Question for linguists

[ffutures]

Anyone able to translate this (allegedly Schiller) into English?

Noch niemand entfloh dem verhangten Geschick

I think it's some reasonably well-known quote, but unfortunately it isn't one I know and the automatic translators are as always useless.

later: Thanks, this will be added to the notes for the etext.

Comments

[rozk.livejournal.com]

My German is not very good, but I think it means something like ' Yet no-one can escape impending fate'.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Seems about what I'd expect from the context - Dr. Nikola has just said he's used his occult powers to predict the circumstances of his own death, your German is a good deal better than the web sites I tried!

I think I prefer the Sarah Connor version, "No fate but what we make," e.g. bugger prophecy.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Nearly so - "prophecied fate" or "given fate" rather then "impending", I'd say, but otherwise it's an excellent translation. It's from Die Braut von Messina, one of Schiller's last plays, and the full quote goes:

»Noch niemand entfloh dem verhängten Geschick;
Und wer sich vermißt es klüglich zu wenden,
Der muß es selber erbauend vollenden.«

The other two verses roughly mean: "and who dares to smartly challenge it/ must fulfill what he himself created". Die Braut von Messina was Schiller's attempt to write a Greek tragedy, with two brothers, a sister, incest and fratricide.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Also, "has escaped" rather than "can escape".

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

The full verse, from the Bride of Messina, is:
Es ist gesprochen, du hast es vernommen,
Das Schlimmste weißt du, nichts ist mehr zurück!
Wie die Seher verkündet, so ist es gekommen,
Denn noch Niemand entfloh dem verhängten Geschick.
Und wer sich vermißt, es klüglich zu wenden,
Der muß es selber erbauend vollenden

which, according to Gutenburg, is this:

The tidings on thy heart dismayed
Have burst, and naught remains; behold!
'Tis come, nor long delayed,
Whate'er the warning seers foretold:
They spoke the message from on high,
Their lips proclaimed resistless destiny!
The mortal shall the curse fulfil
Who seeks to turn predestined ill

Although it doesn't really seem to match much. I'd go with, "no-one can escape their doom foretold".

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Wow, that really is very different in wording, though the message is similar which I guess is the point.
I'll have to ask a colleague who translates literature and poetry (really high level stuff, various nobel winners and other hardcore stuff like Ulysses) in his spare time if that's common practice.

[timill]

"The toad is waxing on the kine's coleslaw"

(since I see you have several sensible answers)

[sweetheartwhale.livejournal.com]

Gutenberg is totally wrong with that translation.

The line says: "No-one can escape the hand dealt by fate"

Trust me, I lived in Germany, studied in Germany, did my degree in German Literature, and am doing my MPhil in German Romanticism...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Since karohemd is German and works as a translator I'll go with his version.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I really like sweetheartwhale's translation of "the hand dealt by fate" but I still say it should be "has escaped" or even "escaped" (entfloh is past tense) but I'm unfamiliar with style elements of the relevant era so this could well be the intended meaning.
I'm a technical translator far from an expert in literature/poetry, never having studied it.

[sweetheartwhale.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with that - just don't go with Project Gutenberg's one!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I really like "the hand dealt by fate" but I'm unsure about the tense.