendship.—Charles Kingsley 76
119, 120. Do Good in your own Sphere of Action.—Thos. Hughes 77, 78
121, 122. The State of Ireland.—The Right Hon. John Bright 79
123-125. On Ragged Schools.—Dr. Guthrie 80-82
126. Shylock Meditating Revenge.—Shakespeare 82
127, 128. Character of Charlemagne.—Hallam 83, 84
129-131. Goethe’s Daily Life at Weimar.—G. H. Lewes 85-87
132. The Progress in the Art of Printing.—The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone 88
133. Robert Dick, the Baker, Geologist, and Botanist.—S. Smiles 89
134, 135. The Gospel of Work.—Charles Kingsley 90, 91
136, 137. Do not be Ashamed of your Origin.—Anecdotes 92
138. Not Near Enough Yet.—Rev. Prof. Earle 93
139. A Great Loss.—S. Smiles 95
140, 141. Hero Worship.—Charles Kingsley 95, 96
142-144. James Watt and the Steam-Engine.—Lord Jeffrey 97, 98
145. Manufactures in England.—Bevan 98
146, 147. Mr. H. M. Stanley’s Appeal for Supplies 99, 100
148. Answer to the preceding letter.—J. W. Harrison 101
149, 150. Mr. Stanley’s Acknowledgment of the preceding letter and the Supplies 102, 103
151. Returned Kindness.—Dr. Dwight 104
152-154. New-Year’s Eve.—After Hans Andersen 105-107
155. Providence Vindicating the Innocent.—W. Smith 108
156, 157. Napoleon Bonaparte.—Emerson 109-111
158. The Warlike Character of the Germans.—Admiral Garbett 112
159. The Way to Master the Temper.—Alcott 113
160, 161. Opinions as to English Education.—S. Smiles 113-115
162. A Royal Judgment.—P. Sadler 116
163. Tacitus.—Sir Walter Scott 117
164. Humility.—Anonymous 117
165-168. Russian Political Prisoners in Banishment.—James Allen 118-122
169-171. Tahiti.—Charles Darwin 123-125
172. Audubon, the American Ornithologist, relates how nearly a thousand of his original Drawings were destroyed.—John Audubon 126
173-177. The Battle of Kassassin.—The Correspondent of the London “Standard” 127-132