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German author Guenter Grass dies

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Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#31

Post by a_bonobo »

wyzellak wrote: post #26
morsch wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hardly qualified to comment on any specifics. I'll only go as far as saying that Grass wasn't well-known for his love of snack food, and I interpret the poem as referring to his being argumentative, even beyond his lifetime. Maybe someone else can chime in.

There's a phrase in German language, "eine harte Nuss zu knacken haben", literally "to have a hard nut to crack". Maybe that means that he'll be cracking nuts (problems) even after he's buried?

I think it's more aimed towards his tendency to go against the (left) mainstream of his day and start fights - he argued for a delayed or stopped reunification of West and East Germany, he often criticized people for not dealing with their Nazi past thoroughly enough (which bit him when he disclosed his own previously secret Nazi past just a few years ago), he always worked in politics (mostly supporting the SPD).

"Wenn es dann kracht,"

you can also translate as

"where there's a fight"

so there's a bit of a double-meaning here - "krachen" means that there's noise from his crushing nuts, but it can also mean that there's a conflict [1]

[1] http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/krachen "(umgangssprachlich für streiten)"

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#32

Post by nir »

littletimmy wrote: post #13

His poem "What Must Be Said" is a wonderful commentary on Israel and the threat it poses to world peace. He talks about how the West has turned a blind eye to Israel's development of nuclear weapons because of its collective guilt. He argues that this must stop. Here it is (translated): https://kugelmass.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-legitimate-tran...

Since this is a hacker crowd where data should count for something, consider that the entire Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948 so far caused less than half as many deaths as the current Syrian civil war, let alone the Iran-Iraq War or the Iraq invasion.

So, claiming this nation of 7 million that is smaller in size than Lake Michigan to be "posing a threat to world peace" is pathetic, and frankly says much more about Grass than Israel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_conflict

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#33

Post by littletimmy »

nir wrote: post #32
littletimmy wrote: post #13

His poem "What Must Be Said" is a wonderful commentary on Israel and the threat it poses to world peace. He talks about how the West has turned a blind eye to Israel's development of nuclear weapons because of its collective guilt. He argues that this must stop. Here it is (translated): https://kugelmass.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-legitimate-tran...

Since this is a hacker crowd where data should count for something, consider that the entire Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948 so far caused less than half as many deaths as the current Syrian civil war, let alone the Iran-Iraq War or the Iraq invasion. So, claiming this nation of 7 million that is smaller in size than Lake Michigan to be "posing a threat to world peace" is pathetic, and frankly says much more about G…

How about we rephrase your sentence a little:

So, claiming this group [Al-Qaeda] of several thousand that is smaller in size than a football stadium to be "posing a threat to world peace" is pathetic, and frankly says much more about the US military than al-Qaeda.

Still agree with me? Size has absolutely no relation whatsoever on the ability to threaten something, particularly when said party has nuclear weapons.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#34

Post by ukigumo »

ukigumo wrote: post #6
2511 wrote: post #2

Read 'The tin drum' about 10 years ago. Didn't get a lot of it but I remember getting very fascinated with it. Kind of like Murakami but I found Murakami easier to read. Time to read 'The tin drum' again. R.I.P Mr grass.

I quite enjoyed the "Tin Drum" but I admit that I lost a bit of respect for the man when it was revealed he had worked for the Stasi. Still, it is a great loss of a great writer.

I thought I read something about him having worked for Stasi but I am clearly mistaken or at least can't find anything about it now.

Still the point I was trying to make is that the man and the writer are different and if Mr. Grass worked for the SS instead of Stasi that doesn't make him any better as a man, does it?

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#35

Post by Ralfp »

thomasz wrote: post #8
ukigumo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quite enjoyed the "Tin Drum" but I admit that I lost a bit of respect for the man when it was revealed he had worked for the Stasi. Still, it is a great loss of a great writer.

He didn't work for the STASI, he volunteered for the Waffen SS. > Grass was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In May 1945, after service as a soldier in the Waffen SS, he was taken prisoner by U.S. forces and released in April 1946. Trained as a stonemason and sculptor, he began writing in the 1950s. In his fiction he frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…

> He didn't work for the STASI, he volunteered for the Waffen SS.

He volounteered for the Kriegsmarine, but that was in 1944 when Reich was in full retreat in the east, and so he was pulled into Waffen SS ranks instead.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#36

Post by littletimmy »

dao- wrote: post #30
ff10 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is just profoundly wrong. In the 80s he stated that a country which was responsible for something like the Holocaust did not deserve to be re-unificated. It seemed that he had his fair share of issues with his past, that is we he himself decided to come out with it.

What exactly is wrong? Sure, he decided to come out with the truth about his past, but it was kind of late. I'm not sure I see the connection between my post and your reply.

Either what he is saying is right, or it is wrong.

If it is right, he could eat babies for lunch and it would be right.

If he is wrong, he could be the creator of the universe and all within it and still be wrong.

Please stop with this ad-hominem nonsense.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#37

Post by [deleted] »

dao- wrote: post #30
ff10 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is just profoundly wrong. In the 80s he stated that a country which was responsible for something like the Holocaust did not deserve to be re-unificated. It seemed that he had his fair share of issues with his past, that is we he himself decided to come out with it.

What exactly is wrong? Sure, he decided to come out with the truth about his past, but it was kind of late. I'm not sure I see the connection between my post and your reply.

[deleted]

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#38

Post by dao- »

littletimmy wrote: post #36
dao- wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is wrong? Sure, he decided to come out with the truth about his past, but it was kind of late. I'm not sure I see the connection between my post and your reply.

Either what he is saying is right, or it is wrong. If it is right, he could eat babies for lunch and it would be right. If he is wrong, he could be the creator of the universe and all within it and still be wrong. Please stop with this ad-hominem nonsense.

Let me translate what I said / meant, then: What Grass was saying is wrong, and by the way it didn't surprise me given his shady history.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#40

Post by hluska »

morsch wrote: post #20
skore wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd translate the last two lines slightly different: With a bag of nuts I'd like to be buried and with the freshest of teeth. When there is gnashing where I lie, one can surmise: It's him, still him.

That's what I had originally, but I felt that the pronoun being the first and the last word in the last sentence (and second-to-last/last line, respectively) was significant enough that I wanted to keep it in, even at the cost of being non-grammatical.

I love this community...:)
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