12 Apr 1944, R. E. Jones Wartime diary | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

12 Apr 1944, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

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Submitted by Admin on Mon, 2014-03-17 21:32
Book / Document: 
R. E. Jones Wartime diary
Date(s) of events described: 
Wed, 12 Apr 1944

Diche, niedrige Wolke. Starker Wind, und schwerer regen. Etwas sonnescheine n.mt. haben. Mahlte rice für Brot. Tragte essen. Mit Steve um die Abent. Keines neues gehört.

((Translation by Jill & Brian, see comments below:

Thick, low cloud. Strong wind and heavy rain. We had some sunshine this afternoon. Milled rice for bread. Carrying food. With Steve in the evening. Heard nothing new ((i.e. war news.))

))

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Comments

Submitted by brian edgar on Sat, 2014-04-12 15:21.

'Thick, low cloud. Strong wind and heavy rain. We had some sunshine this afternoon. Milled rice for bread (Tragte essen) With Steve in the evening. Heard nothing new ((i.e. war news.))

'Tragte essen': Jones sometimes correctly capitalises German nouns, sometimes doesn't (see e.g.http://gwulo.com/node/19259)

If 'essen' is  the verb = to eat, I can't find any meaning for 'Tragte' that would make sense with it.

My best guess: 'tragte' is an incorrect form of the past tense of 'tragen' (it should be 'trug') and 'essen' is a noun meaning 'food'. So maybe Jones was in a ration moving party.

This isn't very convincing and hopefully someone else can do better!

 

Submitted by jill on Sat, 2014-04-12 17:07.

I can't do much better than Brian. Grateful for his interpretation of n.mt as Nachmittag =afternoon! Here's my attempt:

"Thick low cloud, strong wind and heavy rain. Some sunshine in the afternoon. Ground rice for bread. Tried (?) to eat (it)/bearable food/bearable to eat (?). With Steve in the evening. Heard no news."

"Tragen" is usually "to carry" or "to bear" but Jones is wonderfully inventive at this stage in his German knowledge and may have gambled on a word beginning with "tr-" He knows what he means and nobody is correcting his "work".  As Brian says "Essen" (noun) is "food" and "essen" (verb) is "to eat".

In yesterday's entry Jones used "Neues" for "News" instead of "Nachrichten" so I've stuck with that. Same difference.

Jill

Submitted by jill on Sat, 2014-04-12 19:14.

Brian is right about Jones carrying food. On 1st April Jones writes "Food carrying". I've just checked people's reactions to rice bread and it seems it was quite a treat. Laura Ziegler Darnell's account posted by Don Ady says: 

"In the early days, food was meager. I can remember the rice flour bread we were given. Even when it was just a crust, it was a reward for my kids. If they would(n't) eat the stuff that was called food, I would offer them a piece of rice flour bread crust no bigger than a finger as a reward. That enticed them to eat; because if they didn’t eat that, there wasn’t anything else they could eat."

Jill