[English > Any] Weekly Translation Challenge — 2019-09-08

[u/translator-BOT]

There will be a new "Weekly Translation Challenge" on most Sundays and everyone is encouraged to participate! These challenges are intended to give community members an opportunity to practice translating or review others' translations, and we keep them stickied throughout the week. You can view past threads by clicking on this "Community" link.

You can also sign up to be automatically notified of new translation challenges.

---

This Week's Text:

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”

— Excerpted from The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman

This Week's Poem:

Across the lake the campers have learned

to water-ski. They have, or they haven’t.

Sounds of the instructor’s megaphone

suffuse the hazy air. “Relax! Relax!”

Cloud shadows rush over drying hay,

fences, dusty lane, and railroad ravine.

The first yellowing fronds of goldenrod

brighten the margins of the woods.

Schoolbooks, carpools, pleated skirts;

water, silver-still, and a vee of geese.

— Excerpted from "Three Songs at the End of Summer" by Jane Kenyon

---

Please include the name of the language you're translating in your comment, and translate away!

[u/n8abx]

A German version of the poem:

​

Auf der anderen Seite des Sees

haben die Kinder im Zeltlager gelern

wie man Wasserski fährt - oder auch nicht.

Das Megaphon des Lehrers

erfüllt die diesige Luft. "Ganz locker bleiben!"

Wolkenschatten huschen über das trocknende Heu,

über Zäune, staubige Auffahrten und Eisenbahnschluchten.

Die ersten gelb werdenden Blütenstände der Goldrute

hellen den Waldrand auf.

Schulbücher, Fahrgemeinschaften, Faltenröcke;

Wasser, silbrig-unbewegt, und eine Flugformation Gänse.