Glossary entry (derived from question below)
German term or phrase:
Alltagstristesse
English translation:
sordid details
Added to glossary by
Susanne O'Connell
Mar 10, 2015 13:36
9 yrs ago
2 viewers *
German term
Alltagstristesse
German to English
Art/Literary
Journalism
Newspaper article
Die herausragende Erscheinung in diesem Mordprozess, der mit Alltagstristesse wenig sparsam umgeht, ist der kroatische Dolmetscher.
Proposed translations
(English)
4 +3 | sordid details | Lancashireman |
4 +8 | litany of everyday misery | philgoddard |
4 | day-to-day dreariness ( or gloominess ) | Donald Jacobson |
3 +1 | dismal existence | Yorkshireman |
3 +1 | dishes out large doses of mundane reality | Michael Martin, MA |
3 | world-weary apathy/jadedness/lethargy | Ramey Rieger (X) |
3 | distress of daily life | billcorno (X) |
Proposed translations
+3
23 mins
Selected
sordid details
der mit Alltagstristesse wenig sparsam umgeht > which is not sparing on sordid details
http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/sordid
http://derstandard.at/1494790
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Note added at 24 mins (2015-03-10 14:01:06 GMT)
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The sordid details of this case, with its shocking revelations of violence, cruelty, and horrific sexual abuse, would be tough for any investigator to stomach. But for Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont, the most damning piece of the murderous puzzle will shake him to his very core—because what will be revealed to him is nothing less than the true meaning of unrepentant evil.
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780061999284/improbable-caus...
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Note added at 45 mins (2015-03-10 14:22:08 GMT)
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or squalid banality
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hcQXFwvOeDMC&pg=PA62&lpg...
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0qUJ-JuSPdQC&pg=PA982&lp...
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Note added at 5 hrs (2015-03-10 19:22:06 GMT)
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The current leader (everyday misery) is a rather literal translation of 'Alltags-'. It reminds me of the long-running BBC Radio 4 soap: The Archers - an everyday story of country folk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers
If the answer to this question were so straightforward, I doubt whether it would have been put.
Alternative suggestion
an unremitting tale of woe
19 examples here: https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&as_q="unremitting tale...
I think that either 'banal' or 'unremitting' better captures the idea of Alltag than 'everyday'.
unremitting: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/unremitti...
Also, I am not convinced that 'Tristesse' refers solely to the emotional state of the main players.
http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/sordid
http://derstandard.at/1494790
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Note added at 24 mins (2015-03-10 14:01:06 GMT)
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The sordid details of this case, with its shocking revelations of violence, cruelty, and horrific sexual abuse, would be tough for any investigator to stomach. But for Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont, the most damning piece of the murderous puzzle will shake him to his very core—because what will be revealed to him is nothing less than the true meaning of unrepentant evil.
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780061999284/improbable-caus...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 45 mins (2015-03-10 14:22:08 GMT)
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or squalid banality
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hcQXFwvOeDMC&pg=PA62&lpg...
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0qUJ-JuSPdQC&pg=PA982&lp...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2015-03-10 19:22:06 GMT)
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The current leader (everyday misery) is a rather literal translation of 'Alltags-'. It reminds me of the long-running BBC Radio 4 soap: The Archers - an everyday story of country folk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers
If the answer to this question were so straightforward, I doubt whether it would have been put.
Alternative suggestion
an unremitting tale of woe
19 examples here: https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&as_q="unremitting tale...
I think that either 'banal' or 'unremitting' better captures the idea of Alltag than 'everyday'.
unremitting: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/unremitti...
Also, I am not convinced that 'Tristesse' refers solely to the emotional state of the main players.
Note from asker:
Thank you, that's what I was looking for :) |
Peer comment(s):
agree |
seehand
: eher das zweite, Alltagstristesse is more about gloom and grime ...
36 mins
|
neutral |
philgoddard
: These fit the context, but the problem is they're not what the German says.//I'm suggesting something like "with its litany of everyday misery" for "der mit Alltagstristesse wenig sparsam umgeht". And yes, it is the everyday norm, hence "Alltags".
58 mins
|
neutral |
Kim Metzger
: Mit etwas "wenig sparsam" umgehen sounds like a "litany" of something. "Misery" or "gloom" appears to be the everyday norm in the lives of these people.
2 hrs
|
agree |
Donald Jacobson
1 day 9 hrs
|
neutral |
Michael Martin, MA
: With Phil.That’s a tempting interpretation given the context. But that’s not what Alltagstristesse conjures up. The source text may have to be changed first..
1 day 9 hrs
|
agree |
Yorkshireman
: Naahs wunn, ahr kid!
5 days
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
23 mins
world-weary apathy/jadedness/lethargy
OR:
blasé atmosphere
Example sentence:
...in which jadedness abounds...blanketed in world-weary apathy...
1 hr
day-to-day dreariness ( or gloominess )
Straight translation
+8
1 hr
litany of everyday misery
From the context provided by Lancashireman, words like "dreariness" and "apathy" clearly don't fit the bill. This is about suffering, which is another possible translation.
Peer comment(s):
agree |
TonyTK
: Depending on your philosophical bent. Hobbes, anyone? ("[life is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.")
11 mins
|
agree |
writeaway
47 mins
|
agree |
Kim Metzger
: "wenig sparsam" umgehen sounds like a "litany" of something.
1 hr
|
agree |
Shivaun Conroy
1 hr
|
agree |
Armorel Young
1 hr
|
agree |
Gudrun Wolfrath
2 hrs
|
agree |
Johanna Timm, PhD
: this captures the melancholy in 'tristesse' quite well
1 day 7 hrs
|
agree |
Adam Kiolle
1 day 18 hrs
|
7 hrs
distress of daily life
"The Croatian interpreter is the towering presence in this murder trial where the distress of daily life is little spared."
Just another take...
Just another take...
+1
18 hrs
dismal existence
The Croatian interpreter paints a lurid portrait/picture of the murderer’s dismal existence and leaves out none of the gory details.
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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2015-03-11 16:30:34 GMT)
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Or, for a bit of alliteration, "the dismal details"
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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2015-03-11 16:30:34 GMT)
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Or, for a bit of alliteration, "the dismal details"
Peer comment(s):
neutral |
Johanna Timm, PhD
: It's the court proceedings that *paint* the "Alltagstristesse", not the interpreter - see Horst's comment in the discussion field/ sorry, not quite! 'Litany' captures the feeling of melancholy better//http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tristesse
11 hrs
|
Yes, I saw it and agree. But dismal existence and dismal details are still quite viable answers - n'est ce pas? // It's anything but melancholic - it's brutal, dismal, harrowing, sordid, gruesome - like Zille's milieu pictures of Berli
|
|
agree |
Lancashireman
: with "leaves out none of the details"
4 days
|
+1
1 day 9 hrs
dishes out large doses of mundane reality
That's how I would do it:
"The most colorful person at this murder trial, which dishes out large doses of mundane reality, is the Croatian interpreter.(At the murder trial, which dishes out large doses of mundane reality, the most colorful appearance is that of the Croatian interpreter)"
..or perhaps something along the lines of ..
"..provides no shortage of mundane depictions of everyday life/spares no details of mundane (dull/grubby) daily existence
"The most colorful person at this murder trial, which dishes out large doses of mundane reality, is the Croatian interpreter.(At the murder trial, which dishes out large doses of mundane reality, the most colorful appearance is that of the Croatian interpreter)"
..or perhaps something along the lines of ..
"..provides no shortage of mundane depictions of everyday life/spares no details of mundane (dull/grubby) daily existence
Discussion
An observer may indeed have become melancholic after aurally and visually experiencing the proceedings, but the handling of the case in all its gory details is the likely cause, much more so than a "melancholy" at the root of the crime as supposed here by others.
It tells of dereliction, hate, brutality and unbridled violence, the voyeurism of observers, the superficial and supercilious attitudes of the judiciary and the media in concentrating on trivia like the style of the ashtray and the dismal/sordid milieu in which the murder happened (or was, perhaps, de facto, the cause), rather than treating the defendant as "innocent until proven guilty" - which the interpreter did.
A couple (or more) definitions of melancholy to be going on with
noun, plural melancholies.
1. a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged; depression.
2. sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.
3. Archaic. The condition of having too much black bile, considered in ancient and medieval medicine to cause gloominess and depression. black bile.
Die herausragende Erscheinung in diesem Mordprozess, der mit Alltagstristesse wenig sparsam umgeht, ist der kroatische Dolmetscher. Vor den Augen von ein paar Dutzend Schülern, denen hier eine neue Dimension des Grauens zugemutet wird, rückt er mit seinem Sessel ganz nah an die Angeklagte Ivanka heran und nimmt mit ihr einen erstaunlich zarten und vertraulichen Dialog auf.
http://www.gerichte-zh.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/Dokumente/ob...