#auto-biography

(about somewhere between late 1900's–early 1910's)

Geld verdiente ich durch Stundengeben. Junge Handlungsgehilfen lehrte ich Englisch. p.7

I earned money by giving lessons. I taught young clerks English. p.7

Chris the teacher 😍

—My first heartbreak feels like a thunderstorm

Electricity hits through my veins every single minute. And the place where my heart used to be, ache everynights and in the early morning at 4. My thoughts consumed me and I started imagining things that should’ve happened, but constantly thinking because it never could happened.

Aber das ist ja alles noch gar nichts. (But that's all, indeed, is nothing at all.)

— Christa Winsloe about rhe fact that people tried to visit | visited C. in the studio in order to be friends or to have a link to other people to be somewhat know in art World (if any kind of an artlist.)

Short & really helpful 👏💪(unlike self-help books with affirmations (a.), a lot of which (a.) are impossible to be true & the fact itself makes a person who reads them guffaw.)

Maler gehen spazieren und suchen Motiverln, Zu diesem Zweck bleiben sie vor, sagen wir, einer Wiese stehen, lieben die rechte Hand zum Monokel gestaltet von das Auge - treten zurück, treten vor, schütteln den Kopf und gehen weiter.

Painter go* for a walk and look for motifs, for this purpose they* stop in front of, say, a meadow, love the right side—in the direction to the monocle—contrived by the eye*, step back, step forward, shake their head, and walk farther.

— Auto-Biografie und Andere Feuilletons von Christa Winsloe (compiled by Doris Hermanns), p. 13

(*Chris used "they" as gender neutral word, so any noun for a person (he\she, third singular pronoun) has a verb with conjugation form of third plural "they." 👏👏👏)

NOTE: italic words indicate maybe incorrect translation.

CORRECTION MUCH LATER (It hit me several weeks before this addition, but the post had been found accidentally.) ■ I'm not a German speaker, but can understand small number of words & know tiny bit of gramnar. ■

Unfortunately, German (grammatically) is abusive towards anybody and anything (things have gender :( ) labelled as "she." The language has no standalone word for she. It's Sie, exact same one as formal you* and they for a group of anybody or anything. *(Você in Portuguese, Usted in Spanish etc. as opposed to English obsolete thou, and tu (widely used) in Pt & Sp.) Thus, this means that when it comes to verb fo ich correspond each "group" of prrsonal pronouns (e.g. they is 3rd plural) there's no distinction between a verb for she (one person or a thing) and they.

So maaaybe Chris used masculine noun Maler (boy | lad | man painter) instead of Malerin (whatever equivalent of the word painter is or can be for a girl | lass | woman) with a verb for a grown-up painter lass | woman.

In this case, the word Maler is used as gender-neutral, but—at the same time—it has an indication that the person isn't a lad | man.

Similarly (and as a proof of my thought explained above), my Primary school teacher called herself a teacher, not a schoolmarm when she hang (e.g. on classroom door) a piece of paper with information for parents. (*In the language of the country where I lived, the word schoolmarm is the word teacher + additional piece in the end.

▲▼▲▼▲

BUT . . . a thought now. (POSITIVE =2nd paragraph.) I read here on Tumblr (one post with a few additions via re-blogs) that people hate the fact that German doesn't have equivalent of English they for (it's exact same word as she, so it doesn't work.) But there are (surely) people like I who don't like plurality for one person at all (e.g. you instead of thou (which counted as disrespect and thus, obsolete), but if Pt. | Sp. version (standalone word, Você | Usted respectively), I agree completely.)

German has neuter gender (e.g. things aren't only she or he (e.g. as in Romance languages), but it too (English has it only.) This means, that 100 per cent gender-neutral word in German can be es (it in English*.) No one has to compare languages, a pronoun can be language-specific.) *My German is not enough, do I looked up the word.

☰☰☰

There's a joke (original language has she, he, it for things as well | translated by me.) "Sex change surgery has been completely unsuccessful. I extremely indignant.* (In the original version, the word indignant has a form for it, which is, used to show sex neutrality (in addition, overlooked gender as well.)

In one of the articles (compiled by incredible Doris Hermanns in Auto-Biografie und Andere Feuilletones) Chris said about a target-in visitor "I want to rest from talking so much, but he, oh—" (my translation, typed from memory.)

The same, "I want to rest from [reading so much] (both version of MiU book almost at once = a translation piece followed by an original one + adding notes here and there], but [couldn't as I decided to finish with notes.]

Thus, all notes are ready. 100+ of them (part of is here.) Finish, but not the end. NEVER end. Mädchen in Uniform / Das Mädchen Manuela (let's not talk about the C mark translation titled The Child Manuela.)

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I am not a huge fan of non- fiction. But many people recommended this one so decided to step out of my comfort zone especially because this was a very small read. And I am glad I did. If you ask me what exactly I like about this book, I don’t think I have an answer. But this was one of my fastest reads. In this auto-biographical memoir, Paul Kalanithi lays out his entire life for introspection…

When Chris was a student, "we were arrogant and happy." But then (1933–1934) (to Dorothy Thompson) , "I'm talentless, Dotto."

What if . . . I'm behind the film with international success! I'm the star of stars of literary word!

Note: the blog/site's administrator is so called De-Eng translator (used: online translators & various websites) of Auto-Biographie und andere Feuilletons (in a progress currently), so she decided to share some excerpts, and here is one of them.

Für mich kommt gar keine andere Stadt als München in Frage, ich liebe es, besonders, weil es so gesund ist Gehen Sie nur die Ludwigstraße hinunter, wie unerhört frisch sehen all die Mädchen und Frauen aus, so sauber, so ungekünstelt. Ware ich ein Mann, ich würde bestimmt eine Münchenerin heiraten, der Nachkommenschaft wegen. p.6

For me there is no other city as Münich in question, I love it; especially because it is so healthy! Just go down Ludwigstraße, how unseasonably fresh all the girls and women look like, so clean, so unaffected. If I were a man, I would certainly marry a woman from Münich, for the sake of his offspring. p.6