Transblawg

Weblog on German-English legal translation, no longer from Fürth

Posted on 14 April 2006 by MMarks

Benjamin Zimmer at Language Log, with the assistance of Chris Waigl of Diacritiques, examines a mysterious translation.

Hermann on 15 April 2006 at 5:48 said:

Yes but what *is* the proper translation of “Mein Name ist Hase”?

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Margaret Marks on 15 April 2006 at 7:35 said:

Search me!
with both words stressed, or maybe ‘me’ stressed slightly more than ‘search’.

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Chris Irwin on 15 April 2006 at 11:11 said:

TeeHee. Typical.

“Ja – es ist nur ein Werbetext, ganz kurz…
Können Sie mir die ganze Anzeige zeigen?
Neh, das haben wir nicht…
Grrrrrrrrr!”

So let’s hear it for Shelby, 11, Poolesville, MD, USA, who penned:

“The Easter bunny has left its mark…
It’s hidden eggs in the dark”

http://kotn.ntu.ac.uk/create/easter.cfm

Seems to fit the context ;-)

I agree with Margaret’s “Search me”,given the true background as per http://www.geo.de/GEOlino/mensch/redewendungen/4776.html, (Jurastudent!) “Search me”, means “I don’t know”, yet could imply that there is something hidden.

Happy egging ;-)
Chris

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