Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.
You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - History / Historical names for inns or houses in the 18th century
German term or phrase:Zu den drei Leiern
I'm providing English translations of the places associated with J.W. Goethe to be found on the "Großer Vogelschauplan der Reichsstadt Frankfurt am Main,
kolorierter Kupferstich nach Matthäus Merian, Ausgabe von 1761".
It starts with : Großer Hirschgraben: Goethes Elternhaus "Zu den drei Leiern".
My customer does not want the street names translated, so I will be putting "Grosser Hirschgraben: Goethe's parental home.
But what about the name ? Is it "To the Three Lyres"?
All the houses have such names beginning with "zu", e.g- Alterssitz von C.E.Goethe ("Zum goldenen Brunnen"). Is it "To the Golden Well". How does one translated ordinary pub names "Zum Bären"?
Explanation: Explanation:
It wasn't a pub, it was just a house with a name, so I think "at the sign of" would be misleading. I'd leave it in German with a translation in brackets, as the example below does.
"It was here that Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born "at the stroke of twelve" on August 28, 1749, and it was here that he and his sister Cornelia grew up. The house as it stands today and its name "Zu den drei Leiern" (Three Lyres House) originate from the time of its reconstruction in 1755/56."
I would have liked to split the points here, but as our Moderator Tony M. remarked recently,"Points cannot be split on any one question; over a period of time, you can try to make sure you share them out equitably!". Will bear this in mind because Andrew's answer was corrrect for my extra question about pubs. However, this answer was most helpful for the house names in general.
I have got back to my client re what exactly requires translating. Thanks to all!
I've often thought there ought to be a way of giving separate points to the contributor who provides the most in the way of interesting, pertinent and amusing information on the topic, and this time it would certainly be you, Andrew, who gets the Publikumspreis! Thanks a lot for all this fascinating imput, did you reword the YouTube song yourself?
In fact only one of my 10 houses was a pub, so shall I call it "At the sign of the Willows Court"? And is Willows in the genitive?
Thank you for giving all this thought to a question which turns out to be trickier than I had imagined.
Of course I didn't mean that the house "Zu den drei Leiern" doesn't exist any more, for this IS the Goethehaus or as I am now calling it "Goethe House".
Obviously if this house were to be called "Fausthaus" (as in "Buddenbrookhaus") I wouldn't translate it. But some variation on three Lyres is already common parlance in the EN texts one sees.
I meant the other 10 houses in my list which have something to do with Goethe. Luckily the names are all straightforward ( Zum goldenen Rad, zum goldenen Brunnen, zum goldenen Kopf, zum roten Männchen) with one exception ("Zum Liebeneck") and I reckon I will be able to translate them all right.
But I will now ask my client what is necessary.
I just think it strange and potentially difficult, since many house names could be translated, but would end up confusing, or cannot and then one ends up with lack of consistency. In the end one has to ask what purpose it serves to translate them. Your client may have asked you to do so, but that is another matter.
Thank you, everyone who has contributed so far!
O.K., so as Andrew points out, I am I guilty of posing a conflated Q. with two connected parts:
a) how to translate the names of 18th century houses.
b) how to translate the names of 18th century pubs.
My text contains both, as Goethe's parental home is called "Zu den drei Leiern" and his grandparents ran an inn ("Zum Weidenhof").
Helen asks why the names of the house are being translated at all. Well, I'm just translating the text I was given, but presumably it is in case anyone looks at the German key to the map and wonders what it means. In fact I was going to put just e.g. : Goethe's parental home,"Three Lyres House". The German text will be quite near, why should I repeat it? And I don't think any of these places still exist so they won't be present-day landmarks.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +6
Zu den drei Leiern [Three Lyres House]
Explanation: Explanation:
It wasn't a pub, it was just a house with a name, so I think "at the sign of" would be misleading. I'd leave it in German with a translation in brackets, as the example below does.
"It was here that Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born "at the stroke of twelve" on August 28, 1749, and it was here that he and his sister Cornelia grew up. The house as it stands today and its name "Zu den drei Leiern" (Three Lyres House) originate from the time of its reconstruction in 1755/56."
philgoddard Local time: 20:08 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 12
Grading comment
I would have liked to split the points here, but as our Moderator Tony M. remarked recently,"Points cannot be split on any one question; over a period of time, you can try to make sure you share them out equitably!". Will bear this in mind because Andrew's answer was corrrect for my extra question about pubs. However, this answer was most helpful for the house names in general.
I have got back to my client re what exactly requires translating. Thanks to all!
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +6