When I looked at older Weekly Prompts I was delighted to see the name of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. He is definitely the master of aphorisms and I love paging through his collected “thought snippets” as he liked to call them.
It’s an added bonus that Lichtenberg comes from our area. He was born in Ober-Ramstadt in 1742, in the Odenwald near Darmstadt. The school our sons attended for a few years was named after him.
He had this to say about birds (or was it humans?):
“Die buntesten Vögel singen am schlechtesten. Das gilt auch bei den Menschen.”
I couldn’t find a translation into English, so here is my attempt:
“The most colourful birds are the worst singers. That also holds true for humans.”
pictures imperfect blog 
He sounds fun!
LikeLiked by 2 people
He was, I think. Also extremely clever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The translator I used
“The most colorful birds sing the worst. This also applies to people.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
If I start using a machine translator to translate between German and English I will go and throw all my dictionaries in the river and confine myself to one language only for the future. I didn’t go and get a degree in translation and 40 years of experience in translation to surrender to an AI. (Having said that, the translation you offered is acceptable. However, Lichtenstein wrote this more than 200 years ago and I think the register should be slightly more formal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So correct. The thought of “all my dictionaries”. conjures up some on bookshelves others on the desk, some opened.
If you decide to remove your dictionaries, I would prefer composting that dumping in a river or burning 😁
There should be a translate from 18th Century language button and instead of submit or go, it should have a Now Sally Forth button 😂
LikeLike
😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was thinking about this today.
I tend to go to my books before looking on the computer 📖 ➡️ 🖥️
LikeLiked by 1 person
It depends very much what I am translating. Books cannot keep up with language as well as the internet. It took a while until book based dictionaries accepted “gay” can have a different meaning than “happy”. I still prefer web-based dictionaries to translation machines, at least for the two languages I can speak ok.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t think of the evolution of language
LikeLike
That sounds like a pretty good translation, Brian, who cares where it came from or how informal it is.
You Tube has replaced one to one teaching, that’s life these days, I/we have to swallow it.🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Our Landcare organisation is trying to be the last line of defense against Sane Toads moving south. The Clarence River is very wide. Anyway, I found a UNI who wanted Cane Toads and as we have quite a lot in a freezer off some of them went.
I wondered if schools would use them.
One of the people in the office said that there is no fun in science any more. Especially dissecting toads
LikeLike
Well at least Brian gave us a translation that makes sense! I love the bird’s bright colour. Thank you for joining us on the challenge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And mine didn’t?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think my comment was not well phrased. I apologise for that.
Your knowledge and experience came to the same conclusion as Brian’s use of the Internet or the term AI.
You didn’t sound too happy about how he came by the translation. My reply should have said ‘ Well done to him for having a stab at it.
I’m so sorry if I read this all wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No worries. But you’re right – google translate (or deepl, which is much better) are not my favourite programs. English-German translations are usually acceptable (although AI does not always do great with register and/or jokes). But they’re the reason why people think that human translators are not necessary any more. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
We certainly need people such as yourself. Don’t ever doubt that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do doubt. Because you wouldn’t believe the bad English/German translations floating around. What makes them really bad is that they are only slightly off the mark (yet off the mark they are) and people accept them as good and correct. — Not to worry, though, really. Nothing was hurt except my professional pride a bit. I’m the first to admit that I am a bit touchy on that subject. 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would be the same. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The most colorful birds sing the worst. This also applies to people. Me too which appears correct since the reverse translation holds true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A true translation is not necessarily a good translation. Register, period, and knowing other writings from the author (in case of literature) has to be taken into account. This might be a slight problem with these two short sentences but it really matters in longer translations.
LikeLike
Very glad I am plain ugly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😂 I wanted to contradict you, kind of a reflex, I guess. I wouldn’t agree to someone calling themselves ugly. But that would mean … how do I get out of this conundrum?
LikeLike