This hard a fancy to command.and give a respit to the lab’ring hand.in vain we t

German translation: Ein Versuch:

04:46 Aug 11, 2001

English to German translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary

English term or phrase: This hard a fancy to command.and give a respit to the lab’ring hand.in vain we t

t-shirt aufrdruck, altenglisch!?

cathi

German translation:Ein Versuch:

Explanation:
Vielleicht hieß es ursprünglich (und es scheint sich zu reimen):

This (is) hard: a fancy to command
and give a respite to the lab(ou)ring hand
in vain we t(ry) ...

Frei übersetzt:

Schwer ist´s, die Lust heraufbeschwören,
und schwer, der tät´gen Hand zu wehren,
vergebens müh´n wir uns ...

Selected response from:

Dagmar Drews-Müller (X)
Local time: 10:46

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Summary of answers provided

na +2

Ein Versuch:

Dagmar Drews-Müller (X)

Could you pls check the text. It seems to consist of typos!

Mats Wiman

so ähnlich...

Caro Maucher

Vergebens versuchen wir ...

Kim Metzger

Clarification

Kim Metzger

Answers

33 mins

Could you pls check the text. It seems to consist of typos!

Explanation:
e.g. 'in vain we t'???
'command.and'????
'hand.in'???

Mats Wiman
Sweden
Local time: 10:46
Native speaker of:

Swedish
PRO pts in pair: 711

1 hr peer agreement (net): +2

Ein Versuch:

Dagmar Drews-Müller (X)
Local time: 10:46
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in pair: 82

Grading comment

Graded automatically based on peer agreement. KudoZ.

2 hrs

so ähnlich...

Explanation:
Vielleicht "t'is hard a fancy to command..." (Rest siehe oben) - Schwierig ist's, den Gelüsten zu gebieten und der schaffenden Hand eine Pause zu gönnen, wir versuchen es vergeblich... Die "Gelüste" könnten auch die Lust an der Arbeit sein, so dass es schwer fällt, mit einer Arbeit innezuhalten, die Vergnügen bereitet.
Oder möglicherweise klagt mann, dass man so sehr in der Arbeit gefangen ist, dass es schwer ist, einen anderen Wunsch heraufzubeschwören, um sich eine Pause zu gönnen... oder so...

Caro Maucher
Germany
Local time: 10:46
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in pair: 490

2 hrs

Vergebens versuchen wir ...

Explanation:
I won't try to compete with Dagmar's gift for writing German poetry, but here are a few pointers. 1. Altenglisch is technically called Anglo-Saxon or Old English and was the English spoken up to about 1150 AD. The English used in this verse could be 19th century English, the Romantic period. 2. It's practically impossible to translate the lines you give us without knowing the whole poem but one thing you can do is rephrase it thus: We try in vain to command such a hard fancy, to give respite to the laboring hand. *Vergebens versuchen wir ein solch strenger Erleuchtung Herr zu werden, sich eine Ruhepause von der Arbeit zu gönnen.*

Englischlehrer

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 02:46
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 2690

6 hrs

Clarification

Explanation:
One modern meaning of fancy is to be sexually interested in someone. Earlier meanings, particularly 19th century meanings are different. The word comes from fantasy and was used synonymously with imagination: the process of forming mental representations of things not present to the senses. A fancy can also be a mental image. So in German the word can mean Erleuchtung, Vorstellung, Gedanke, Einfall.

Oxford English Dictionary

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 02:46
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 2690

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This hard a fancy to command.and give a respit to the lab’ring hand.in vain we t

German translation: Ein Versuch:

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