Kleider machen Leute: VIIa

The seventh sentence (the first in the third paragraph) is a lot simpler than the previous one:

Er konnte deshalb nur in größeren Städten arbeiten, wo solches nicht zu sehr auffiel; wenn er wanderte und keine Ersparnisse mitführte, geriet er in die größte Not.

This is really two sentences separated by a semi-colon. The first sentence here has a main clause and a subordinate clause of location. Roughly translated into English, it is: 'Hence he could only work in larger towns where such a thing did not attract notice'.

So the main clause first. The verb is modified by the modal verb können [to be able] in the past tense. This translates as the special passive taea which means the agent is preceded by e and the action is nominalised:

E taea ana e ia te mahi

The adverbial phrase: in größeren Städten [in larger towns] = i ngā taone nui ake (ake adds the comparative to nui). So (with anake for nur ['only']):

E taea ana e ia te mahi i ngā taone nui ake anake

The only thing missing now is a way of linking with the previous sentence — 'deshalb' [hence]. For this, the phrase no reira can be used:

No reira e taea ana e ia te mahi i ngā taone nui ake anake

Which leaves us with the subordinate clause: wo solches nicht zu sehr auffiel ['where such a thing did not attract notice']. The clause is a transformation of: 'such things do not attract notice in larger towns'. The term 'such things' could be expressed as 'the aforementioned' = taua. The verb 'attract notice' = aro (passive suffix = -hia). The construction needed is a negated passive sentence:

kāore taua i arohia i ngā taone nui ake

This now needs to be linked to the main clause. Second thoughts, I'm missing 'zu sehr'. The clause is actually more like: 'where such a thing did not attract too much notice'. I could rephrase that as: 'where such a thing rarely attracted notice'. The word for 'rare' is onge. Rather than apply it to the verb, the standard appears to be to convert the verb into a noun and then apply it as an adjective. So:

Predicate: onge
Subject: te aro o taua āhua ['the attracting notice of that appearance' — the o possessive indicates that the verb is being used passively here (being habitual — a single instance would mean changing aro to aronga]

So:

he onge te aro taua āhua

I added āhua to clarify which things.

Now, to join it to the main clause I need to add the initial phrase i te mea to indicate that it is a clause of reason, and also add a comment of place: i reira ('in the aforementioned place') to connect it to ngā taone. Which gives all up for the first half of the seventh sentence:

No reira e taea ana e ia te mahi i ngā taone nui ake anake i te mea he onge te aro o taua āhua i reira;

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: VId

Back to the sixth sentence, which the previous posts have covered apart from the last relative clause:

Solcher Habitus war ihm zum Bedürfnis geworden, ohne daß er etwas Schlimmes oder Betrügerisches dabei im Schilde führte; vielmehr war er zufrieden, wenn man ihn nur gewähren und im stillen seine Arbeit verrichten ließ; aber lieber wäre er verhungert, als daß er sich von seinem Radmantel und von seiner polnischen Pelzmütze getrennt hätte, die er ebefalls mit großem Anstand zu tragen wußte.

The clause is:

die er ebefalls mit großem Anstand zu tragen wußte

which translates into English roughly as 'which he likewise knew to wear with great dignity'.

The ebenfalls ['likewise'] can be translated using hoki after the first base. Rather than a relative clause, I will make it a separate sentence joined by that hoki to the previous one — otherwise it gets too complicated trying to transform the sentence so that it can be made into a relative clause (largely owing to having two verbs: tragen and wissen).

The phrase ānō nei means 'as if', so the sentence I am translating has become: 'he knew likewise to wear his fur cap as if he was a chief'. That last part substitutes for the adverbial phrase 'mit großem Anstand' [with great dignity] — Anstand/dignity = āhua rangatira [lit.: chiefly appearance]. So:

e mohio hoki ana ia ki te mau i tōna pōtae huru, ānō nei he rangatira a ia.

All up we now have for the sixth sentence:

Kua whakamahia ia kia hiahia ki āhua pērā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i kino i taua āhua, ā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i te nuka ki taua āhua. Otirā i hari ia, mehemea i waihotia ia, me tōna tuku ki te mahi ki hea taurikura. Engari ka hiahia kē ia ki te matekai, tē ngaro kē ai tōna kahu me tōna pōtae huru o Pōrana i a ia. E mohio hoki ana ia ki te mau i tōna pōtae huru, ānō nei he rangatira a ia.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: VIc

Back to the sixth sentence, whose first two clauses were covered in the previous post:

Solcher Habitus war ihm zum Bedürfnis geworden, ohne daß er etwas Schlimmes oder Betrügerisches dabei im Schilde führte; vielmehr war er zufrieden, wenn man ihn nur gewähren und im stillen seine Arbeit verrichten ließ; aber lieber wäre er verhungert, als daß er sich von seinem Radmantel und von seiner polnischen Pelzmütze getrennt hätte, die er ebefalls mit großem Anstand zu tragen wußte.

We are up to the part:

aber lieber wäre er verhungert, als daß er sich von seinem Radmantel und von seiner polnischen Pelzmütze getrennt hätte,

which translates into English roughly as 'he would rather go hungry than be separated from his cloak and his Polish furcap'. For this, I need to understand how to convey the subjunctive mood ('would') in te reo Māori. Harlow (2001) mentions the subjunctive in passing but doesn't explain how it is done, and this particular structure of alternatives doesn't appear in any of the examples.

The sentence has two parts:

aber lieber wäre er verhungert,

and

als daß er sich von seinem Radmantel und von seiner polnischen Pelzmütze getrennt hätte,

The first part gives a contingent result: 'go hungry/starve'; whereas the second provides the alternative: 'being separated from his cloak and cap'. It could be rephrased as:

He would prefer to starve instead of being separated from his cloak and cap

or perhaps:

That he may starve lest he should be separated from his cloak and cap

Williams' First Lessons in Maori (1930) gives examples of subjunctive and Future (Consequential) 'that he may' and Future (Deprecatory/Precautionary) 'lest he should' which seem applicable, though I think the first clause might be better using the particle kē ['instead of/despite']. That is:

Ka hiahia kē ia ki te matekai

where:

Ka hiahia kē = 'would rather' [Ka is verbal particle for inceptive (new action)]
matekai = 'to starve'

The second part could be done using tē + verb + kē ai which gives the meaning 'instead of', so:

Ka hiahia kē ia ki te matekai, tē ngaro kē ai tōna kahu me tōna pōtae huru o Pōrana i a ia

where:

ngaro = be lost
pōtae huru = fur cap
o Pōrana = from Poland

All up we now have for the sixth sentence:

Kua whakamahia ia kia hiahia ki āhua pērā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i kino i taua āhua, ā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i te nuka ki taua āhua. Otirā i hari ia, mehemea i waihotia ia, me tōna tuku ki te mahi ki hea taurikura. Engari ka hiahia kē ia ki te matekai, tē ngaro kē ai tōna kahu me tōna pōtae huru o Pōrana i a ia.

This leaves just the relative clause referring to the cap being worn with dignity.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: VIb

Back to the sixth sentence, whose first two clauses were covered in the previous post:

Solcher Habitus war ihm zum Bedürfnis geworden, ohne daß er etwas Schlimmes oder Betrügerisches dabei im Schilde führte; vielmehr war er zufrieden, wenn man ihn nur gewähren und im stillen seine Arbeit verrichten ließ; aber lieber wäre er verhungert, als daß er sich von seinem Radmantel und von seiner polnischen Pelzmütze getrennt hätte, die er ebefalls mit großem Anstand zu tragen wußte.

We are up to the clause:

vielmehr war er zufrieden

which translates into English roughly as 'rather he was happy':

Subject: he = ia
Verb: happy = hari

So, the sentence becomes:

otirā i hari ia

That was easy. But now we have the condition of when he is happy:

wenn man ihn nur gewähren und im stillen seine Arbeit verrichten ließ;

which translates roughly into English as 'if one just left him alone and left him to work in peace'.

gewähren [leave alone] = waiho (passive suffix: -tia)


So 'if he was left alone' (ie changing to passive) becomes:

mehema i waihotia ia

For the rest of it:

im stillen [in peace] = taurikura (stative verb)

seine Arbeit verrichten [do his work] = mahi

ließ [let/allowed] = tuku (passive suffix: -na)

mehemea i tukuna ia ki te mahi ki hea taurikura

(where ki hea means 'somewhere'), or joined by me to the previous bit (and shifting the subject to a possessive in ō [to indicate the passive for the nominalised verb]) it would be:

me tōna tuku ki te mahi ki hea taurikura

Joining all these together gives:

Kua whakamahia ia kia hiahia ki āhua pērā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i kino i taua āhua, ā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i te nuka ki taua āhua. Otirā i hari ia, mehemea i waihotia ia, me tōna tuku ki te mahi ki hea taurikura.

The rest (which entails the subjunctive) can wait for the next post (or two). Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: VIa

Now for the sixth sentence, which comprises the entire second paragraph:

Solcher Habitus war ihm zum Bedürfnis geworden, ohne daß er etwas Schlimmes oder Betrügerisches dabei im Schilde führte; vielmehr war er zufrieden, wenn man ihn nur gewähren und im stillen seine Arbeit verrichten ließ; aber lieber wäre er verhungert, als daß er sich von seinem Radmantel und von seiner polnischen Pelzmütze getrennt hätte, die er ebefalls mit großem Anstand zu tragen wußte.

Seven clauses by my count. So starting with the first clause:

Solcher Habitus war ihm zum Bedürfnis geworden

which translates into English roughly as 'Such a appearance had become a necessity for him'. The verb 'to become' can be approximated in two ways as I understand it. Either a verb with the meaning 'to become something' is created by adding the prefix whaka- to the something — which works for adjectives, nouns and intransitive verbs — or the verb whakamahia 'to cause' is used with kia followed by the transitive verb. The verb hiahia has the meaning 'to need' and is transitive. So if we phrase it as 'he was caused to need such an appearance' then it breaks down as follows:

Subject: he = ia
Verb: caused to need = kua whakamahia kia hiahia [kua is the verbal particle for perfect aspect]
Object: such an appearance = āhua pērā [pērā = like that]

So, the sentence becomes:

Kua whakamahia ia kia hiahia ki āhua pērā

The second clause is a bit more complicated as it starts with a negation 'ohne daß' [without that]. So I'll start with the positive expression: 'er führte etwas Schlimmes oder Betrügerisches dabei im Schilde'. This translates roughly as 'he intended something wicked or deceitful by that', which I'm going to transform into 'his intention by that was wicked or deceitful'.

Noun: intention = whakaaro
Stative verb: wicked = kino
Adjective: deceitful = nuka

So, 'his intention by that was wicked' becomes:

I kino tōna whakaaro i taua āhua

And 'his intention by that was deceitful' becomes:

He nuka tōna whakaaro ki taua āhua

These now need to be negated. So:

Kāore tōna whakaaro i kino i taua āhua

and:

Kāore tōna whakaaro i te nuka ki taua āhua

Using ahakoa [although/despite] to link it to the previous sentence:

Kua whakamahia ia kia hiahia ki āhua pērā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i kino i taua āhua, ā, ahakoa kāore tōna whakaaro i te nuka ki taua āhua.

The rest can wait for the next post. Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: first paragraph

The first paragraph is now done! It looks like this:

Ka auaha ngā kākahu i ngā tāngata
Nō te rā waniwani o Nōema e haere ana he kaitui pōhara ki Goldach, ki te taone iti, ki te taone whai taonga, mā te huarahi. E itiiti ngā hāora o te tawhiti i Seldwyla ki reira. Ka hari te kaitui i te temani anake i tōna pākete. He rite tonu tāna romiromi i taua temani i ētahi pene kore i tāna te tia i ngā ringaringa ki ngā pākete i te makariri. Kua ngaro hoki ia i tana utu i te pēkerapu o tētahi tohunga kaitui o Seldwyla, ā, me haere ia i Seldwyla. He kai o te ata ētahi whārangi hukarere anake kua rere ki roto i tōna waha, ā, kāhore rawa ia e mōhio ana kei te kimi ia i te tina pōhara rawa atu hea. E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu hinauri, i te kahu nui, i te kahu kua tuia ma te hiraka pango, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango, i tōna kākahu anake, ā, e tuku ana tēnei kahu ki a ia i te āhua rangatira, e āta tiaki ana hoki tōnu makawe roa me tōna pāhau iti, ā, e hari ana ia i tōna kanohi kiritea, i tōna kanohi māori.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: Vd

Back (yet again) to the fifth and last sentence of the first paragraph:

Das Fechten fiel ihm äußerst schwer, ja schien ihm gänzlich unmöglich, weil er über seinem schwarzen Sonntagskleide, welches sein einziges war, einen weiten dunkelgrauen Radmantel trug, mit schwarzem Samt ausgeschlagen, der seinem Träger ein edles und romantisches Aussehen verlieh, zumal dessen lange schwarze Haare und Schnurrbärtchen sorgfältig gepflegt waren und er sich blasser, aber regelmäßiger Gesichtszüge erfreute.

The bit up to and including the 'mit schwarzen Samt ausgeschlagen' clause came in the last three posts (now using hinauri for dark-grey):

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu hinauri, i te kahu nui, i te kahu kua tuia ma te hiraka pango, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango, i tōna kākahu anake …

I now need to add the relative clause 'der seinem Träger ein edles und romantisches Aussehen verlieh'.

Subject: der (a relative pronoun referring to the cloak)
Verb: verlieh ['lent' - past tense]
Direct Object: ein edles und romantisches Aussehen ['a noble and romantic look' - romantic in the eighteenth century sense]
Indirect Object: seinem Träger [its wearer]

So I need to insert the following (tuku = to present (which word to use for 'verlieh' [lent] is a big question) and āhua rangatira = noble aspect):

e tuku ana tēnei kahu ki a ia i te āhua rangatira

I've missed out the 'romantisches Aussehen' [romantic look] as I can't seem to find a word for romantic with the right sense.

Rather than a relative clause I will just join them with a conjunction:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu hinauri, i te kahu nui, i te kahu kua tuia ma te hiraka pango, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango, i tōna kākahu anake, ā,e tuku ana tēnei kahu ki a ia i te āhua rangatira …

The next sentence is prefixed by 'zumal' [particularly] and refers back to the wearer of the cloak with the possessive pronoun 'dessen'.

Subject: dessen lange schwarze Haare und Schnurrbärtchen [whose long black hair and little moustache] = tōna makawe roa me tōna pāhau iti
Verb: gepflegt waren [was tended] = tiaki
Adverb: sorgfältig [carefully] = āta (preposed)

So, as an active sentence:

e āta tiaki ana ia i tōna makawe roa me tōna pāhau iti

And as passive, dropping the agent:

e āta tiaki ana tōna makawe roa me tōna pāhau iti

And adding it on, with hoki connecting it as a cause of the previous clause:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu hinauri, i te kahu nui, i te kahu kua tuia ma te hiraka pango, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango, i tōna kākahu anake, ā, e tuku ana tēnei kahu ki a ia i te āhua rangatira, e āta tiaki ana hoki tōnu makawe roa me tōna pāhau iti …

The last clause breaks down as follows:

Subject: er = ia
Verb: erfreute [enjoy/be blessed with] = hari ?
Object: blasser, aber regelmäßiger Gesichtszüge [pale but regular facial features] = kanohi kiritea, kanohi māori (I haven't figure out how to do the 'aber' [but] so apposition will have to do)

So finally:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu hinauri, i te kahu nui, i te kahu kua tuia ma te hiraka pango, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango, i tōna kākahu anake, ā, e tuku ana tēnei kahu ki a ia i te āhua rangatira, e āta tiaki ana hoki tōnu makawe roa me tōna pāhau iti, ā, e hari ana ia i tōna kanohi kiritea, i tōna kanohi māori.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: Vc

Back (again) to the fifth and last sentence of the first paragraph:

Das Fechten fiel ihm äußerst schwer, ja schien ihm gänzlich unmöglich, weil er über seinem schwarzen Sonntagskleide, welches sein einziges war, einen weiten dunkelgrauen Radmantel trug, mit schwarzem Samt ausgeschlagen, der seinem Träger ein edles und romantisches Aussehen verlieh, zumal dessen lange schwarze Haare und Schnurrbärtchen sorgfältig gepflegt waren und er sich blasser, aber regelmäßiger Gesichtszüge erfreute.

The bit up to and including the 'weil' clause came in the last two posts:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu pango, i te kahu nui, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango …

I now need to add the relative clause 'welches sein einziges war' to his sunday best (tōna kākahu pai rawa atu) [in the previous post I think I referred to this as apposition but it's actually a relative clause]. So I need to insert the following:

he tōna kākahu anake

Which I can do as apposition, as I already have a series in apposition for the adjectives at the end:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu pango, i te kahu nui, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango, i tōna kākahu anake …

The next clause, 'mit schwarzen Samt ausgeschlagen' [decorated/embroidered with black silk], is a comment on kahu. The word tāniko seems to mean both to embroider and ornamental embroidery on cloaks. So I could just add i te kahu tāniko but that would mean ignoring the black silk part. Silk is hiraka, so (using the pseudo-passive):

he mea tāniko te kahu ma te hiraka pango [the cloak is embroidered with black silk]

or as passive (using tui(-a) as I don't know the passive suffix for tāniko):

kua tuia te kahu ma te hiraka pango

Now, how do I turn this into a relative clause? I think I just need to drop the te kahu and place the passive clause after where te kahu appears, so:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu pango, i te kahu nui, i te kahu kua tuia ma te hiraka pango, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango, i tōna kākahu anake …

Which leaves the other relative clauses for my next post(s).

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: Vb

Back to the fifth and last sentence of the first paragraph:

Das Fechten fiel ihm äußerst schwer, ja schien ihm gänzlich unmöglich, weil er über seinem schwarzen Sonntagskleide, welches sein einziges war, einen weiten dunkelgrauen Radmantel trug, mit schwarzem Samt ausgeschlagen, der seinem Träger ein edles und romantisches Aussehen verlieh, zumal dessen lange schwarze Haare und Schnurrbärtchen sorgfältig gepflegt waren und er sich blasser, aber regelmäßiger Gesichtszüge erfreute.

The first bit before the 'weil' became in the last post:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia …

The next part is a clause giving the reason ('weil' = 'because') with associated apposition and relative clauses. The basic underlying clause is:

weil er über seinem schwarzen Sonntagskleide […] einen weiten dunkelgrauen Radmantel trug

The bit skipped in the middle is in apposition to 'Sonntagskleide' and what follows (up to 'zumal') is an adverbial clause and a relative clause referring back to 'Radmantel'. The last part ('zumal' onwards) gives reasons for the last relative clause. But let's start with the basic clause:

Subject: er = ia
Verb: trug = e mau ana (progressive aspect)
Object: einen weiten dunkelgrauen Radmantel = he kahu pango, he kahu nui
— Radmantel = kahu [a cloak is quite accurate, I think]
— dunkel = pango [can't figure out dark-'grey']
— weit = nui [works for 'broad' in this context, I think]

Leaving out the prepositional phrase, it is:

e mau ana ia i te kahu pango, i te kahu nui

The prepositional phrase 'über seinem schwarzen Sonntagskleide' [over his black sunday best] requires a locative noun phrase I think.

sein Sonntagskleid = tōna kākahu pai rawa atu

So the sentence 'the cloak was over his best clothes' would, I think, be:

I waho te kahu i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu

And adding the colour, black:

I waho te kahu i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango

Now I have to insert this into the sentence as a locative comment:

e mau ana ia i te kahu pango, i te kahu nui, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango

So I now have the following if I join it to the first clauses with inā hoki ['seeing that']:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia, inā hoki e mau ana ia i te kahu pango, i te kahu nui, ki waho i tōna kākahu pai rawa atu, i tōna kākahu pango …

Which leaves me with the apposition, relative clauses, etc still to do ;-)

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: Va

The fifth and last sentence of the first paragraph is:

Das Fechten fiel ihm äußerst schwer, ja schien ihm gänzlich unmöglich, weil er über seinem schwarzen Sonntagskleide, welches sein einziges war, einen weiten dunkelgrauen Radmantel trug, mit schwarzem Samt ausgeschlagen, der seinem Träger ein edles und romantisches Aussehen verlieh, zumal dessen lange schwarze Haare und Schnurrbärtchen sorgfältig gepflegt waren und er sich blasser, aber regelmäßiger Gesichtszüge erfreute.

This is a key sentence for the book as a whole as it sets up the trigger for the entire plot. In this post, I will start with the first clause:

Das Fechten fiel ihm äußerst schwer, …

Which is literally: 'the begging was falling extremely hard to him'. I'm going to flip this around so that 'he' is the subject, and I'll use the verb kite [to find, see]. So it will start:

E kite ana ia [he was finding/seeing]

The object clause is: 'das Fechten war äußerst schwer'. This, by itself, would be:

He tino uaua te inoi

That is, He [predicate] [subject] where the predicate (äußerst schwer) is tino uaua and the subject is the verb inoi nominalised with the article te. My understanding of nominalisation is that a single instance requires the nominalisation suffix but repeated doesn't. (See Harlow 2001, p206 ff.) In this case, I don't think a specific instance of begging is being referred to but his begging in general.

If we now join these together we get:

E kite ana ia he tino uaua te inoi

Which is saying that he found/saw that begging was extremely difficult. What is missing is the linking of the begging as his begging — ie I've missed the subject of the verb in the nominalisation. This is done by changing the article to be possessive (I think inoi is intransitive so o-type possession is required):

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi

The next clause, 'ja schien ihm gänzlich unmöglich', effectively qualifies the 'äußerst schwer' [extremely difficult] as even 'gänzlich unmöglich' [completely impossible] — the verb 'schien' = seemed/looked. By itself, the predicate of this clause would be:

Kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia.

This is a negative transformation of:

E taea rawa ana te inoi e ia.

The 'gänzlich' is given by the manner particle rawa. The verb taea is equivalent to 'können' [to be able] and takes a type of passive construction, so this is literally: 'he is/was completely unable to beg'. Broken down into components:

[E taea rawa ana]verb-predicate [te inoi]patient [e ia]agent

The negative transformation involves inserting kāore at the start and moving the patient to just before the verb. The verb 'schien' might be translated using the idiom te āhua nei [it would seem/it looks like]. In this case the clause as a whole would be:

Te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia.

The two clauses can be joined by engari 'but/indeed/actually':

E kite ana ia he tino uaua tōna inoi, engari te āhua nei, kāore te inoi e taea rawa ana e ia …

The rest can wait for my next post. Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: IVb

Now for the rest of the fourth sentence.

… er sah noch weniger ab, wo das geringste Mittagsbrot herwachsen sollte.

Before breaking it down, I want to rework the source sentence, whose two parts separated by the comma are essentially: "he foresees still less [,] where the most meagre lunch shall sprout from." This is fairly idiomatic. I think I'll rework the first part to "er weiß überhaupt nicht" [he doesn't really know] and the second part to "wo er das geringste Mittagsbrot finden wird" [where he will find the most meagre lunch].

Subject: er = ia
Verb: weiß = mōhio
Adverb: überhaupt = rawa

This is a negative phrase and I'll use a progressive aspect (e … ana) so:

Kāhore rawa ia e mōhio ana …

Breaking down the subordinate clause:

wo [where/at what place] = hea
finden = kimi (my understanding of the words listed in the dictionary for 'find' is that kite is more 'recognise' and kimi is more 'look for')
Mittagsbrot = tina
most meagre = pōhara rawa atu

The subordinate clause takes kei te as verbal particle because it is future [wird], the object takes the particle i, and hea goes to the end, so:

kei te kimi ia i te tina pōhara rawa atu hea

So the sentence becomes:

Kāhore rawa ia e mōhio ana kei te kimi ia i te tina pōhara rawa atu hea.

Joining this to the first part from the previous post:

He kai o te ata ētahi whārangi hukarere anake kua rere ki roto i tōna waha, ā, kāhore rawa ia e mōhio ana kei te kimi ia i te tina pōhara rawa atu hea.

Note, my understanding is that commas are generally used only to separate 'sentences' with the conjunction ā also separated by commas.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: IVa

Now for the fourth sentence, actually two sentences joined by 'und' [and].

Er hatte noch nichts gefrühstückt als eigene Schneeflocken, die ihm in den Mund geflogen, und er sah noch weniger ab, wo das geringste Mittagsbrot herwachsen sollte.

Before breaking the first sentence down, I'll transform its main clause from a verbal sentence to a sentence of possession (ie from 'he had breakfasted on' to 'his breakfast had been'):

Sein Frühstück war noch nichts als eigene Schneeflocken gewesen, die ihm in den Mund geflogen, und er sah noch weniger ab, wo das geringste Mittagsbrot herwachsen sollte.

So, breaking this first sentence down:

Subject: sein Frühstück = tāna kai o te ata
Subject Predicate: noch nichts als eigene Schneeflocken = ētahi [some] whārangi hukarere [snowflakes] + anake [only - I'm cheating here again]
Relative clause (referring to predicate): die [Schneeflocken] ihm in den Mund geflogen
— in den Mund = ki roto [into] i tōna waha [his mouth]
— geflogen in = kua [perfect particle] rere [fly]

Copulating sentences in te reo māori seem to be of this form in general:

He [predicate] [subject]

The predicate is just a noun without a determiner, and so it seems to me that the standard is to have the more general class in the predicate and the more specific instance as the subject. So: 'the house is a mansion' would be 'He mansion the house' rather than 'He house a mansion'. I could be wrong. But if I'm right then the basic sentence, without relative clause becomes:

He kai o te ata ētahi whārangi hukarere anake.

The relative clause as a separate sentence would be:

Kua rere ētahi whārangi hukarere ki roto i tōna waha.

To combine them we drop the subject from the relative clause and place the remainder of the relative clause after its head (in this case the subject of our main clause):

He kai o te ata ētahi whārangi hukarere anake kua rere ki roto i tōna waha.

That completes the first sentence. I'll leave the rest for my next post.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: III

Now for the third sentence:

Denn er hatte wegen des Falliments irgendeines Seldwyler Schneidermeisters seinen Arbeitslohn mit der Arbeit zugleich verlieren und auswandern müssen.

Unpacking this sentence which is a main clause giving the background for the previous sentences:

Subject: er = ia
Reason: Falliment irgendeines Seldwyler Schneidermeisters

Verb 1: verloren = ngaro
Object 1a: seinen Arbeitslohn = tana utu
Object 1b: die Arbeit

Verb 2: auswandern müssen

So, this is actually a case of two sentences merged. I'll start with unpacking the reason clause: 'the bankruptcy of some master tailor of Seldwyla.'

bankruptcy = te pēkerapu
some tailor = tētahi kaitui
master tailor = tohunga kaitui ?

So, perhaps the phrase:

te pēkerapu o tētahi tohunga kaitui o Seldwyla

The first sentence is in the pluperfect, so kua is the verbal particle I'll use. It becomes (using hoki 'denn' after the verb to connect to the previous sentence):

Kua ngaro hoki ia i tana utu i te pēkerapu o tētahi tohunga kaitui o Seldwyla

The second sentence has the same tense and subject, but an intransitive verb accompanied by the modal verb 'müssen' [must/have to].

auswandern = heke (or better: haere i Seldwyla 'go from Seldwyla'?)
müssen = me (verbal particle)?

So:

Me haere ia i Seldwyla.

And the lot together:

Kua ngaro hoki ia i tana utu i te pēkerapu o tētahi tohunga kaitui o Seldwyla, ā, me haere ia i Seldwyla.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: II

Now for the second sentence:

Der Schneider trug in seiner Tasche nichts als einen Fingerhut, welchen er in Ermangelung irgendeiner Münze unablässig zwischen den Fingern drehte, wenn er der Kälte wegen die Hände in die Hosen steckte.

Unpacking this:

Subject: Der Schneider
Verb: trug
Where: in seiner Tasche
Object: nichts als einen Fingerhut,
Relative clause referring to object: welchen er in Ermangelung irgendeiner Münze unablässig zwischen den Fingern drehte,
Time clause: wenn er der Kälte wegen die Hände in die Hosen steckte

So, translating each component:

Subject: te kaitui (see previous post where I didn't comment on the diminutive - I don't think te reo māori has diminutives.)

Verb: ka hari

The previous sentence makes it clear that we are in the past so I think this is an appropriate place for using the particle ka. The alternative would be i (for simple past) or e … ana (for progressive past).

Where: i tōna pākete

Have I got the right word for pocket here? The dictionary isn't too clear. As an item of clothing an o-type possessive is right I think.

Object: i te temani anake
I've changed 'nothing but a thimble' to 'only a thimble' - I couldn't figure out how to do 'nothing but'. So at this point we have the main clause finished:

Ka hari te kaitui i te temani anake i tōna pākete

Now I just have to figure out the subordinate clauses.
The first clause, a relative clause, relates back to te temani. The other components are:

Subject: er = ia
Verb: drehte zwischen den Fingern = romiromi (I'm taking a shortcut here)
Reason: in Ermangelung irgendeiner Münze = ētahi pene kore
Adverb: unablässig = rite tonu

That last bit, rite tonu, means that we need to nominalise the verb and convert the subject into a possessor of the nominalised verb (an action so ā) (see Harlow 2001, p.94). So:

Ka romiromi ia i te temani i ētahi pene kore

which is the clause without the adverb, becomes:

He rite tonu tāna romiromi i te temani i ētahi pene kore

Now I just need to connect this to the main clause - the connector being the object. I may be wrong, but I don't think I can transform the clause into a passive one. So I have to use the possessive strategy which I think works like this (Harlow 2001, p.271.):

tana temani ā romiromi e rite tonu i ētahi pene kore

So the main clause and relative clause becomes, I think:

Ka hari te kaitui i tana temani ā romiromi, e rite tonu i ētahi pene kore, anake i tōna pākete.

This looks munted to me. It might be better to split the relative clause into a new sentence, so we get:

Ka hari te kaitui i te temani anake i tōna pākete. He rite tonu tāna romiromi i taua temani i ētahi pene kore.

I've used taua 'the aforementioned' instead of te to provide the linkage to the main clause. All that is left now is the last clause.

wenn er der Kälte wegen die Hände in die Hosen steckte

Subject: er = ia
Object: die Hände = ngā ringaringa
Reason: die Kälte = makariri
Verb: steckte = tia
Place: in die Hosen = tarau (better: pākete)

Nominalising this to make a time comment:

i tāna te tia i ngā ringaringa ki ngā pākete i te makariri

So we now have:

Ka hari te kaitui i te temani anake i tōna pākete. He rite tonu tāna romiromi i taua temani i ētahi pene kore i tāna te tia i ngā ringaringa ki ngā pākete i te makariri.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute: I

Following on from the last post, let's now tackle the first sentence:

An einem unfreundlichen Novembertage wanderte ein armes Schneiderlein auf der Landstraße nach Goldach, einer kleinen reichen Stadt, die nur wenige Stunden von Seldwyla entfernt ist.

Unpacking this:

When: An einem unfreundlichen Novembertage
Verb: wanderte
Subject: ein armes Schneiderlein
Where/Means: auf der Landstraße
Where-to: nach Goldach,
Where-to (apposition): einer kleinen reichen Stadt,
Where-to (relative clause): die nur wenige Stunden von Seldwyla entfernt ist

So, translating each component:

When: i te rā waniwani o Nōema

Obviously, I had to make a choice here over which month name to use. I'm also not sure if I can legitimately use possession like this (ie. "on a day of November" instead of "on a day in November" which would be i te rā waniwani i a Nōema)

Verb: e haere ana

The German 'wanderte' may be progressive or perfect but in this context progressive makes sense, hence e … ana.

Subject: he kaitui pōhara

'Arm' means poor - and could mean both the pathetic type and the impoverished type. In the later context, it is obvious that he is impoverished.
Where/Means: mā te huarahi

He is walking 'by means of' the road, hence mā.

Where-to: ki Goldach,
Where-to (apposition): ki ti taone iti, ki te taone whai taonga,

My understanding is that you can't chain more than one adjective on a noun, but must repeat them like this. Up to this point we have:

E haere ana he kaitui pōhara ki Goldach, ki ti taone iti, ki te taone whai taonga, mā te huarahi i te rā waniwani o Nōema

But the source sentence had the time phrase at the front, so we can make it into a fronted comment too (see Harlow 2001, p200):

Nō te rā waniwani o Nōema e haere ana he kaitui pōhara ki Goldach, ki ti taone iti, ki te taone whai taonga, mā te huarahi.

That leaves us with our relative clause, which refers to Goldach and essentially says "Goldach is only a few hours [walk] from Seldwyla" or "Goldach is [at a distance of] only a few hours from Seldwyla". I have not been able to figure out a similar construction for 'at a distance of', so I'm going with a separate sentence providing the additional information in the form 'the distance from S. to G. is a few hours' and using reira to refer back to Goldach in the previous sentence.

E itiiti ngā hāora o te tawhiti i Seldwyla ki reira.

This is the bit I have least confidence in. Can I say itiiti ngā hāora o te tawhiti? Anyway we now have:

Nō te rā waniwani o Nōema e haere ana he kaitui pōhara ki Goldach, ki ti taone iti, ki te taone whai taonga, mā te huarahi. E itiiti ngā hāora o te tawhiti i Seldwyla ki reira.

Any thoughts?

Kleider machen Leute - the title

First things first: my aim with these posts is to go on a voyage of discovery with Te Reo Māori through the medium of translating Gottfried Keller's German novelle Kleider Machen Leute [lit.: clothes make people]. The idea is to explore the different sentence constructions in this way and make lots of mistakes that I can learn from. So the title:

Kleider machen Leute

The key here is that it is a reversal of Leute machen Kleider [people make clothes]. Hence, it is best to start off with translating that.

Verb: auaha
Subject: ngā tāngata
Object: ngā kākahu

Ka auaha ngā tāngata i ngā kākahu

I used Ka as the verbal particle because there is no real tense or aspect implied by the German. Now if we reverse it we get:

Ka auaha ngā kākahu i ngā tāngata

Any thoughts?

Addendum 15 Aug 2012: What I should have commented more fully on was my choice of verb. The German word machen, like the English verb 'to make', is quite versatile and the Te Reo Māori/English dictionaries I checked don't give much guidance. So I tried to select a verb that gives the idea of creation/construction. I may have picked the wrong verb entirely, of course. Another option for the title would be to use a proverb with the same meaning as the English "the clothes make the man" or "you are what you wear". There may be such a proverb — I don't know.