ABSTRACT
Mir kann es recht sein: ‘That’s all right by me’. 74 nach Maß gearbeitet: ‘made to fit’. Sie passen in dieses Loch…sonst nirgends hin: ‘They fit this dump and nowhere else’. verschnitten: the carpenter means that the wood is now ‘spoiled’ (‘cut badly’) in that it cannot now be used anywhere else. Da kann ich nicht mehr mit: ‘I’ve had enough’. So muß man diese Typen behandeln!: note the woman’s malicious pleasure at Shui Ta’s treatment of the carpenter. 75 Nur nicht schreien mit nüchternem Magen: ‘There’s no point in arguing on an empty stomach’ (i.e. they would be wasting their breath). grüßt tief hinaus: ‘bows low’ (i.e. to the policeman). Wenn er quatscht…sind wir geschnappt: ‘If he natters on until the boy gets back we’ll be copped’. daß wir den größten Wert darauf legen…zu stehen: ‘we attach great importance to being on good terms with the authorities’. 76 Gäste!…: Shui Ta’s words are addressed to the policeman. Wir wußten nichts davon: The woman’s unscrupulous cynicism reaches its peak as she tries to hand the boy (whom they instructed to steal) over to justice in order to save her own skin. 77 Absteigequartier: ‘doss-house’. The Hausbesitzerin refers here to the ‘vultures’ (as Shui Ta indicates on p. 78) Fünfkäschkämmerchen: ‘cheap little garret’, referring to Shen Te’s previous little room. ‘Käsch’=‘cash’ (traditional small Chinese coin). ich weiß Bescheid: ‘I know all about her’. Man hat sie beschuldigt, gehungert zu haben!: note Shui Ta’s bitter sarcasm over the accusations against Shen Te. Sie war eine ganz gewöhnliche…: The Hausbesitzerin was no doubt going to add ‘Prostituierte’, but Shui Ta’s ‘Unbemittelte’ indicates his awareness that her real objection to Shen Te is the latter’s poverty. The following exchange between them then demonstrates that the Hausbesitzerin is concerned not so much with Shen Te’s moral reputation as with her own opportunity to exploit it financially. ich muß Rücksichten nehmen: ‘I must take the feelings of other people into account’. 78 Er wird sich die Haut von den Fingern arbeiten: ‘He will work his fingers to the bone’ (referring to Shen Te). ehe er zurückgeht dorthin: ‘rather than go back to the gutter’ (‘die Tiefe’, above). nicht mit Gold aufzuwiegen: ‘worth his weight in gold’. hat uns einen Dienst erwiesen: i.e. in helping to get the boy-thief handed over to justice. das geht mich nichts an: ‘that’s none of my business’. 79 Ich liebe es, mit meinen Mietern in gutem Einvernehmen zu sein: ‘I like to be on good terms with my tenants’ (but on her own terms!) Bald wird sie sich wieder auf sich selber angewiesen sein: ‘Soon she will have to fend for herself again’ (a further reminder that Shui Ta and Shen Te are one and the
same person). haben es schnell heraus: ‘quickly gather’. Aber Härte und Verschlagenheit…dann kam der Fluß!: note Shui Ta’s bitterness as he contemplates his course of action, involving severity and cunning (‘Verschlagenheit’) towards the poor and downtrodden. The letter of the law permits such behaviour (such as handing the boy-thief over to justice), and guarantees success against the vulnerable (the ‘rats’), but the implication is that it is not necessarily morally justified, and may not help against stronger opposition (the ‘river’). 80 da wollen wir uns nichts vormachen: ‘and we mustn’t fool ourselves in this respect’. käufliche Liebe: ‘prostitution’, ‘immoral earnings’. was hilft alle Weisheit, wenn die Milch schon verschüttet ist?: ‘There’s no point in crying over spilt milk’ (i.e. there is no escaping Shen Te’s reputation which the Hausbesitzerin is exploiting, justifiably in the eyes of the law, for her own ends.) Ein sehr alter Satz: ‘A very old saying’ (i.e. that times are bad). eine Partie: ‘a good catch’. Sie gehen uns an die Hand…dafür Ihre Heiratsannonce auf!: ‘You have lent us a hand (in the case of the boy-thief), so we’ll draft you a marriage advertisement.’ Witwer nicht ausgeschlossen: ‘widower could be considered’. hübsche sympathische Erscheinung: ‘good-looking’. Mit Entsetzen sehe ich…tatsächlich einen Ausweg: note the irony of Shui Ta’s words. He thanks the policeman for preventing Shen Te from ‘falling into bad ways’ (‘unter die Räder kommen’) as a result of financial difficulties, when she is in fact having to resort to advertising for a husband! 82 wirft ihn um einen Weidenast: i.e. in order to hang himself. Dich und die Deinen: i.e. the family which Shui Ta threw out. die Kuchen zu zahlen: there is no reference to this in Scene I, but Shen Te is reported in Scene 2 (p. 71) to have left to fetch breakfast. 83 Goldhafen: ‘crock of gold’, referring to the shop. einen Witwer mit drei Kindern: the advertisement has already borne fruit, but we never meet this particular applicant. 84 windig: in the figurative sense of ‘dubious’, ‘dodgy’, i.e. untrustworthy, with no real knowledge or experience. Das kommt nur in eine Kiste…schmieren kann: ‘They only manage to get into a kite through greasing the palm of the supervisor at the hangars’. Als Kinder hatten wir einen Kranich mit einem lahmen Flügel…: Shen Te’s extended metaphor in these lines suggests both her sympathy for the downcast Sun (the ‘crane’), and her growing personal sorrow at his superior attitude to her. trug uns keinen Spaß nach: ‘didn’t mind us teasing him’. 85 langt…nach ihrem Gesicht: his gesture (repeated on p. 86) illustrates his ambivalent attitude: he is arousing Shen Te’s (sexual) interest in him, without committing himself emotionally (see also p. 87). Dürfte es trübe Abende nicht geben: ‘depressing evenings should not be allowed’ (because life is hard enough as it is, and any extra reason for complaint is
likely to drive one to suicide). du gehst nicht auf den Strich: ‘you don’t walk the streets’ (as a prostitute). Ich habe einen Laden…auf die Strasse gegangen: note that Shen Te does admit to her previous profession, although she now wishes to make clear to Sun that she no longer practises it. 86 Hier hast du Geld?: Sun is speaking sarcastically, but his remarks are ironically correct. Ich kann Zither spielen…und Leute nachmachen: Shen Te is stressing her other accomplishments so as to convince Sun she was something more than just a common prostitute. 86 ‘…ich muß meinen Geldbeutel vergessen haben!’: she is presumably recalling a customer who refused to pay for her services. Oder war es etwa angenehm?: ‘Or did you actually enjoy being a prostitute?’ Genügsam…Was für eine Stadt!: his attitude suggests pleasure that she is seemingly an easy catch, and consequent contempt (which reinforces his opinion of the people of the town in general). Da gehört nicht viel dazu bei dir: ‘according to you it doesn’t seem to be very difficult’. 88 Loch: i.e. the hole in the sky through which the rain is falling. Ob mir seine Nase paßte: ‘whether I really liked his face’. Wang contrasts the situation when his product was scarce and he as a tradesman could be tyrannically selective, and the present when his product is worthless. jetzt sauft ihr kleinen Kräuter… Aus dem großen Wolkeneuter: the raining sky is personified as a mother figure and the clouds are udders, from which plants (metaphorically representing the people) suck nourishment. 89 Ich habe einen sehr klugen und kühnen Menschen kennengelernt: Shen Te’s naïvety is apparent from her failure to recognize Sun’s true nature. In der Gesellschaft der Wolken… Die freundliche Post: these lines are used as a leitmotif and reappear at the end of Scene 4 (p. 101). 91 Aber sie laufen ins Geld: ‘But they are eating into her money’. dafür geht mehr als die Hälfte des Verdienstes drauf: ‘that takes up more than half her earnings’. enttäuscht: the god’s disappointment may stem from a half-realization that her goodness is economically impractical. 92 Erstens muß der Buchstabe…zweitens ihr Geist: the Christian view is in fact that the ‘spirit’ is more important than the ‘letter of the law’. Dann übertritt dieser Vetter nicht mehr ihre Schwelle: ‘Then this cousin must no longer cross her threshold’. die sieben guten Könige…der gerechte Kung: mythological inventions by Brecht. The god is contrasting idealized, lofty characters with mundane activities. 93 Nichts Durchschlagendes: ‘nothing conclusive’, i.e. there is no conclusive evidence of goodness. Their concluding words, muddled and unclear, simply suggest their ill-tempered despair over a situation they do not fully understand. 94 man bequemt sich…: ‘she (i.e. Shen Te) condescends to…’.
