This is for Edition 5 of the >Language >Place blog carnival, hosted by Parmanu.
Finding herself in a place of confusion and distress, my dear Mama would utter these words in the vernacular of her hometown:
This saying from another age would burst forth with great passion. If I happened to be in the room when she released the verbal charm, I would smile. Then she would smile and settle down a little. The dilemma eased in intensity. The chanting of the words carried her back in time, back to her childhood home, to Frankfurt am Main. To a placid place. To a time when she was able to handle quandaries in her native language.
Ach Gottche', sprach's Lottche', siebe' Kinner un' kein Mann, un' die Kinner habbe' Läus' und's Lottche' kein Kamm!Freely translated, it means, "Good Heavens!" cried Lottchen, "seven children and no husband, and the children have lice and Lottchen has no comb!"
This saying from another age would burst forth with great passion. If I happened to be in the room when she released the verbal charm, I would smile. Then she would smile and settle down a little. The dilemma eased in intensity. The chanting of the words carried her back in time, back to her childhood home, to Frankfurt am Main. To a placid place. To a time when she was able to handle quandaries in her native language.
Mama, who immigrated to the United States in the mid-sixties, would often conjure up the past with snippets from times gone by. Sayings from her grandmothers, who had heard them from their grandmothers. Who knows how long these sayings have been in the family. These echoes from my ancestors. They keep me from rewriting history. They keep the voices of all the women through the generations audible in my ear.
9 comments:
Even with my very limited German, that saying 'sounds' just delightful, thank you! Reminds me of my mother who also had many sayings in Finnish passed down her mother and grandmother. I wish I could remmber them now.
So few words have come down the years to me from my Finnish great-grandmother, except for ... "Hobba-hobba!" which my mother said to my sister and I when we were small to hurry us along. Mom never explained what the word meant; I thought everyone knew "hobba-hobba." It was only as an adult that it occurred to me to look the words up in a Finnish-English dictionary. And sure enough, they mean "hurry up!"
I still use "hobba-hobba" when I'm muttering to myself to get a move on, and I used it with my daughter when she was small. When I told her not long ago that the words were actually Finnish, she was delighted.
Lovely post. Thank you for sharing that memory of your mother with us.
I find the sayings from another language quite poetic when translated into English. They sound very fresh. (In my case that is Bulgarian). They creep into my poetry.
And then there are those phrases/utterances that I say by habit (having heard from my grandmother and mother). They sound a bit odd in translation to begin with, and when my kids turn to me and ask: "How does that make sense?" and I think about it, I find it does not make much sense in the world we are in today. So I have to revise.:-)
Interesting.
"Blesséd be." - Granny's version of swearing. It sounded like swearing, certainly.
Marja-Leena, you might be able to find a collection of Finnish sayings on the internet to jog your memory. And Wren! You remember "Hobba-hobba!" Wonderful! In my family, we'd say "hobb-hobb" to mean "jump up."
Daniela! Yes, they do. The images they bring to mind are often different and original. As for the habitually said phrases, the revisions most likely start new sayings for future generations. Isn't it all delightful?!
Zhoen, you're right in that it is a saying of exasperation; however, it is filled with humour and makes participants of those within earshot. I wish I could find the original source.
This is a great memory and quote. I'm German, but didn't know of it. But it made me think of another passionate saying: "Sapperlot" -which can both be amazed, or angry. (and might just be the short form of the "Lottche"-quote, with its unusual "-lot"-ending.)
Hallo Dorothee und Herzlich Willkommen! That's an interesting theory. It would help to know where the Ur-Lottche' came from, I suppose. One could then begin with regional tales and dialects in a search for the origin.
Beautiful piece, sweet memory...
Please view my story from Language Place Carnival, room 19.
~laurie
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