Anja Wiese


	The source of this text is: Russian Language Guide. Communication: Phrases, Conversations (p 159-161 and p 163-177) In: THE EAST. Special training course with general educational objectives. 2nd Part. 47th anthology of the series “Letters for the promotion of soldiers”. Edit.: High command of the German Armed Forces. Breslau/ Leipzig 1942 Explanatory note on the translation: The text from 1942 naturally uses words and phrases which may seem outdated and old-fashioned in 2007. In the text the soldiers address the Russian population in a polite and respectable, but at the same time severe way. In parts requests are being explained in so much detail, that it seems as if the Russians were regarded as childlike and dumb. This fact must be allowed for in the translation into English. Even if the sentences may seem clumsy and inelegant in this way: the “German tone of voice” is inherent to them in English as well as in Russian. A. expressions (Redewendungen: F: figures of speech, phrases, idioms) 1. ... 2. Imperatives Bring me water! Give me bread! Bring me some wood! Show me the stable! Put the eggs into the bowl! Put the bowl onto the table! Prepare coffee! Cook potatoes! Wash the dishes! Get me straw! (besorgen) Get me a pair of felt slippers! (verschaffen - supply me with/verschaffen sie mir) Pour water into the bowl! Pour the water off the bucket! Clean the bucket! Sweep the parlo(u)r/room! Polish my boots! Wash my shirt! Mend/repair my trousers! Open the door! Close the window! Lock the gate! Guard/watch over the horses! Tell me! Talk slowly! Answer! Be brief/make it short! Be true/tell the truth! Read! Wait! Follow! Come with me! Go ahead of me/take the lead! Report at one a´clock! Put the horses to the carriage! Unharness the horses ! Put one horse to the carriage! B.Conversations (Gespräche) 1. Quarter (Quartier) a) Group of soldiers preparing quaters in a /single quater/ detached/ house (dt: Quartiermachen einer Gruppe im Einzelquartier) S: Good morning, who ist he householder? (Hauswirt) R: That´s him. S: Are you the householder? R: Yes sir. S: We take up quaters here (Wir nehmen hier Quartier). We are one corporal and nine soldiers. In whole ten men. Show us all rooms in the house and on the courtyard. Where does this ladder lead to? R: To the loft (dachboden). S: Open the (potato?) (cellar) basement /Kartoffelkeller! S: Show us the stables and the barn. Where is the well? R: In front of the chairman´s house. (Dorfältester/Vorsitzender) S: Bring two buckets of water and light a fire/make for fire. We need warm water for washing immediately. Set up the digester/kettel ( Stellen sie den Teekessel auf) and prepare hot water for tea. R: We don´t have charcoal. S: Send the boy to the neighbour to fetch charcoal. It is cold. Heat the furnance up! (Heizen sie den Ofen!) R: Then I have to chop some wood first. S: Where are your hatchets and saws? Two of us will start with it. Don´t go away! Show us the bed! Our wounded comrad will take the bed. Do you have another bed-place? (Bettstelle) R: No S: Then bring us straw for nine men und spread it on the floor. But before: clean the walls and sweep the floor. Do you have bugs? R: No. Here is the water. S: Warm the water up. Give us a wash dish. R: We have no special dish for washing. S: Then give us an iron pot or a wooden bucket R: I will clean up the iron pot first. S: Don´t you have a few nails? We want to hang up our clothes and luggage. R: Here we have a hammer and nails. S: We put our food (unsere kalte Kost) on this shelf/winding board (Wandbrett). Put a clean cloth (sauberes Tuch) on top of it to shelter it from flies. Put our mess kits (Kochgeschirre) into the big (backing-)oven (grßen Ofen) in order to warm up our soup again! R: Is everyone here? S: Yes. Where will we sit? You have to bring us bolsters and chairs. It is dawning/it becomes dark light up/put on a lamp! R: That´s not possible, we don´t have petroleum. But we have one candle left, take it... S: Here we have some matches. Light the candle. But collude(verdunkeln) at once all the windows – of course carefully. Ok, and now prepare our camps/bedsteads: First you put a sheep skin onto the floor so that there is no draught (am. Draft) through the chinks/rifts at night. Then go and get straw, quite a lot of straw – but dry ! We have blankets ourselves. Good night! One more thing: is the door locked? R: I don´t know; I will check it S: If it´s not locked - lock it! All houses have to be locked at night. In case someone comes knocking we will open the door ourselves. b) First communication/understanding in the quater S: Good morning. Eggs, butter, milk. R: There is no more milk. S: I don´t understand. Can you read? R: No, but Dascha can read. Dascha, come here! S: Come here, Dascha! Read this: I want to buy 20 eggs, a pound of butter and two pints of milk. Read again but slowly: 20 eggs. Speak clearly/articulate. I want to learn. 20 eggs - is that correct? R: No, like this. 20 eggs - like this it´s correct S: Give me eggs, butter and milk. R: Here you are: eggs and butter. Milk we don´t have. S: What do eggs and butter cost? R: Five rubels. S: Here you have five rubels. This afternoon I want to go on with learning russian. I show you the questions and answers in the book. You read it out loud for me and I will repeat your words. Then you correct me and I adjust my pronounciation/repeat again. See you this afternoon! c) Ordering quater at the mayor (Quartiermachen beim Bürgermeister) S: Bring me to the mayor! (burgomaster?) R: Here lives the mayor. S: Is the mayor at home? R: No, he is on the highway. All men must work and repair the highway today. S: Call him, he should come at once, and hurry up! R: I will run. S: We need quater for a officer, ten ncos(unteroffiziere) and 50 soldiers (50 Mann). Have the women sweeping the parlours/rooms at once. Is there someone able to talk german in the village? R: Yes, the daughter of the farmer opposite the road. S: Good, let her be called. She ought to translate the orders of the major and go with me through all of the houses of the village. Do you understand some german? R: No S: Then we shall wait untill the interpreter is here. R: Here she comes. The (unteroffizier: non-commissioned corporal, NCO, Dienstgrad corporal) wants you to translate (into russian) what he tells you in german. S: Translate the following to the mayor: No one may leave the village without being accompanied by a german soldier or without a permit. Permits can only be given by me. They look like this. R: Is this the stamp? S: Yes, and this is my signature. In the evening and during nighttime everybody has to be in his house. Any person who is on the street at night will be shot. You give me a list of names of all inhabitants (in order of farms/ordered by farmstead). Repeat slowly, translate eyerything. Do you have any questions? If not, then let´s go on. Are partisans around here? R: Untill now there have not been any partisans. S: Everyone who meets partisans or knows where they are must give this information immediately. Everyone who helps partisans in any way or who gives messenges for them or who shows them the way or gives them food is considered a partisan himself and will be shot. If partisans are sheltered in this village/if this village shelters partisans/ the whole village will be burned. Did you understand? R: Yes officer! (Jawohl, Herr Offizier!) S: From tomorrow on you give report at 9 am, at noon and at 3 pm. And, every morning you have to dispose two horses with carriages. (Außerdem stellen sie mir jeden Morgen zwei Gespanne) Now quickly, hurry up to work! 2. Food supply a) Breakfast in the quater S: Good morning. Do you have bread and butter? We are hungry and want something to eat. R. Here are two loafs of bread.. We have no butter. S: You have no butter, how that? R: We lost our cow. The red army soldiers have slaughtered it this winter. S: Do you have fat? R: We have some oil. S: Do you have potatoes? R: Oh yes, potatoes we have a lot! S: Good, then give us a pan, potatoes, oil, onions and salt. We will prepare fried potatoes. Hurry, mother (Mütterchen), get some wood and put on a good fire! R: Shall I also put on the tea kettle? S: Yes. Do you have chicken? R: Yes, a lot. S: Can you give us eggs? R: Yes, how many? S: Three for everyyone of us. R: We have bacon left. S: We shall prepare bacon and eggs in the pan. Give me a dish for potatoes. This will be a great breakfast. How much in all do we have to pay? R: I don´t take money for that. But if you could give me some sugar, I shall be very greatful. We have no sugar for the children. S: Good, we can give you sugar. And here we have some cigaretts for the host also. R: I thank you very much! S: Good bye!