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11:32 Jun 9, 2011
This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other
German to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - Government / Politics / GDR
German term or phrase:zersetzende Reden
Stasideutsch (or Amtsdeutsch) - a character in the novel I am translating is brooding over why exactly he was refused his chance to travel abroad, and suspects that he was blacklisted for "zersetzende Reden."
Given that no English-speaking country had ever had quite such a spurious charge on its statutes, there's no real equivalent (maybe WW2-era measures against "spreading rumours likely to affect morale"?). What would you do with this particular bit of officialese? Context is as mentioned literary, so no solutions incorporating footnotes please...
... many years ago someone told me that when old "commie" poet and writer Bertolt Brecht was summoned before the Un-American Activities Committee, and asked whether he could follow in English, he was reported to have replied, with a strong accent:
"My German is quite good, but my English is even bedder/badder/better/batter (sic -- depending on how you want to understand it)." -- Un-American indeed :-]
... one should bear in mind that society was quite militarized, and top officials viewed the whole country as engaged in a battle; their character models were formed in the thirties and fourties in Hitler Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, in the Spanish Civil War, etc. -- so a military term would be quite ok IMHO.
... "Stasideutsch" -- or at least to me it sounds like a reminiscence from the Hitler times, where you could be charged with "Wehrkraftzersetzung" as an official offense.
Wouldn't "undermining morale" work in this context?
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Answers
8 mins confidence:
morale-busting speeches
Explanation: blacklisted for making morale-busting speeches...
...as opposed to 'morale-boosting'
Yes, it's a made-up term. But self-explanatory, I think. Would, of course, only fit if the overall style is fairly colloquial.
phoeberuth Local time: 03:07 Native speaker of: English
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4
