Help with another book please

[AlexBell]

I've started another ebook by Elizabeth von Arnim - The Benefactress, published in 1901 - and would appreciate help with these translations.

Duselfritz: Anna's German uncle is describing her brother.

Unter der Würde einer junge Dame aus guter Familie: The uncle has died, and has sent Anna a letter telling her of his bequest to her, and what he wants her to do in future.

sich ewig auf den Federn, mit welchen die bürgerliche Gans geborene Dobbs Peters sonst mangelhaftes Nest ausgestattet hat, zu wälzen: The uncle seems to be saying that he doesn't want Anna to stay with her brother Peter and sister-in-law (nee Dobbs).

I've tried to include the diacritics, but please let me know if I've missed any.

[beachwanderer]

"Duselfritz" - Well thats a nice combination again.

"Dusel" is still in use, a colloquial term and means "luck".
"Fritz" being just a very common first name in that time stands for "some guy".

So a "Duselfritz" is a guy who is regularly lucky , but I sense that there is also the negative connotation that he has done nothing to "earn" his luck but simply has everything going his way.


"Unter der Würde einer jungen Dame aus guter Familie"
Below the dignity and social standard of a young woman from a respected family.


"sich ewig auf den Federn, mit welchen die bürgerliche Gans geborene Dobbs Peters sonst mangelhaftes Nest ausgestattet hat, zu wälzen"

The uncle seems to be saying that he doesn't want Anna to stay with her brother Peter and sister-in-law (nee Dobbs).

Without knowing the further wording of the letter: Indeed. From just this part of the sentence it seems that Peter is financially dependent on his wife and that the uncle disapproves of the situation:

The wording is carefully chosen and has an amusing edge:



Calling Peters wife a "Gans" (a goose) allows the uncle to use the picture of her providing "soft feathers" (the image of eider down feathers springs to mind) for the "nesting" of the couple, which would be not as good otherwise as Peters "Nest" is "mangelhaft" - the nesting he can provide of his own is lacking.

At the same time calling her a "Gans" also evokes the old common insult of a woman as being stupid by calling her "dumme Gans" = "stupid goose". As he says "bürgerliche Gans" = "bourgeois goose" I guess Peter and the uncle are themselves from an aristocratic family of which at least some branches are not well of financially any more but whose members still consider themselves above the "middle class".

Finally "sich ewig auf den Federn ... zu wälzen" would be literally "to roll forever in the feathers" meaning here "to indulge in the wealth (Peters wife provides)".

[AlexBell]

Thanks, that's most helpful. I'm trying to put translations in the ebook as end notes - I guess if I can't understand it even with a German dictionary other people won't either.

Your comments about the respective financial levels are correct.

So far as I can tell Elizabeth von Arnim uses less German in later novels, which will be a great relief.