18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 37

[cahn]

More diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!

January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!

Comments

Re: Royal beds

[selenak]

It could very well be, and I salute the Royal Detective! Though I would question the translation of the Sophie quote - is it "her" or "his" Majesty? Because that sentence would sound more logical if it says "a stately piece of furniture for the King in Prussia, which the lord states are giving to his Majesty, and one too for the Countess Wartenberg and nothing for the Queen" - given that the Countess Wartenberg was supposedly F1's mistress because a crowned King needs to have one (though she herself, the Countess, later said they never had sex, it would mean that the Queen, i.e. Sophie Charlotte, needs to have a sense of humor about her husband and her husband's supposed mistress getting a bed and she not getting anything. (I don't have the book with me, so I can't look it up myself.)

Also, I can so see Lehndorff's reasoning. :)

German grammar lesson time

[mildred_of_midgard]

Huh. You're right that it's weird, I hadn't noticed, and also I admit that 50% of my translations in salon are generated by Google out of sheer laziness (2 seconds to copy-paste vs. 2 minutes to read and retype), and you can tell by things like "lord states" and "had send" that this is one of the Google-generated ones.

But as to what the real answer is, here's where my German is weak and I'm going to let you make that call:

Drei Tage vor der Aufführung des Britannicus, zu der die Gräfin geladen war, schrieb Kurfürstin Sophie, eine holländische Abgesandte, Juffer van der Bent, habe »ein stattlich möbel vor den König in Preussen, so die Herrn Staaten Ihrer Majestät schencken, undt auch ehns vor die Gräfin Wartenberg undt nichts vor die Königin, die von so gutt humor ist, dass Ihre Majestät nur tharüber lachen«.

You tell me! My thoughts are:

"Her": Pragmatically weird, as you point out.

"Your": Also seems seems a little weird pragmatically: who's the addressee? Is she writing to the king of Prussia? It certainly doesn't sound like it.

"Their": Would make far more sense, but I thought the plural "Majesties" was "Majestäten"?

"His": If "Ihrer" can mean "his", please tell me.

Re: German grammar lesson time

[selenak]

Baroque German strikes again! Also Sophie uses "Ihrer Majestät" in two different meanings, I think. Here's how I'd translate it.

"An impressive piece of furniture whom the gentlemen from the Netherlands presented to His Majesty, and another one for Countess Wartenberg, and nothing for the Queen, who is so full of amusement about this that Her Majesty only laughs about it."

Alternative: "for the Queen, who is so full of amusement about this that His Majesty only laughs about it".

Modern German would say "seine Majestät" if F1 is the one laughing/getting the present, and "ihre Majestät" if it's SC, but old fashioned Baroque German still uses "ihrer" interchangably sometimes, plus, don't forget, Sophie the multilingual grew up in the Netherlands as the daughter of a mostly French speaking Englishwoman and a German who died soon after her birth, with Huguenot teachers - German is one of the languages she learned as a child and spoke as an adult, but it wasn't her first one.

Re: German grammar lesson time

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ahhh, there you go! Baroque German tripping me up again. Thank you, I will make a mental note of that for future Baroque German passages (of which there are no doubt many in my future).

Modern German would say "seine Majestät" if F1 is the one laughing/getting the present, and "ihre Majestät" if it's SC

I am pleased both that my instincts were at least correct for modern German, and that I'm receiving lessons in Baroque German. Salon is so educational!

Re: German grammar lesson time

[cahn]

I must say I think this is an adorable snippet by SC!