Pagan prisoners get the day off/Feiertag für Heiden im Knast

Posted on 30 October 2006 by MMarks

The Mail on Sunday reports that Pagan inmates are given a day off from work for Halloween.

Prison Service bosses have instructed staff to grant the convicts, who include Devil worshippers and Satanists, special privileges on Tuesday.
While fellow prisoners sew mail bags and undertake other jail work, the Pagans will be allowed to celebrate their ‘holiday’.
They can use certain artefacts, including rune stones, flexible twigs and hoodless robes, provided they are kept in their cells or worn during communal worship. Robes with hoods are banned for ‘security reasons’, however.

Obviously they will not be able to wear this Tchibo hoodie (Kapuzinerjacke), then.

The Home Office papers reveal that Pagans can choose a day off work on two dates from eight of their festivals each year.
These include the Spring Equinox on March 20, the Midsummer Solstice on June 21 and Hallowe’en – the Samhain, or Summer’s End, as it was known in Celtic times – on October 31. Christian prisoners are allowed three days off – on Good Friday, Easter Day and Christmas Day.
Muslims are entitled to the most time off – 26 days to pray, including the fast of Ramadan. Buddhists get three days, Hindus ten and Jews seven.

(Via Criminal Solicitor Dot Net and thanks to Paul for the hoodie)

The Special Translation Tool/Die Besondere Übersetzungshilfe

Posted on 30 October 2006 by MMarks

I’ve mentioned Jerry (Gerold) Harfst’s book Die Besondere Übersetzungshilfe before , but now I can present some pages from it to show what it’s like.

The book is a criminal law glossary divided into three sections: in the first, the German terms are arranged by order of paragraph number: that is, first comes the Betäubungsmittelgesetz with entries from 1 to 39, then the Jugendgerichtsgesetz, Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz, Strafgesetzbuch, Strafprozessordnung, Strafvollzugsgesetz, Straßenverkehrsgesetz, Straßenverkehrsordnung, and Waffengesetz.

Second comes a German-English glossary, and third an English-German glossary. In each of these, the section numbers are given in the margin.

Thus an interpreter in court might want to use the section arranged by paragraph numbers, for instance in a case about drugs.

Example:

P. 38: StGB 242 Diebstahl: larceny (the US term for theft)
p. 122: Diebstahl: larceny (StGB-242)
p. 239: larceny: Diebstahl (StGB-242)

Click on pictures to enlarge:

The quality of the printing is good, unlike my scans, which are reduced to make smaller files. More information and ordering here.

Translation weblog Oversetter

Posted on 29 October 2006 by MMarks

I have just discovered that Nick Rosenthal of Salford Translations Ltd. has a weblog called Oversetter.

Nick was once the Jerry Pournelle of the ITI, with his column Nick’s Attic (or something like that) in the Bulletin. Let’s hope for many more entries.

I see he actually has a link to Byte, and also one to Chip (described as ‘Germany’s favourite computer magazine’). Where’s c’t, Nick?

(Note to Trevor: I think Nick may be into cycling, although he can scarcely be ‘Fat Nick’ if that’s so, can he?)

Bells / Glocken

Posted on 29 October 2006 by MMarks

I have just been translating this . I decided to call the Raumtor separating nave and choir something like a proscenium arch. When I was reminding myself how to describe bells, I found a nice site with information on spotting bells in Gloucestershire, especially by car:

Charlton Kings, S Mary, 8 bells, Tenor 17-0-13, Grid Ref:SO964204
Parking is available in the lanes which surround the church, and the tower entrance is in the south east corner of the tower, on the outside of the church. The bells go quite well, but are not particularly clear to listen to, and the ringing chamber ceiling is fairly low. They were rehung by the Whitechapel foundry in 1958 in a new frame with new fittings. The fourth bell here was for a long time thought to be by John Palmer of Gloucester. It has been discovered that the founder “IP” that Sharpe and H.B.Walters before him assumed to be John Palmer, was in fact a founder called John Pennington. John Pennington I was casting bells at Monmouth between 1626 and 1665, and his son John II was casting until 1682.

Gives a whole meaning to the term ‘well hung’.

Translator’s desk /Übersetzerschreibtisch

Posted on 25 October 2006 by MMarks

Further to the earlier entry, I am able to present two photos of the desk of a translator not unknown in the comments to this weblog, Paul Thomas in Baden-Württemberg (click to enlarge):

The rubber chicken was not placed there for effect, but thrown there by the office assistant, shown here:

Analysing other people’s desks looks like a future growth area to me. I spotted the globe to the left, and Paul states it was a freebee (Werbegeschenk). We note the monitor is not on the desk itself – this is a procedure with a long tradition: Luther didn’t have his monitor on his desk either:

Word division and rubbish sorting / (Müll)trennung

Posted on 25 October 2006 by MMarks

RA-Blog regrets the division of the compound word Gelassenheitsdemonstrationsf-loskel.

I thought I’d seen the equivalent in Munich last Friday, but it was obviously deliberate:

I also saw Einkaufst-asche. More examples here – my favourite is Katzens-treu. And there’s a rubbish sorting game that’s a bit less fun than Space Invaders (click beside the three bins).

Transblawg

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