Michael Kadlicz of Juristisches und Sonstiges reports on the sort of problem that sometimes causes translators grief, when there’s an obscure word in the source text: a fellow-lawyer dictated ‘Briefdoppel’ and the typist wrote ‘Fristmoppel’.

I remember trying to help a former student with a long document that looked perfect but contained several instances of the word ‘culmany’. I thought the big OED would do it, but no. It was only when I fished out an ancient U.S. forces translation of the Criminal Code that the word ‘calumny’ emerged. And sometimes, as I have read elsewhere this week, expressions like ‘Klammer zu’ appear in the running text.

Somehow I don’t associate Franz Kafka with Mont Blanc pens (seen in Nürnberg today). The ballpoint is particularly snazzy and they have Kafka’s elegant signature on the end.

Could this be the beginning of a trend? Franz Kafka butter toffees, Franz Kafka cheese spread, Franz Kafka barbecue tongs. Franz Kafka laptop case, Franz Kafka beach ball.

Here is a page where you can enter numbers in figures and see the German words. It starts with a box telling you the name for 1 plus 1, 2, 3 etc. noughts. One hundred noughts is zehn Sexdezilliarden or a Googol.

There is more to Arndt Brünner’s mathematical scripts than meets the eye or the brain, at least mine, although readers of a mathematical (philosophical, linguistic) bent may see it otherwise. Small arrows are links to other pages, at all events.

Hier kann man mit sehr großen Zahlen rechnen und sich dann die Zahlwörter für die Ergebnisse anzeigen lassen.
Here you can calculate with very large numbers and have the results shown as words.

Something like this must exist in English, but I am too thick to find it. Here are some words to think about maths, though: ABC Mathematics.
(Thanks to Andrea on the jur_Übs list at Yahoo)

Der Dollar hat einen sehr niedrigen Stand, und Weihnachten nähert sich. Aber diese Figur der Justiz ist wahrscheinlich doch zu teuer zu versenden:

bq. Our Largest Gift for a Lawyer–48” Justice Statue
Now Available in Two Versions
We are delighted with our two versions of this 4 foot classic bronze Lady of Justice. Available in the more traditional statue showing a semi exposed breast or choose the modified fully clad version.
(Out of stock)

from www.forcounsel.com

Gavel and sound block.

A miniature ‘British law wig’ and here (slow-loading British law site – I gave up).

On Thursday, I showed a picture of Bild asking whether the Queen is going to apologize about Dresden when she comes to Germany tomorrow.

An inserted picture of enemy planes was headed ‘War bombs over Dresden’, but BILDblog, quoting Tagesspiegel, says this actually shows American bombers over Normandy. The British bombed Dresden at night, and this is a daylight shot.

Meanwhile, the Fürther / Nürnberger Nachrichten on Saturday had an article by Henrik Bebber about the British papers claiming Germany wanted the Queen to apologize about Dresden. There was no mention that Bild started this. But I think it did, didn’t it? I mean, the Sun et al are far from innocent in German-bashing, and they probably do more than German papers do against the British, but Bild knew that and was provoking it this time round.

LATER NOTE: I was wrong again here – see comments.

This is a pair of scissors. Or is it? Yes, I don’t see why not – it has two parts that are joined (like nutcrackers, bermudas, steps, scales, goggles and so on). I smuggled it out of and into Germany a few months ago – when I came back in, the X-Ray machine started beeping, but no-one could find anything in the depths of my handbag, a normal situation. Later it came to light. (There’s also a dead gnat in the picture, in honour of the date).

But can the decision to call it ‘a scissors’ determine one’s talent for translating?

Trevor takes a very ecumenical view of the matter at kaleboel.