Home Home
Request a translationBecome a translator
Sign Up
LT → German, English, German (Middle High German) → Faun → Nechein Man → English
  • Faun
    Faun – Nechein Man

    English translation

✕
Share
Font Size
English
Translation

No Man

There is no man so wise
To know his journey
Death equals the thief
He leaves no one here
You are all like that man
You will die inevitably
You are all like that man
The tree is like this world
 
German (Middle High German)
Original lyrics

Nechein Man

Click to see the original lyrics (German (Middle High German))

Translations of "Nechein Man"

English
German
Russian #1, #2
Comments
TrampGuyTrampGuy    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:20

Thanks! lol, was this easier for you than the old Norse one? I thought it would be the other way around :)

DaughterDaughter
   Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:32

Oh heavens yes! perhaps you know, but Old Norse (and the style of the Sagas in particular) is all about saying as much as you can with as little words as you can.
Plus there is a huge backstory with tons unsaid.

TrampGuyTrampGuy    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:34

which is why it is so cool and mysterious ;)

ScieraSciera    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:41

That's so old middle high german that I almost thought it's old high german... according to wikipedia it's from ~1070 (the "borderline" between old and middle german is ~1050)
I'm not sure if the translation you found there, Trampguy, is that good, "bezeichint" rather seems to mean "call", "symbolize" or maybe "accuse" instead of "to equal", "to be like". And "hinnan" doesn't mean "to die" but "away" - at least if the dictionaries I looked it up in are trustable.

TrampGuyTrampGuy    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:43

I'd be glad if you will add a better one so I can delete the one I found :)

DaughterDaughter
   Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:46

you make me uncomfortable

TrampGuyTrampGuy    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:50

lol why? and who are you talking to?

ScieraSciera    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:54

I can't tell for sure if I really know it better. To translate "you all must (go) away" with "you all must die" is not completely wrong, just rather free.
And "bezeichint" seems to be a form (2. Pl. and 3. Sg.) of "bezeichenen" (that would be "to call" or "to symbolize") but maybe it's from another similiar word that does mean "to equal". This is a rather untypical example of middle high german, so who knows.
Maybe it's from "bezaehen", "to accuse" and has a vowel change due to dialect (this text here is written in a very southern german dialect), I honestly can't tell.
@Daughter: Sorry, if you mean me, I first wanted to comment beneath the lyrics or the request but then I saw you had already added a translation and so I didn't want to exclude you from this and decided to comment beneath this translation ^^"

DaughterDaughter
   Mon, 04/03/2013 - 22:58

sciera. you know so much.

ScieraSciera    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 23:05

I'm a student of german language, I need to know that stuff. At least the basics; the meaning of that words I did need to look up.

Did you translate from the original text or from the modern german translation, btw?

TrampGuyTrampGuy    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 23:07

It is indeed a weird example, at first glace I, too, thought it was OHG, not because I know OHG, but because it simply looked more like the Hildebrandslied text I uploaded. I was relying on the youtube comments to determine it's actually MHG :)

ScieraSciera    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 23:11

It has too much vowels that aren't "e", that's why it seems so ancient (the most obvious difference between old and middle german is that in middle german most of the unstressed vowels became a short "e" or disappeared completely).

TrampGuyTrampGuy    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 23:14

Nice little trick, I like it :)

ScieraSciera    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 23:21

I sometimes teach the first-years and you need to know that tricks if you don't want them to become completely desperate (they need to write an exam where one exercise is to find out if a text is germanic or old, middle or early new german).

TrampGuyTrampGuy    Mon, 04/03/2013 - 23:27

Then you're probably one of the nicer TA's, because the profs always like to over complicate these things.
We have the same thing here, only in a different field of study.

QuestionfinderQuestionfinder
   Sun, 03/05/2015 - 01:26

Ich glaube "Death equals the thief" ist kein idiomatisches Englisch. Es waere sondern "Death is like the thief" oder "Death is like a thief."

Interessante Uebersetzung und diskussion in den Kommentaren.

↑↓