The original short story that this assignment had been based on was "Der drei dunklen Könige" by Wolfgang Borchert. Somehow this story really made me pay attention to German and I told my professor this. She's letting me have an indefinite borrow (so to speak) of her book of short stories by him. I'll write about my readings of his other stories eventually, but in the meantime, here's my...take on one of his characters, der Soldat ohne Hände, or the soldier without hands.
A note about my German: I am at an intermediate level and slightly struggling to memorize all that I can, all the time. I am learning to be patient with myself in terms of German. So, my work is not as elaborate because I do not know it as well as I know English.
---GERMAN
Ich heiße Kaspar und ich war ein Soldat in am großten Krieg so weit. Aber jetzt, ich bin ein sehr alt Mann. Meine drei Enkelkinder rennen, während ich schreibe an dem Maschineschreiben, aber habe ich keine Hände. Ich habe viel Glück in meinem Leben, und ich möchte euch es erzählen.
Ich kämpfte in dem großem Krieg, dass der meine Heimatstadt untergegangen. Mein Kommandeur sag mir, alles waren das Werk der Feind. Ich fühtle mich kummervoll. Aber fand ich Trost in meinem Freunden, sie heißen Melchior und Balthazar. Sie waren von der gleiche Heimatstadt und in der gleiche Truppe. Wir trösteten einander und wurden am engsten Freunden sein. Wir gingen zu der gleiche Schule und kannten die gleiche Personen. Personlich, ich hatte einen Grund zu streiten, weil sie Freunden waren und ich ein gute Soldat werden mochte. Ich war junger als Melchior und Balthazar.Nach am Ende von Krieg, wir wollten zusammen nach Heimatstadt kommen. Wir wollten sehen, ob jemand von unser Familien war noch da. Wir hatten ein bißchen Hoffnung auf ein Chance, dass wir jemand fanden, irgendjemand.
Es war ein warmer Herbst, dass wir leicht reisten. Wir waren sorgenlos, weil der Stress weg gang. Der Krieg, es war zu Ende. Aber vielleicht waren wir so optimistich. Wir dachten, vielleicht mehr Soldaten wie uns wurden in gleicher Richtung reisen. Wir erwarteten das. Personlich hoffte ich, dass jemand mit einem Auto uns aufheben konnte.
Aber wir gangen zu Fuß und hatten wir Pech. Wir abhanden zu viele Zeit gekommen. Viele Straßenschilder waren nicht da oder unleserlich. Immer schlecter waren falsche Straßenschilder, die niemand nicht korrigierten hatten. Es waren falsche zu austricksen die Feinde. Auf einmal wurde das Wetter sehr kalt. Wir sollten es besser kennen, wir begannen durch dem Anfang des November.
Denn hatten wir etwas unglücklichen und wichtigen Sachen. Melchior, ein sehr gute Schnitzer war, verlor seine Handschuhe. Melchior hatte ein Esel für ein Kind, von seine Träume- er sag. Balthazar, ein Arzt war, verlor seine Nervenmedizin. Ich mochte sie helfen, so gab ich ihnen meine Handschuhe und Zigaretten. Ich mochte, dass Melchior den Esel für das Kind beenden und Balthazar besser jeden Tag fühlen. Damals ich dachte mir glücklich- ich hatte nichts verlor. Aber ich hatte kein Auswechslungen und denn hatte ich mein Pech.
Ein Nacht in Anfang von Dezember, wann wir in der Nähe die Heimatstadt, ich fühlte nicht meine Hände. Balthazar sah, und sein Gesicht sag, dass es meine Reihe Pech zu haben war. Ich sag ihm, ich vertrauen ihn, aber bitte, tue es schnell. Für meine Hände, es war zu spät. Er stoppte gut die Erfrierung.
Meine Freunde halfen mir gut und ich vermutet, dass Melchior mir seine Essen gab. Er hatte Schwellfüße. Ich wollte, dass er Essen hatte, aber er wurde nichts hören. Es ist eine nicht gute Idee, er sag.
In der Mitte von Dezember traffen uns in der Stadt. Die war sehr ruhig, untergehend und sitzengelassen. Zussamen besuchten wir nach Hausen, und ich sah, niemand legten tot an dem Boden.
Wir blieb in der Stadt und machten die Hausen sauber. Ich hatte keine Hände aber ich trat den Abfall, und ich hatte noch meine Augen. Weil meine Augen, dass wie wir das Kind fanden in der Nacht.
Es war sehr kalt und immer noch hatten die Stadt bewegte. Wir fanden mit Glück ein Pappkarton mit gelben Bonbons, und bald hatte wir mehr Dinge fanden, die Melchior in seinem Sack gelegt hatte. Balthazar mochte ein Zigarette. Er rauchte und bald er ging zurück. Er hatte gesehen ein kleines Licht in einem Haus.
Wir hatten fanden ein kleine Familie mit drei, ein ein Kind war, er sehr jung aus sah. Die Eltern sah ängstvoll aus, aber Melchior hatte Ehrfurcht vor das Kind, und gab das Holzesel. Direkt gab Balthazar die Frau zwei gelbe Bonbons.
Ich war sehr nahe zum Kind und er lachte. Nach immer fühlte ich schön. Bald wir sind zurückgelassen, aber wir fühlten dankbar, dass, ebenso die Familie war in ein schreck Platz, die hatte viele ihre Glück und Zufriedenheit.
---ENGLISH
My name is Kaspar and I was a soldier in the biggest war so far. But now, I am a very old man. My three grandchildren are running, while I am writing on a typewriter, though I have no hands. I have much good luck in my life, and I would like to tell you about it.
But I found solace in two fellow soldiers, named Melchior and Balthazar, who came from my hometown and were in the same unit. We consoled each other and grew to be close friends. I found we went to the same elementary school and knew some of the same people in our childhoods. Personally, talking to them caused me to have a reason to fight- I wanted to show I was just as capable as a soldier and a man as they were, though I was younger than the two by a couple of years.
After the war ended, we decided to travel back together, to see if there was anyone from our families who could have come back, too. For some reason, we had a small bit of hope that there was a chance we would find someone waiting for us, any one.
It was a warm fall the year it ended, so we travelled light. In a way, we were carefree, because the stress was gone for the meantime and the war was over. But we were slightly too optimistic- we thought that maybe there would be more like us travelling in the same direction. We expected to be able to cross paths with others who might be travelling the same direction. I personally hoped we would get to ride with someone, somewhere.
But we did not have so much luck and we were on foot. We ended up getting lost too much. Many signs on the road were either blown away or unreadable. Worse yet were the false signs that were meant to confuse any incoming enemy. They were not replaced with correct ones yet. Our luck became worse because of the sudden cold weather. We should have known better, we did start out in early November.
Then we had some important unlucky things happen to each of us. Melchior knew how to carve wood very well, and I always admired him for it. He was trying to finish a project he started while we were still deployed. I think he said that he was doing this for a child and told me that he had been inspired by a dream. At night, while we rested and it was his turn to be a lookout, he would carve it. When the nights got colder he worked with gloves on, but somehow he lost the pair. Balthazar was a meticulous medic, but somehow he actually lost his personal medicine for his nerves, though it was normally placed with his regular medicine. I counted myself lucky- I lost nothing at that point, but I wanted to help.
I gave my gloves to the carver and all of my cigarettes to the nervous one. I did all of this because I thought I could get along without them. I wanted Melchior to complete his dream. And as for Balthazar, I noticed that cigarettes calmed my nerves but really wasn’t so bad as his, so I thought he could use them better. I did not tell them I had nothing else to replace either of these things, so they would not refuse me.
One night in early December, when we were so close to arriving back at home, I felt nothing on my hands, and had Balthazar look at it. His face told me that it was my turn to have bad luck. I told him, I trust you, please be quick about it. He stopped the spread of frostbite and made sure I lost nothing else, but for my pair of hands it was too late.
Still, I think I was lucky to have them as my friends. They always made sure I was eating and cleaning my wounds. I can’t help it, but I suspected at the time that Melchior was having less to eat because of me, and eventually his feet became swollen out of hunger. I insisted that he eat my portions but he would hear none of it- to travel while injured, he said, is already a bad idea but it was something we had to do, so he wanted to minimize the damage.
By mid-December, we came to our destination. Our hometown was quiet. There were many ruins in the main part of town, and on the outskirts I saw more whole buildings but abandoned. It seemed that there was no one around. We came to visit at each of our houses, together. We all saw evidence that our families abandoned the places and no one lay dead on the floor.
Saddening as everything was, we still stayed put and started to fix things. I had no hands but I kicked rubbish into piles for the others to move, and I used my eyes to find things out. Because of me, that was how we found the child Melchior dreamed about.
It was one of the coldest nights, yet we were still busy moving around. Somehow we had been lucky enough to find a cardboard box with some bonbons, and carried that around, hoping there would be more stuff. Melchior had a sack with him and soon we were filling it with basic things we needed. Then we took a break, in which Balthazar stepped away to have one of his cigarettes. He came back a minute later, saying he spied a light houses away.
We followed this tiny light and found a family of three, one a baby who looked very young. The parents looked fearful of us. We still had our uniforms, but they were becoming worn out. I think that we looked dangerous as well as shabby. Melchior was awestruck but I saw that he made no hesitation to produce his carving, and Balthazar promptly handed over two of the golden Bonbons to the mother.
We looked closer at the baby and he started to laugh when I was the closest. It was as if he was happy we were there to visit.
We soon left but were grateful that at least, even if the family was in a terrible place, they were blessed with some of their own good luck and happiness.