Ach, ein Wortspiel! Optimal!

 


This blawg makes less sense, yet is somehow more compelling, in German.

(If that doesn't link to a page in German, try clipping and pasting http://skellywright.blogspot.com or a site of your choice into the Google translation tool here or here.)

Today I saw that some deeply confused Googler in Germany, trying to learn more about our arbitrary and capricious American legal tradition, stumbled onto my site instead. The translation engine wasn't up to the task. The word "Capricious" defeated it, but "Willkürlich und Willkürlicheim" isn't exactly euphonious either. Sounds like a Milwaukee law firm; I'd go with "Willkürlich und Erratisch" or "Willkürlich und Unvorhersehbar" perhaps.

German science and rationality also show themselves in turning the phrase, "I'm a P.D." to "ich sind ein Palladium!", resolving once and for all where public defenders fit on the periodic table of the elements.

The best part of ersatz translation is seeing favorite old links in severe and angular new clothes:
Allgemeiner Verteidigergeck,
Gesetz Crim,
Verbrechen U. Federalism(us), und natürlich,
Blonde Gerechtigkeit.

To close the lesson, a quote from Kurt Tucholsky, someone else who spent a lot of time going around saying "I object":

Nichts ist schwerer und nichts erfordert mehr Charakter, als sich in offenem Gegensatz zu seiner Zeit zu befinden und laut zu sagen: Nein!

(Nothing is harder and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to one’s time and to say loudly: No!)