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Just awkward, ein Deutsch-English post

Nach zwei Jahren Realsatire Trumpelchen im Weißen Haus, kommt mir nur noch ein Wort in den Sinn: awkward. Maybe my German has become rusty, but I can't think of any other word that describes him better.

Wir haben viele Anglizismen in der deutschen Sprache, die unvermeidlich sind. For example, zum Beispiel, Homepage and Computer. Certain proud Germans, stolze Deutsche, may use Heimseite (literal translation) and Rechenmaschine. The latter literally means machine to do calculations. Or Elektronenhirn (electron brain, found in German translations of Asimov's robot stories).

Aber wenn man sich das ständige Theater im ovalen Büro (oval office) anschaut, the show (it is nothing else, in the oval office), rund um und mit, around and with, dem deutschstämmigen Mr President (he, who shall not be named), only an English word pops to my mind getting it all. Es fällt mir nur ein Wort ein:  

awkward

So I asked myself why. Warum? Weil's paßt und zwar volle Lotte. It just fits so well.

Hier die Liste für mögliche Übersetzungen ins Deutsche von leo.org.
  • ungeschickt – blundering, clumsy, clunky, hobnailed, heavy-/ham-/cack-/-fisted/-handed, inapt, unadept, unhandy, unintelligent, unskilful
  • linkisch – inept, gauche
  • schwierig – baulky, complicated, difficult (in the sense of getting along with)
  • unangenehm – aggravating, disagreeable, displeasing, uncongenial
  • peinlich – embarassing, mortifying
  • renitent – intractable, unruly
  • ungelenk [LEO is a bit short here, listing only awkward and stiff; it can be used in German as a more sophisticated synonym of ungeschickt]
  • heikel – finical/finicking/finicky, intractable, picky
  • bockbeinig – stubborn; literally, it means ram-legged, as rams but apart their hind legs before they charge you or anything else standing in their way. Which reminds me of my childhood visiting my pen-pal in the Westerwald, where they played a sort-of ram-baseball with their ram. He would charge anything, so you stood there with a plank in your hand, he charged, and you jumped aside and him with the blank on the head. He then would run away, to charge you again, and again, and again, ... Hört man selten, aber erinnert mich an meine Besuche bei meinem Brieffreund im Westerwald und "Bock-Baseball". Man nimmt ein Stück Holz, stellt sich dem Chefbock, er rennt auf einen zu, man springt zur Seite und haut ihm das Brett vor dem Kopf. Dann rennt er zurück, und wieder, und wieder, und wieder auf einen zu ... kommt einem bekannt vor, wenn man über den großen Teich blickt, oder nicht?
  • unbehaglich – discomforting, uneasy
  • unbeholfen – gawky, ungainly, also see: ungeschickt
Und bringt sich selbst, MAGA-manious himself, und seine Entourage, the American (first) government and people, ständig, consistently and permanently, in Situationen, situations, die, which are
  • misslich – indivious, a predicament, und/and
  • ungünstig – adverse, bad, inappropriate, inauspicious, unpropitious
sind. (For my English-only readers, I gave you some of LEO's back-translations in alphabetical order, which will give you quite a good impression what they mean to German speakers.)

13 Treffer bei 13 möglichen. 13 out of 13, all adjectives that pop to most German minds, when looking at him and the way he and his (currently) trusted employees or non-employed family members filling un-official government positions (Jared, Ivanka) stumble through the unknown and miraculous world beyond the golden penthouse. Durch die Welt trampeln, wie eine Horde besoffener Elefanten, trumpetytrump.


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