Gail (openbrackets) zitierte Martin Luthers Sendbrief zum Dolmetschen. Deutscher Text hier.

Ein Zitat aus eben diesem Text zierte ein Jubiläumskaffeepott des Instituts für Fremdsprachen in Erlangen.

Gail at openbrackets printed a large section of Martin Luther’s open letter on translation. His subject there is writing the German used by the ordinary people.

I seem to have missed that it was written in Nuremberg.

The Institut für Fremdsprachen in Erlangen (irritating splash screen), where I used to teach, had two jubilee mugs, one with a Goethe quote (Goethe at his worst) and one with a Luther quote from this very text:

bq. Und ist uns sehr oft begegnet, daß wir vierzehn Tage, drei, vier Wochen haben ein einziges Wort gesucht und gefragt …

(omitting the end: ‘haben’s dennoch zuweilen nicht gefunden.’!)

In Gary Mann’s translation:

bq. It has happened that I have sometimes searched and inquired about a single word for three or four weeks… (It goes on, ‘Sometimes I have not found it even then.’!)

(click to enlarge)

Dieses Bild zeigt den Tintenklecks, der angeblich entstand, als Luther beim Übersetzen den Tintenfass nach dem Teufel warf (DDR-Plakat, erworben als ich verschiedenen Broschüren über die Wartburg übersetzte).

This picture shows the ink blot on the wall of Luther’s study at the Wartburg, where he translated the Bible. He is said to have thrown his inkpot at the Devil. I suppose I would have to throw the mouse. Or a copy of von Beseler-Jacobs-Wüstefeld’s law dictionary might be effective.

Die Coco-Nut-Tänzer von Bacup in Nordengland tanzen jedes Jahr am Ostersamstag durch ein paar Orte, zehn Stunden lang (Anfangsstation ist die Kneipe Travellers Rest). Hier der Weg. Hier ihre offizielle Website. Es erinnert sich keiner an den Anfang dieser Tradition; die Tänze werden von Vater an Sohn weitergegeben. Die Holzplatten an Händen, Knien usw. sind vielleicht von Schutzkleidung im Bergwerk abgeleitet. Angeblich waren die ersten Tänzer maurische Seeräuber, die zuerst in den Silberbergwerken in Cornwall arbeiteten und dann zu den Kohlebergwerken im Norden zogen.

I’ve borrowed this picture from this site, courtesy of Mrs Sheila Riley:

Video

The Britannia Coco-Nut Dancers of Bacup dance their way from the Travellers Rest pub in Rochdale (I think) for 10 hours every Easter Saturday.
The Guardian has a short report.

bq. The dances are centuries old, passed down by word of mouth. Even the nutters aren’t sure of their history, but believe that the blackened face tradition and much of the costume may stem from Moorish pirates who worked the tin mines in Cornwall before bringing their labour north.

They are a bit reminiscent of morris dancers, at least to the ignorant like me.

The Moriskentänzer figures in the Munich Stadtmuseum must be some kind of morris dancers.

Alexander Hartmann stellt einen Webring für Stricker vor. Ich wusste nicht, dass es sowas auf deutsch gibt – Weblogs für Stricker sind bekannt in den USA und England. (Via plasticthinking) Deutscher Strickbloggerinnen.

I’ve long been fascinated by knitting weblogs. I haven’t had any time to knit for the last twenty years (although there was a period of a couple of years where half the class was knitting while I was teaching). But if I did, I would find the weblogs useful. There are photos of projects in progress, and the comments can be enlightening too.

I think there is more than one English-language knitting weblog webring. There’s even a queer knitters’ webring.

Now Alexander Hartmann, via plasticthinking (links above), points out that there is a German knitting weblog ring.

Because of the pictures, I suppose even those who speak no German might be interested to look.

Here’s an American living in Norway, plus Norwegian for knitters. Here’s a knitting club in Britain (the shop has some bizarre patterns, such as knitted shoelaces and an exfoliating cover for a bath sponge).

Some English/German knitting vocabulary here , here and here – Google will find more.

Here’s a sewing weblog started by Mena Trott of Movable Type.

Cooking weblogs have actually made it to my link list: Appetites (Robert D. Peyton, if I remember right a lawyer in New Orleans, including restaurant reviews, with links to other food blogs), La Grand Bouffe (German, from Vienna, by a student from Südtirol/Alto Adige – or somewhere around there), and I was just really very hungry, by Makiko Itoh, who is Japanese, grew up in Britain and the USA, lived in Japan and now lives in Switzerland, also with good links).

I suppose there must be weblogs on carpentry and home decorating and stopping leaking taps too.

Die deutsche Regierung besteht darauf, dass das Wort ‘Parmesan’ ein generischer Begriff ist, der für Käse aus Deutschland verwendet werden kann. (Spiegel Online).

Since 1996, the term ‘Parmigiano Reggiano’ has been protected under EU law and restricted to cheese made in the area around Parma. But Germany has continued to use the German translation, ‘Parmesan’, for cheese made elsewhere. Report from Desbladet.

I wonder what they use it for. A lot of Parmesan is sold ready-grated in little cardboard boxes with holes in the top. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t have much flavour. I wonder if most of the German stuff goes into these boxes.

The term ‘Camembert’ is apparently not protected.

Germany has quite a penchant for German versions of foreign cheeses: deutscher Camembert, Allgäuer Emmentaler, Deutscher Gouda.

Große Dateien (bis zu 1 GB) können kostenlos versendet werden über Yousendit.

You can use Yousendit to send files up to 1 GB in size, free of charge. Files are checked for viruses. Yousendit have a more ambitious system that they charge for.

Handakte WebLAWg, via Akademie.de. law blog points out that as the files remain online for 7 days, you could use it as a temporary backup, in the knowledge that your backup of a sensitive document will be deleted soon. The file could be encrypted and you could download it from another computer if you needed to.

Akademie.de is an interesting site for freelancers in Germany for many other reasons. It offers online information and courses on the professional use of the Internet and IT in firms, business, startups and more (‘Softskills’???)

bq. akademie.de startete 1996 mit Themen rund um die professionelle Nutzung von Internet und IT in Unternehmen. Später kamen die Themen Business, Existenzgründung und Softskills hinzu. Diese Themen werden derzeit ausgebaut. Zugleich wird der Themenkreis erweitert.

With Easter approaching, I was drawn to a church: St. Laurence (Lorenz) in Nuremberg. It was really my new fisheye adapter that made the decision. I think I need to visit some more churches.

They seem to be collecting for the organ. This can be seen on the church’s website. The acoustics are so difficult that they need three organs. I had heard of healthshop infusions such as Blasentee (bladder tea), Hustentee (cough tea) and Magentee (stomach tea) – see this chemist, for example – but not Orgeltee (organ tea). I didn’t check the ingredients. It’s probably black tea.

There is also a birthday present for the person who has everything: a pipe on the organ, engraved with the giver’s or receiver’s name. It doesn’t take up any space, because it stays in the organ, and it also has the benefit of anonymity because I suppose nobody ever sees it.