April 16th is a big day: not only the eightieth birthday of Pope Benedict XVI, but also the fourth birthday of Transblawg.

On this auspicious or inauspicious (depending on your point of view) occasion, one is bound to ask: what do Benedict XVI and Transblawg have in common, and what not?

We have to conclude that there are only a few similarities. Both were born in Bavaria, but Transblawg is not likely to reach the age of eighty. Both speak German and English. Both invite comments – up to a point.

Transblawg has referred to the Pope more than once, for instance here.

But: Transblawg has not written a life of Jesus Christ
Transblawg is never infallible
Transblawg has not been to Rome (or even Altötting, despite pleas from a sociologist friend – would like to go there with a camera)
Transblawg is not well-dressed, and has certainly not revived archaic forms of dress
Benedict XVI does not carry a camera around with him all the time
Transblawg does not stand at a window and read stuff out to an admiring crowd
Benedict XVI probably doesn’’t have a picture of Martin Luther on the wall
And Benedict XVI has a (somewhat) more spiritual style than Transblawg, which often seems drawn to the trivial

But it takes all kinds to make a world, so happy birthday to us.

LATER NOTE, in response to comments: we do, in fact, have a suitable Austritt for holding speeches from, but the audience is missing (except where captive; pictures taken today).

The Guardian reports that Great Yarmouth PC Gary Pettengell, who learnt rudimentary Lithuanian in order to help the local community of Lithuanians, has been voted Lithuanian personality of the year.

It’s a different question how reliable the following translation is – at all events, the English original is probably not used much nowadays:

Hello, hello, hello
Labas, labas, labas

Move along there, please
Vijeok deasi prasau

Let’s be having you
Kliosek minas

Evening all
Labanakt

When I saw this padlock (Vorhängeschloss) on the Porcellino statue in Florence, I didn’t understand it. Now I think I have found the solution: love padlocks.

Apparently 5,500 were removed from the statue of Benvenuto Cellino on the Ponte Vecchio in the winter of 2005-6.

One is supposed to stroke the boar statue if one wants to come back to Florence. I did that. But then I have never stroked the ring on the Schöner Brunnen in Nuremberg, and I keep finding myself back there, so maybe the chances are slim.

April 3rd

April 13th

A subtle clue to what they grow here:

I found a reference yesterday that suggested Tony Blair reduced the age of criminal responsibility in the UK from 14 to 10 (14 is the age in Germany and 10 in England and Wales).

Anyone who remembers the two eleven-year-old boys in Liverpool convicted of the murder of a toddler will know the age of criminal responsibility has always been 10 (apparently 8 in Scotland).

What I had forgotten was that there really was a change under Blair: there used to be a get-out condition, in that a child aged between 10 and 13 could only be convicted if he had mischievous discretion, which meant that he knew what he was doing was wrong. There was a presumption (Vermutung) that the child was doli incapax (incapable of committing a criminal offence). I don’t know how often this worked in court, but it won’t have made any difference in the cases of murder that make the headlines.

At all events, this doctrine of doli incapax was indeed abolished, as was the presumption that a boy under 14 is incapable of rape. Here’s Lord Goodhart speaking on the subject in the House of Lords in 1998:

The noble Lord said: Amendment No. 174 proposes the abolition of the rule known by one of those tiresome expressions of legal Latin, doli incapax. The doli incapax rule has come under considerable attack in recent years and that attack is indeed, I believe, to a large extent justified. In many cases the presumption that a child or young person under the age of 14 does not know that what he is doing is seriously wrong is indeed contrary to common sense. It is a waste of time and money to call evidence to prove what is in fact obvious: that a 13 year-old defendant who has done something extremely unpleasant knew that his conduct was seriously wrong.

As Goodhart suggested, it would make more sense to reverse the presumption, thus saving court time.

This move was correctly described in German as a reduction of ‘das Alter der unbedingten Strafmündigkeit’ (Google gives examples). But the ‘unbedingt’ has sometimes been omitted.

Of course I remembered more books. I will use this current entry for anything else that occurs to me, so come and check it again in future.

First, there are books on legal English by Peter Tiersma. The one I know is called Legal Language. It’s a good read and need not be read from cover to cover. There’s also one called Speaking of Crime, which I don’t know. Plenty of information on Peter’s website about these.

Then there are books on legal style, for instance those by Mellinkoff, which are particularly good. These can be particularly helpful for translators out of English, for instance if they want to know if a doublet (such as aid and abet, let or hindrance, cease and desist) contains two ideas or one.

Thirdly, I had forgotten that the University of Cambridge is introducing a legal English qualification with course materials. This is a rather ambitious project. I did investigate the materials in a previous entry. Here’s a link for further investigation, and here’s one to the book. The book can be bought now for £26.95 – student’s book with three audio CDs, suitable for class work or self-study. It looks fun, but I notice it doesn’t distinguish between British and American usage all the time – the author is probably American.