I come by it honestly

I received an email this morning from my Mom, informing me that my great aunt Trude passed away last night at the age of 101. (Not unexpected at her age, and she went peacefully.)  Attached the email was a compilation by my father of things she and my late grandmother Elly, were wont to say. I'm mortified to say I never learned any German, and they always spoke English to me, so I don't remember these gems as Dad does. I'm including the German, as allison_is  may find it interesting and have some comments on Dad's translations.

                     The Wit and Wisdom of Trude and Elly Joseph

Trude:

 Das Brod das ich esse, das Lied das ich singe. (The bread that I eat, so the song that I sing.)

Der liebe Gott ist mir nicht’s mehr schuldig. (The loving God no longer owes me anything.)

Sage mir mit wem du umgehst, dann sage ich dir wer du bist. (Tell me with whom you go about, I’ll tell you who you are.) 

Der Mensch ist ein product seiner Umgebung. (Man is a product of his neighborhood.)

Wie die Alten summen, so twitchen die Yungen.  (As the old sing, so twitter the young.) 

Bring dir self ein Fachelzug. (Bring along a Chinese lantern for your parade.)

Ich kann mein Soldaten nicht machieren lassen. (I can’t get my soldiers to march.)

Jeder Tag der gut rum ist kommt nicht bose wieder. (Every day that passes as a good one won’t return as a bad one.)

 Wo nicht’s ist, hatte den Kaiser sein recht’s verloren (Where nothing exists, Caesar has lost his rights)

 Fuert den Mann am Dangleband ohne das ehr es spuert.(Lead the man on a puppet string without him feeling it.)

Don’t worry. You will always get everything you need. (from a saved fortune cookie) 

Besser mit ein warmen hand als mit ein kalten. (T’s father) (Better [give] with a warm hand than with a cold one.)
 
Die first [then we can talk about it]. (Trude’s response when Arthur, her late husband, worried about what was going to happen to her should he die.) 

Pfunf minuten vor der Zeit ist Militarische Punktlichkeit (Arriving five minutes early is Military punctuality.)

Sach mir die Wahrheit, die Lugen mach ich. (Tell me the truth, I’ll make up the lies. The advice to his clients of a lawyer, Herman Reis, in Trude’s hometown of Vetter—who never lost a case.)  

 

Wenn gehst du in den Welt hinaus,
Dan ehre auch anderen Glauben.
Doch last doch deinen Herr und Gott,
From keinen Zweifler rauben.
 

When you go out into the world,
You should honour other people’s beliefs.
But don’t let any non-believer
Rob you of your Lord and God.   - Trude’s poem at her high school graduation
 

*Jeder Baum hadt seine Leiden, jeder Blume hadt ihre last. (sp.?) (Every tree has its suffering, every flower has its sorrow?) (Oct. 4, 2010)

 
Elly:

Und willst du nicht mein Bruder sein, So schlag ich dir den Schaedel ein. (And if you won’t be my Brother, I’ll smash in your skull.) 

*Ich liebe dich, was kostet das? (I love you—what’s it going to cost me?)

Kommt man ueber dem Hundt, dan kommt man ueber dem Schwanz. (If one can swallow the dog, then one can get over his tail.) 

Oser, sagt Schiller. (Hardly, says Schiller.)

 Auch gelochen. (Yet another lie.)

 Ein Geschenkten Gaul guckt man nicht ins Maul. (One doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.)

 Alle Sieben Schoenheiten. ([You’ve got] all the seven beauties.)

 *Wir haben es gut in Amerika. (We have it good in America.)

A sudden heart attack is a kiss from God.

 

 

November Tanka Challenge

I'm posting this now as I will be traveling this weekend.

Tanka challenge November 1 - November 30, 2010.  This challenge originally premiered in 2008 in my personal journal. Can you think of anything more antithetical to the concept of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days than the discipline of coming up with one 31-syllable poetic gem a day?

Here's the concept - because I suspect some of my readers will want to jump on the old ox cart too: 
Write one tanka (waka)* a day for the month of November.
*Resources on tanka: 
http://www.ahapoetry.com/TANKA.HTM
http://www.americantanka.com/
http://www.wodefordhall.com/heianpoetryjam.htm

The spirit of this poetic form being the impermanence of this dewdrop life, no other make-ups are permitted. If you miss a day, you miss a day and as in real life, you never get it back.   (You're on the honor system here....)
No limits on subject matter other than any you chose to impose upon yourself. Hopefully, some moment in your day will inspire you to write about it.
If you write more than one tanka a day, fine. However, you may not carry over tanka to other days except for the November 1 grace tanka.  You have to write a poem on each day.
(If you are inspired to "answer" someone else's poem, great. Personally, if I do so, I am not going to count it toward my daily assignment. The idea is to come up with something myself each day. What you do is up to you.)
Adherence to the 5-7-5-7-7 line/syllable count is required, otherwise it's not a tanka.
It's poetry, not stereo instructions. It should say something and it should make sense.
No rewrites.

Don't post it in MY personal journal. Post it in YOUR journal - or post it at http://community.livejournal.com/tankachallenge/. (I had someone start sticking his poems in my journal last year and he had the nerve to be all hurt and upset because I kept asking him nicely and politely not to do so and deleting them as they had did not count as responses to things I was writing.)