Peter Hoeg's "The Quiet Girl" in english
Wm...
Hello, first my apologies for not speaking danish. I have scandanavian
relatives but they speak english so well I have never learned much
beyond please and thank you.
I have some questions about a book.
The author is Peter Hoeg (with a slash through the o)
The book in english is titled "The Quiet Girl" in danish "Den stille
pige".
So, on to my questions:
Was the "earthquake" as moving for people in Copenhagen as Hoeg
presented it or did he make a metaphorical leap to what it might have
been or would have meant?
Is Hoeg's use of "hearse" to refer to a van or car usual for danish
people? I can't work out if this is a translation error or not.
Tak
--
Wm...
Reply-To: address valid for at least 7 days
Per Vadmand
Copenhagen. So it is pure fiction, a sort of parallel universe.
The other question I can't answer. I should have to have both editions to
compare.
Per V
--
Vi vil have "Talking Horns" til Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2010!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltv155M-8_U
Wm...
<4a4e2d58$0$15899$edfa...@dtext01.news.tele.dk> dk.kultur.litteratur
Per Vadmand <pe...@post.tele.dk>
>The book was written long before the - very slight - earthquake in
>Copenhagen. So it is pure fiction, a sort of parallel universe.
Thank you.
>The other question I can't answer. I should have to have both editions to
>compare.
In the english translation I have there are parts, each divided into
chapters, part 3, chapter 3 about two pages in says:
===
The mobile phone rang; Franz Fieber lifted the receiver, listened, hung
up.
'They're searching for this vehicle,' he said.
Kaspar pointed; the Jaguar turned across Ny Adel Street and drove
through an open gate. The two hearses still stood there. The back door
of one was open.
'I'm borrowing a friend's van,' said Kaspar
===
Why hearse? In english a hearse is a vehicle for dead people, more
about ceremony than actual conveyance. But a moment later it is just a
van.
The hearse appears a few times before too so I am asking is this a
danish thing? Is a van or similar often talked of or used in words as a
hearse?
Per Vadmand
>
> The hearse appears a few times before too so I am asking is this a
> danish thing? Is a van or similar often talked of or used in words
> as a hearse?
In the Danish original it is called "rustvogn" which actually means a
hearse, i.e. a vehicle for transporting coffins, so it is not a translation
error.
Leif Neland
> Wm... wrote:
>
>> The hearse appears a few times before too so I am asking is this a
>> danish thing? Is a van or similar often talked of or used in words
>> as a hearse?
>
> In the Danish original it is called "rustvogn" which actually means a
> hearse, i.e. a vehicle for transporting coffins, so it is not a translation
> error.
>
rusty car, jokingly, without reference to transporting dead people.
Btw, "rustvogn" really has nothing to do with rust (red iron).
Its rust as in rustning (armor), udrustning (equipment, especially
millitary) and rusthus, (armory).
I guess the "rustvogn" transports armor and equipment to the battle, and
dead soldiers back from the battle.
Leif
Bertel Lund Hansen
> I guess the "rustvogn" transports armor and equipment to the battle, and
> dead soldiers back from the battle.
Transported. Today a rustvogn is the undertaker's car.
--
Bertel
http://bertel.lundhansen.dk/ FIDUSO: http://fiduso.dk/
Wm...
<4a4e4819$0$15881$edfa...@dtext01.news.tele.dk> dk.kultur.litteratur
Per Vadmand <pe...@post.tele.dk>
>Wm... wrote:
>
>>
>> The hearse appears a few times before too so I am asking is this a
>> danish thing? Is a van or similar often talked of or used in words
>> as a hearse?
>
>In the Danish original it is called "rustvogn"
rest wagon ?
>which actually means a
>hearse, i.e. a vehicle for transporting coffins, so it is not a translation
>error.
I didn't think Mr Hoeg would have chosen a bad translator. I am trying
to work out the meanings myself. In your opinion is each new vehicle a
means of escaping death for kaspar? (this isn't a homework thing, I am
not studying the book, I say that because I have been irritated when
people from other countries want english speaking people to do their
shakespeare homework for them).
Thank you for your help, Per, I shall read on.
Bertel Lund Hansen
> >In the Danish original it is called "rustvogn"
> rest wagon ?
No, it has nothing to do with "rest". Se Leif Nelands answer
where he explains the alternate meaning of "rust". It is a
different word from the "rust" that we share with English.
> not studying the book, I say that because I have been irritated when
> people from other countries want english speaking people to do their
> shakespeare homework for them).
Doing somebody's homework and removing a few strategic hurdles
for them to do the homework themselves, are two different things.
Wm...
<e8ms459qqo3q3kt5o...@news.stofanet.dk>
dk.kultur.litteratur Bertel Lund Hansen <unos...@lundhansen.dk>
>Leif Neland skrev:
>
>> I guess the "rustvogn" transports armor and equipment to the battle, and
>> dead soldiers back from the battle.
>
>Transported. Today a rustvogn is the undertaker's car.
I think english people are rude in thinking we have the most complex
language. We might have, but that doesn't mean there are not subtleties
in other languages.
I am glad I asked. If nothing else I have learned there *may* be
another meaning when the translator says "hearse".
Tak
Wm...
<4a4e5047$0$56779$edfa...@dtext02.news.tele.dk> dk.kultur.litteratur
Leif Neland <le...@neland.dk>
>Per Vadmand skrev:
>> Wm... wrote:
>>
>>> The hearse appears a few times before too so I am asking is this a
>>> danish thing? Is a van or similar often talked of or used in words
>>> as a hearse?
>> In the Danish original it is called "rustvogn" which actually means
>>a hearse, i.e. a vehicle for transporting coffins, so it is not a
>>translation error.
>>
>On the other hand, "rustvogn" could also be translated literally to
>rusty car, jokingly, without reference to transporting dead people.
Which would fit in with the clown, I think. The clown gets into the bad
car and it explodes, everyone laughs, silly clown, etc.
>Btw, "rustvogn" really has nothing to do with rust (red iron).
>Its rust as in rustning (armor), udrustning (equipment, especially
>millitary) and rusthus, (armory).
>
>I guess the "rustvogn" transports armor and equipment to the battle,
>and dead soldiers back from the battle.
"A vehicle to and from death" ?
Thank you for your words, Leif.
Peter Knutsen
> The book was written long before the - very slight - earthquake in
> Copenhagen. So it is pure fiction, a sort of parallel universe.
>
> The other question I can't answer. I should have to have both editions to
> compare.
There have been several earthquakes in Denmark, incluing one in the
autumn of 2004 which caused one of my shelves to fall down, although I
only found out it was due to an earthquake a few months ago. Until then,
it had puzzled me endlessly...
Noticable earthqakes *are* extremely rare in Denmark, however, because
of the geology, so any one strong enough to be noticable (or even to
have noticable effects) would shock and surprise a lot of people.
I haven't read the novel that the OP asks about, though, so I don't know
how the earthquake is presented, how strong the text suggests that it
is, and how the people in the novel reacts to it.
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
Wm...
dk.kultur.litteratur Peter Knutsen <pe...@sagatafl.invalid>
The question posed in the novel is "was it an earthquake OR a
subterranean collapse caused by man? e.g. draining land for reclamation"
Wm...
<cens455jauq6aqsr8...@news.stofanet.dk>
Wm:
>> not studying the book, I say that because I have been irritated when
>> people from other countries want english speaking people to do their
>> shakespeare homework for them).
>
>Doing somebody's homework and removing a few strategic hurdles
>for them to do the homework themselves, are two different things.
A good distinction.