German in Princess Tutu

[aorphiusrex.livejournal.com]

Greetings, fellow Tutu-ists! I’m a first-time poster, novice LiveJournal user, long-time lurker and pretty big Princess Tutu fan. 

To keep this introduction short – I’ve studied German for about 5 years now, and in an attempt to retain as much of the language as possible over the summer, I have been finding new ways to read, listen to, and interpret German. Since I knew there was a lot of German in Princess Tutu, I went through the series to see what I might be able to translate. My findings proved to be rather interesting. 

I should warn you that it'll be kind of image-heavy.

For a large part of my "investigation," I dealt with Prinz und Rabe*, Drosselmeyer’s incomplete novel. All screenshots were made by yours truly from the official Region 1 DVDs.

*It's actually supposed to be Der Prinz und Der Rabe. Not like it bothers me.

I’m sure we can all appreciate the attention to detail in the series, but I hadn’t realized just how far it extended until I started seeing close-ups of the inside of the book. From Episode 4, in the same scene as the above image, I found:

Brought to a larger size and flipped over, we get this:

This is much more legible in the full-size, but I've copied the original German below:

From the open page, it reads:

Die Alte im Wald
**********

Es fuhr einmal ein armes Dienstmädchen mit seiner Herrschaft
durch einen großen Wald, und als sie mitten darin
waren, kamen Räuber aus dem Dickicht hervor und ermordeten,
wen sie fanden. Da kamen alle miteinander um,
bis auf das Mädchen, das war in der Angst aus dem Wagen
gesprungen und hatte sich hinter einem Baum verborgen.
Wie die Räuber mit ihrer Beute fort waren, trat es herbei
und sah das große Unglück. Da fing es an bitterlich zu
weinen und sagte: “Was soll ich armes Mädchen nun anfangen,
ich weiß mich nicht aus dem Wald herauszufinden… [offscreen]
...Menschenseele wohnt darin, so muss ich gewiß (sic) [offscreen]
...Es ging herum, suchte einen Weg, konnte [offscreen]
...Als es Abend war, setze es sich um [offscreen]
...Gott und wollte da [sitzen]…

And the rest is too disconnected to make much sense even when translated.

Anyway, that turns into this in English:

The Old Woman in the Forest
**********

There once was a poor servant girl who went with her master (1)
through a large forest, and when they were near the middle,
robbers emerged from the thicket and murdered
whom they found. There, they all came together
until the girl, who had leapt from the wagon in fear,
and had hidden herself behind a tree.
When the robbers went away with their spoils, she went over
and saw the great disaster. There, she began to cry
bitterly and said: “What should I, a poor girl, do now[?]
I don’t know how to find my way out of the forest [offscreen]
…Human souls live there, so I must [be?] certain [offscreen]
…She went around, looked for a way [out] [offscreen]
…When it was evening, she sat down [offscreen]
…God and wanted to sit there…

There are some grammatical boo-boos that I didn’t bother translating (and one that I did), but that’s the gist of it.

I’m sure the part about God probably had something to do with praying for help, or something along those lines. It sounds like something a fairy tale heroine would do. The part about "human souls" might have something to do with her deciding to travel somewhere else in the forest, and then being unable to get out. 

_{1 – The literal translation for “Herrschaft” is “Power” or “Rule.” As in, the abstract noun and not a person who rules. The writer probably meant to say master, since she’s a servant, and he’s the one who has power.}

As you can see, the book reads a rather like a fairy tale itself (as opposed to a novel), given how little dialogue there is and how most of the action is explained away. Naturally, it fits right into the fairy tale theme of Princess Tutu.

EDIT: According to mijelly, this is the beginning of an actual Grimm's fairy tale! An English version of it may be found here.

The only other good glimpse I got of the inside of the book was in Episode 5, as seen below:

Click the image to be linked to the full-size. Again, I copied the German text from below:

On the first page:
“ ‘Wo ist sie?’
“ Prinz fragte den alter Mann [blocked]
“ ‘Niemand weiß es.’
“ Aber, sie erscheint vor Leuten, [blocked]
und rettet sie durch ihr Herz der groß [blocked]

“ ‘Ich wünsche sie meine Prinzessin warden (sic) [blocked]
und retten Traurigkeit der Leute (sic) zusammen [blocked]
Prinz sagte und dachte ihre Abbildung sich [blocked]
Aber.

“ ‘Lieber Prinz, Ihr Wünsch erspricht nicht.’
Der alte Man leicht lächelte und sagte.”

On the second page:

“ ‘Lieber Prinz [offscreen]
Den alten Mann [offscreen]
‘Prinzessin Tutu? Wer [offscreen]
Prinz fragte den alten Mann [offscreen]
‘Leute sagen über sie [offscreen]
Sie hat glänzend [offscreen]”

The rest is unintelligible.

The English translation:

“ ‘Where is she?’
“ Prince asked the old man. [blocked]
“ ‘Nobody knows that.’
“ ‘But she appears to people [blocked]
and rescues them through their heart[s] of great/large [blocked]

“ ‘I wish she would become my princess(1) [blocked]
and rescue [the?] sadness of the people together (2) [blocked]
Prince said and thought her depiction [blocked]
However.

“ ‘Dear prince, your wish [says?] nothing. (3)’
The old man simply smiled and said.”
The second page:
“ ‘Dear Prince [offscreen]
The old man [offscreen]
‘Princess Tutu? Who [offscreen]
Prince asked the old man [offscreen]
‘People say about her [offscreen]
She has shining [offscreen].“

<sub>1 – the original German word (“warden”) doesn’t mean anything to the extent of my knowledge, and the way this sentence is used, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be “werden,” which means “to become.” 

EDIT: ahiru_princess  can back me up on this one. It should be "ward," but the word is rather archaic.

2 – another “I don’t know what they mean so I’m just gonna translate it literally” moment.

3 – “Erspricht” is another word that doesn’t have a definition to my knowledge. They could have just meant “Spricht,” meaning “speaks/says”, or perhaps “Verspricht,” meaning “promises” (as in “Your wish promises nothing.”) “Nicht” (“not”) should probably also be “nichts” (“Nothing”)</sub>

EDIT: ahiru_princess has informed me that "altersgerechten" means "age-based," so the two sentences can actually be put together to say something about the age-based literature for young people. I wonder if they're talking about fairy tales and how people usually perceive them as children's literature?

It seems like Fakir is reading something about writing fiction - or that's how I interpret it, at least. If the ending is torn out, it may have been that the Bookmen were worried about anyone else taking on Drosselmeyer’s power – and if Fakir is a descendant of Drosselmeyer, it makes sense that he’d feel drawn to those sorts of books (and that someone would have to worry about him taking over such a dangerous power).

Translation: “A Strange Man” (From episode 20)

It seems he also reads other stories for reference, as well. It may just be me, but this title also sounds like a fairy tale.

For the fun of it, I translated a few of the signs I found. My English major tendencies to look far deeper into source material than necessary will be in full force for these sections, since there’s so little in the source.

From episode 9:

The sign says “Antiquariat,” which refers to a second hand bookstore. Before I read this sign, I seriously thought this place was another library. Fakir must be pretty hard up for money if he keeps going to a bookstore just to read their stuff. It also means Drosselmeyer’s work must be difficult to find anywhere else in town.

In episode 18, when Ahiru runs errands for one of the members of the drama club:

The sign reads “Writing goods.” I didn’t think much of it until I realized that it might have been a piece of foreshadowing regarding the power of writing later in the series. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it – there is another sign in this show that says “Milk,” and I doubt it has much to do with the series as a whole.

This is found at the top of the town’s tower in Episode 26, right near the end. I’m guessing “G’sell” is a shortening of “Gesell,” a prefix that generally deals with a journey. “Geselle” is a journeyman, while “Gesellig” means “sociable.” “So” is probably used with the intentional meaning of: “in this or that way.” It strikes me as a medieval sort of motivational poster. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t make a lot of sense - if anyone knows of a better meaning/translation, let me know!

EDIT: nyx17  found a folk tale that explains the poster! Apparently, it's an expression that the gatekeeper of the watchtower uses. You can read the whole folk tale here.

My final set of translations comes from Fakir’s writing, or what good images I could get of it.

From episode 21:

D'awwww.

“Es war einmal ein Junge.” / “There once was a boy.”

I'm pretty sure this is Fakir writing the story where he becomes a hero to defeat the ravens. “Es war einmal” is often translated as "Once upon a time."

From episode 23:

_{Inane thought: Fakir’s handwriting got really nice.}

The literal translation is: “Princess Tutu yelled: ‘I want out!’” or “ ‘I want to be out of here!’” Since Fakir’s out of practice when it comes to writing, this kind of dialogue may be excusable. It gives us a good idea of how he hasn't written since he was a child, and it's great in reference to the next image below.

From episode 25, when Drosselmeyer forces Fakir to write (immediately before Fakir stabs his hand):

The German:

“[offscreen] können, muss sie ihr [illegible]
[offscreen][opfern?] Sie [illegible] im See
[offscreen] Verzweiflung [Fakir’s hand]
[illegible]“

English:

The easy way to translate this is just to express it in my interpretation, since it’s all broken up and in a really fancy script. Basically, the writing mentions how “she” (Ahiru) must offer up something (probably her life, though it doesn't say that on-screen) and because of that, goes into the lake (“See”) of despair (“Verzweiflung”). The prose is pretty obviously Drosselmeyer’s because the writing is much more fluid and poetic than what little we’ve seen from Fakir. In addition, his handwriting looks rather different from how it did before. This is a great example of how strong Drosselmeyer's influence is over the story: Fakir's hand literally becomes a tool - a replacement for Drosselmeyer's lost hands.

EDIT: silvershishido  very kindly helped me translate this part (as well as bits of the rest); you can find it in the comments below, but I've also linked directly to it here. 

My last screencap is anticlimactic for anyone who isn’t me:

_{From Episode 26.}

I'm 99% sure he's starting that sentence with the word "Entchen," and that makes me extremely happy.

“Ente” is the German word for duck, and “-chen” is a suffix that refers to something small and often cute. It’s common to see in fairy tales, tacked on to regular words – I once saw it added to the word “Bein,” which then made the translation one of “a cute, little leg.” It’s pretty endearing that Fakir calls her “Entchen,” though it really makes sense – I think Ahiru is adorable. (And it fits in with the fairy tale theme, yadda yadda...)

And I’m afraid that’s all I have for you. I knew the amount of care the writers of this series put into the show, but I hadn't believed it until I saw all these great little tidbits of extra information they left for obsessive, crazy people to pursue wildly. Hopefully, it was as interesting for you as it was for me. Thank you for your time!

If I've messed up on any of the tagging, please let me know! I'm new to this "community" thing.