Wolves, Foxes, Fish, and Greyhounds

Here's the next section of Steppenwolf. It's likely to have some errors, because I wrote it on a Greyhound bus when I didn't have a dictionary or any internet.

One could speak long and continuously on the subject and write books about it....but it meant nothing at all to the Wolf of the Steppes, because for him it was all the same if the wolf had been magic’ed or beaten into him, or if it was only a fancy of his soul. What others wished to think and also what he himself wished to think was worth nothing to him, because it did not take the wolf out of him. The Wolf of the Steppes had two natures, one human and one wolfish. That was his fate, and it may well be that was nothing special or unusual. There have been many people who have much of dog or fox, fish or snake in them without any particular difficulties. In these people, the person and the fox, the person and the fish live next to each other, helping rather than hurting each other. Some people’s good fortune is due more to the fox or the monkey than to the human. This is known to everyone. But it was different for Harry. In him wolf and man ran against each other, and did not so much help each other as were locked in a deadly struggle.

I actually translated that last Friday on the route from Bellingham to Mt. Vernon. I might have gotten more, but a drunk man sat next to me and I was too busy with damage control. He wasn't actually threatening, just extremely irritating, and in my space enough that I didn't want to give him any opportunities to mess with me. When I was a little girl, my brother would take the Greyhound across the country from his college in New York to visit us. It was probably easier for him what with being male, but still! I would never want to do that.

German Practice

...can be quite fun, if you do it right. I didn't want to lose my ability over the summer, so I've been trying to consume media in German whenever possible. Der Spiegel is online, which is a huge help. Youtube is another great resource. I've been watching Disney movies in German. Aschenputtel (Cinderella) is well suited to it, Die Schöne und der Biest (Beauty and the Beast) is equally good...and not even German can help Mulan II. It's a little harder to find originally German television/movies on Youtube, mostly because I don't know what to search for.

But it's not just speaking I need to practice. Reading and lit crit will be important as well. And since I already have ein Tractat vom Steppenwolf, von Hermann Hesse, that will be my starting place.

Es fangt an mit "Nur für Verrückte" als Einsatz. Ein gute Anfang, finde ich. Ein Übersetzung, so weit wie ich kann...

Only for crazy people

There was once a man named Harry, called the wolf of the steppes. He walked on two legs, wore clothing and was a person, but at the same time he was obviously a wolf. He had learned much from that which people of good understanding could, and he was quite a clever man. And yet there was something which he had not learned: how to be satisfied with himself and his life. This he could not do. He was an unsatisfied person. This was probably because he knew, at all times and from the bottom of his heart (or at least thought he knew) that he was not really a human being, but a wolf from the steppes.

Thank you, Hermann Hesse, for using relatively simple language. We'll see if I've bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm interested to see what happens with Harry. It will probably be very humbling to read a professional translation-which is why I'll be avoiding it, so as not to get discouraged.