7.11 Hebel — «Kannitverstan» and «Seltsamer Spazierritt» — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read two calendar stories by Johann Peter Hebel in the text of 1811: Kannitverstan and Seltsamer Spazierritt . Recognise the spellings of around 1800, older than those of the Grimms: seyn, drey, jezt, dieß . Follow a story that turns on a misunderstanding, and find the moral that each story states. Read the verb-first narration of an oral anecdote: Kommt ein Wanderer, und sagt … Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Aber auf dem seltsamsten Umweg kam ein deutscher Handwerksbursche in Amsterdam durch den Irrthum zur Wahrheit und zu ihrer Erkenntniß. But by the strangest detour a young German craftsman in Amsterdam came through a mistake to the truth and to the knowledge of it. Ein langer Zug von Freunden und Bekannten des Verstorbenen folgte nach, Paar und Paar, verhüllt in schwarze Mäntel, und stumm. A long procession of friends and acquaintances of the dead man followed, two by two, wrapped in black cloaks, and silent. Der Mensch hat wohl täglich Gelegenheit, … zufrieden zu werden mit seinem Schicksal. A person has every day the chance to become content with his lot. Lange betrachtete er mit Verwunderung dieß kostbare Gebäude. For a long time he gazed in wonder at this splendid building. Armer Kannitverstan, rief er aus, was hast du nun von allem deinem Reichthum? Poor Kannitverstan, he cried, what do you have now from all your wealth? So dachte er nur an den Herrn Kannitverstan in Amsterdam, an sein großes Haus, an sein reiches Schiff, und an sein enges Grab. Then he thought only of Mr Kannitverstan in Amsterdam, of his great house, his rich ship and his narrow grave. Prerequisites : 7.10 — you need the old spellings and fairy-tale narration from 7.7 Reading and 7.8 Reading , and the simple past from 3.9 Verbs and 3.10 Verbs . About this text Johann Peter Hebel (1760–1826) was a pastor, teacher and writer in Baden, in the south-west of Germany. For years he edited a popular almanac, the Rheinländischer Hausfreund , a calendar sold to ordinary households with practical information, and he filled it with short stories: anecdotes, true incidents and small moral tales. In 1811 he collected the best of them in a book, the Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes , the little treasure chest of the Rhenish family friend . These calendar stories are among the best-loved short prose in German, and generations of German schoolchildren have read them. The two stories here come from that book, as transcribed in German Wikisource from the first edition ( Tübingen : Cotta, 1811). They are in the public domain. The wording and spelling are unchanged. The transcription gives Kannitverstan as one long paragraph; for easier reading it is divided here into seven paragraphs at natural breaks. Together the two stories run to 1,062 words. Kannitverstan tells of a young German craftsman travelling in Amsterdam who asks who owns a beautiful house and a great ship, and finally whose funeral is passing, and is always told the same name. He does not know that the answer is Dutch for I can't understand you . Seltsamer Spazierritt , the strange ride , is the old fable of the man, his son and the donkey, told in a dozen sentences. Spellings of 1811 Hebel's spelling is older than the Grimms' of 1857. Besides the th and ß you know from 7.7 Reading , three more patterns appear. y for i . seyn, sey, drey, zwey, bey, vermeynten are today's sein, sei, drei, zwei, bei, vermeinten . Missing t . jezt and Lezten are jetzt and Letzten . Other old forms. dieß is dies ; nemlich is nämlich ; Caffee is Kaffee ; Waaren is Waren ; Camine are chimneys. The vocabulary of the period also contains words for things that have changed: Tulipanen are tulips, Gulden were coins, and a Zentner was a hundredweight. How the stories are told The frame and the moral. Both stories state their lesson openly. Kannitverstan begins with it: in Emmendingen and Gundelfingen, two small towns of Hebel's region, as well as in Amsterdam, one can learn that earthly things do not last, and be content with one's lot. Seltsamer Spazierritt ends with it, in one line. Calendar stories were read aloud in families, and the moral was part of the pleasure. The repeated answer. Kannitverstan is built on repetition. Three times the craftsman asks, three times he hears the same word, and each time he draws a bigger conclusion: a rich man, a very rich man, a dead rich man. The comedy and the moral come from the same device. The subjunctive of reported thought. As in 7.8 Reading , reported questions and thoughts use the subjunctive: wie der glückliche Mann heiße , es sey der Name des Mannes , was er für ein armer Mensch sey , and als ob sie wüßten , as if they knew . Read them as the ordinary present or past. Verb first. Seltsamer Spazierritt uses an oral pattern four times: Kommt ein Wanderer, und sagt … , with the verb in first position and the present tense. This is how a joke or an anecdote is told aloud in German even today, and it gives the story its rhythm. Reading it a second time Kannitverstan, paragraphs 1–3. The moral, the arrival in Amsterdam and the first question. Notice how the Dutchman is described: he has something more important to do, and he knows as much German as the craftsman knows Dutch, nemlich Nichts . Paragraphs 4–5. The harbour and the ship, then the funeral. The richest sentence of the story lists the cargo, ending with a joke: the barrels of sugar, coffee, rice and pepper contain, salveni , excuse me , some mouse droppings too. Paragraphs 6–7. The third question, the craftsman's tears and his comfort. The last sentence gathers the story's three images, the house, the ship and the grave, into one line. Seltsamer Spazierritt. Four travellers, four criticisms, four changes, and an ending that is absurd and logical at once. Full translation An English translation of the whole text, made for this course and kept close to the original. The numbers