Will a German-speaker please, please tell me that today’s headline in the Berliner Zeitung is not ‘Premier Muscat stamps his feet’
Published:
July 16, 2013 at 11:06am
My German is beyond rubbish, but I think I can make out from the conjunction of ‘stampft’ and ‘fuss’ what this headline says. Please God let it not be so.
Will one of my German-speaking readers please translate it?
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http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik/bootsfluechtlinge-auf-malta-premier-muscat-stampft-mit-dem-fuss-auf,10808018,23722132.html
Google Translate seems to say so but I’m not a German speaker so I can’t be sure.
Yes, that is just about it.
Google translate – yep, The Great Leader is stamping his feet in German too.
Muscat stamps his foot.
We can officially hide our heads in shame at our PM.
As a native German I can confirm that the headline means he is stamping his foot, as raging toddlers do. And this expression in German is used to describe just that – raging toddlers.
Now he’ll just go home to Michelle and pile on some more ‘kummerspeck’.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/50698/38-wonderful-foreign-words-we-could-use-english
The fella already has more than enough speck
It says exactly what you thought, Daphne.
Kill. Us. All. Now.
It’s a literal translation. Usually they would say something like strikt verbieten.
The Germans are taking the piss out of a (supposedly) English-speaking PM with British humour. And subtly too.
Whatever next?
There is a tendency in German to translate English literally to show off. I hear a lot of English words used on German TV which make me cringe.
This is also happening with other languages.
There is no German idiomatic expression which is the literal translation of “put your foot down”. The closest is probably “slam the table with your fist”.
I think the Berliner Zeitung is really taking the piss here, because stamping your feet, as in English, is the gesture of a toddler throwing a tantrum, not an idiomatic expression for taking a firm stance.
That’s 1-nil for Germany.
Malta would send boat people back systematically, the Premier of the smallest EU country announced days before and put the other Europeans as an ultimatum. Now he wants to have all this does not meant that way, but calls for an EU-wide solution to the refugee question.
Last week, Prime Minister of Malta still had Joseph Muscat told he will systematically send boat people back to Libya, Europe should find a solution to the state of emergency in the Mediterranean. The announcement – a kind of ultimatum to the EU – was met with international criticism. Human rights and relief organizations warned in Libya threatens the people of torture, abuse and arrest. The European Court of Human Rights issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the deportation of asylum seekers from Malta.
Well Muscat said on Monday in Rome, he had not directly threatened with deportation. You’ve just announced that it excludes no option. “We have just stomping his foot to say: Let us alone,” said Muscat.
Malta’s threat and the visit of the Pope to Lampedusa have led to the refugee issue’m back on the agenda. “There must be a common European solution,” said Muscat. “The EU Member States can not put the burden alone.”
Worse than Lampedusa
The situation in Malta is unbearable, Muscat said the Social Democrat who leads the government since March. In recent weeks, more than 400 mainly Somali and Eritrean refugees coming from Libya were landed by boats on the Mediterranean island. In 2012 there were in 2000. Malta is the smallest EU country, with 413,000 inhabitants, but has the highest population density in Europe.
Muscat stressed that the situation in his country was worse than on Lampedusa, where Francis Pope had denounced the indifference to the plight of migrants a week ago. “From Lampedusa refugees are placed on the Italian mainland. In Malta, however, they are tight, “said Muscat. His government wants to stir up fears of foreign domination, he said. On the contrary: he favor integration and immigration. “But the numbers are currently too high.”
Europe must either distribute or negotiate with Libya, the refugees demanded Muscat. Libya’s border with Chad was a no man’s land, where organized gangs would organize the trafficking of asylum seekers. This gap needs to close
This translation is wrong:
“Well Muscat said on Monday in Rome, he had not directly threatened with deportation. You’ve just announced that it excludes no option. “We have just stomping his foot to say: Let us alone,” said Muscat.”
The original quote from the BZ- article:
“Nun, sagte Muscat am Montag in Rom, er habe gar nicht direkt mit Abschiebungen gedroht. Man habe lediglich angekündigt, dass man keine Option ausschließe. „Wir haben nur mit dem Fuß aufgestampft, um zu sagen: Lasst uns nicht allein“, erklärte Muscat. ”
Translation: “…we’ve just announced, that we don’t exclude
an/any option. We just had to put our/the/one’s foot down / stamped our feet , in order to say: Don’t leave us alone!”
Maybe Muscat used “to stamp one’s foot” instead of “to put one’s foot down”.
Just a guess.
However, the BZ just quotes Joseph Muscat’s own words.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/On-migration-Muscat-hints-that-Malta-must-get-its-numbers-right-20130715
Andrea/ Germany
Hello Andrea/Germany,
quote Malta Today:
[Monday 15 July 2013 – 12:20
‘We stamped our feet’ – Muscat in Rome says Malta must get migration numbers right]
Being aware of Dr. Joseph Muscat’s prowess in smelling coffee, one is obliged to offer the possibility that he actually meant “to put one’s foot down”. I personally interpret the statement as such ….. “innizzlu saqajna”.
Regina Kerner, a publicist based in Rome, was free to translate Dr. Joseph Muscat in relation to her wish and to her will.
Entschuldigung, pardon, Andrea/Germany, aber mit Verlaub, with kind permission, I am compelled to remark that your translation version was also not quite correct.
Dr. Joseph Muscat did not make total use of a royal “we”.
Translating the BZ news article, one should perhaps correctly opt as follows:
[Nun sagte Muscat am Montag in Rom, er habe gar nicht direkt mit Abschiebungen gedroht. Man habe lediglich angekündigt, dass man keine Option ausschließe. „Wir haben nur mit dem Fuß aufgestampft, um zu sagen: Lasst uns nicht allein“, erklärte Muscat.]
Last Monday in Rome, Muscat now said that he did not threaten directly with push-backs. One only announced that one would not exclude any option. “We have only put our foot down in order to say: do not leave us alone”, said Muscat as clarification.
Viele Grüße, Cheers.
Goosestepping will endear him more to Norman Lowell
I only studied German, I am not a native speaker, but that is what it means. http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/allemand-anglais/aufstampfen
From now on, I shall refer to him as Stompenfuhrer.
You mean the stumpy ginger.
Surely you mean stompenficker!
Google translate actually tackles the translation quite well. But that’s the gist of the article. Muscat is stamping his feet demanding that Europe provide a solution to illegal immigration.
Oh, and further down in the article he is quoted as having said “We only stamped with our foot to say ‘don’t leave us alone’ “.
As toddlers do.
@ Katrin,
Ich gehe davon aus, dass Sie wohl wissen, dass Dolmetschen und Interpretieren nicht gleich zu stellen sind.
I surmise, that you well know, that translation and interpretation cannot be equated.
What a shameful situation!
They also seem to imply in the article that Premier Muscat is a liar.
They are not implying that Muscat is a liar, they assume he’s back-pedalling.
http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/back-pedalling
Yes Daphne. Stampft is stamping, Fuss is foot.
How embarrassing.
Your translation is correct, Daphne.
From Google translate. Enough to get the meaning. What a toilet honestly.
Malta would send boat people back systematically, the Premier of the smallest EU country announced days before and put the other Europeans as an ultimatum. Now he wants to have all this does not meant that way, but calls for an EU-wide solution to the refugee question.
Last week, Prime Minister of Malta still had Joseph Muscat told he will systematically send boat people back to Libya, Europe should find a solution to the state of emergency in the Mediterranean. The announcement – a kind of ultimatum to the EU – was met with international criticism. Human rights and relief organizations warned in Libya threatens the people of torture, abuse and arrest. The European Court of Human Rights issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the deportation of asylum seekers from Malta.
Well Muscat said on Monday in Rome, he had not directly threatened with deportation. You’ve just announced that it excludes no option. “We have just stomping his foot to say: Let us alone,” said Muscat.
Malta’s threat and the visit of the Pope to Lampedusa have led to the refugee issue’m back on the agenda. “There must be a common European solution,” said Muscat. “The EU Member States can not put the burden alone.”
Worse than Lampedusa
The situation in Malta is unbearable, Muscat said the Social Democrat who leads the government since March. In recent weeks, more than 400 mainly Somali and Eritrean refugees coming from Libya were landed by boats on the Mediterranean island. In 2012 there were in 2000. Malta is the smallest EU country, with 413,000 inhabitants, but has the highest population density in Europe.
Muscat stressed that the situation in his country was worse than on Lampedusa, where Francis Pope had denounced the indifference to the plight of migrants a week ago. “From Lampedusa refugees are placed on the Italian mainland. In Malta, however, they are tight, “said Muscat. His government wants to stir up fears of foreign domination, he said. On the contrary: he favor integration and immigration. “But the numbers are currently too high.”
Europe must either distribute or negotiate with Libya, the refugees demanded Muscat. Libya’s border with Chad was a no man’s land, where organized gangs would organize the trafficking of asylum seekers. This gap must be closed.
Yes, that is what it means. The title sounds funny in German, and I have a feeling that the writer meant it to be so.
Moreover, they report about Muscat’s ultimatum and threats of push-backs followed by a retraction at his meeting in Italy.
Their exact words in the second sentence: “Now he claims that he did not really mean it [the plans to send the immigrants back to Libya]”. This makes our PM sound truly pathetic, and again, I think it is deliberate.
They also report Muscat’s claim that Malta’s situation is worse than Lampedusa’s (!), his argument being that immigrants in Lampedusa are then transferred to mainlaind Italy while those in Malta are “stuck” (my translation of festsitzen) here.
The article is written in an objective reporting style, but, the title and the two quotes I mentioned give the text a particular nuance, a kind of sarcasm, perhaps someone can come up with a more precise term for this.
‘Maltese Premier is stamping his feet’
The Maltese prime-minister a few days ago announced that Malta will automatically start returning boat refugees whilst giving other EU countries an ultimatum on the issue.
Now he changed everything and is saying that he never meant this but he is asking for an EU solution on the illegal immigration problem.
The Maltese Prime Minister does it stamping his feet.
Daphne, a translation if you don’t have it already:
“Some days ago, the Maltese Prime Minister of the smallest European member state announced he would be returning the boat refugees back, and gave the European Union an ultimatum. Now, he says he did not mean it, but demands a solution to the refugee problem from Europe”
Just confirmed with a German colleague that’s exactly what the headline is saying.
Joseph Muscat: You’re a bloody liar, and a terrible one at that.
I’d love to know who the hack you think you’re kidding – you know, with your wonderful British sense of humour?
‘Hack’ – so Freudian of you, vis-à-vis your previous ‘profession’. I never get tired of watching that clip.
And if they continue not to listen he’s going to throw the toys out of the pram… Hekk, hu go fik Von Rompuy…
Thank you for the good laugh.
Although I am aware that this is no laughing matter, but the contrary, I appreciated your sense of humour.
Hilarious.
Muscat needs to be aware of the health risks of first stamping his feet, and then putting his foot in his mouth.
That’s the downside of a democratically elected government when the majority of the voters have an IQ does not go beyond double figures.
So the PM thinks that any noise is good noise right? Perhaps he should ‘what the heck’ a bit more, one never knows, other nations might admire him like they do Kim Jong-un.
Reminds me of that advert to promote safe driving with children. ‘HA NOQGHOD QUDDIEM HA NOQGHOD QUDDEIM WE WE WE WAHHHHHHHHHH
All this takes my mind back to Madrid in July 1983 when, on instructions from Alex Sceberras Trigona, I was holding up all progress on the conclusion of the three-year Follow-up Conference of the CSCE, in defiance of all other countries.
“El Pais”, “Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung”, “ABC”, “YA”, “Actual”, “The Times” (London), “The Daily Telegraph”, “The Guardian”, and “The International Herald Tribune”, and other international newspapers, were carrying negative articles about Malta.
I was being made the subject of cartoons, but Castille relished all this publicity, convinced that Europe would have to succumb.
Europe did not. We had to eat humble pie, and in spite of Mintoff’s boycott’s threat to Felipe Gonzalez, Alex Sceberras Trigona took the flight to Madrid to join the consensus reached by all the other states, who were ready to carry on without Malta.
PR people may say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. This is not so when honour is involved.
This might be a good soundtrack for the PL’s electoral campaign next year.
It’s called The Hillbilly Stomp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnk-C6UbSPg
I was listening to the radio this morning and when I heard the headline i thought the journalist must have got it wrong… and yet that’s exactly what he said “we stamped our feet” I guess he doesn’t know the negative connotations it has.
For a Prime Minister of a country, where one of the official languages is English and who has (or so he thinks) a British sense of humour, to describe any action of his as ‘stamping his feet’ is beyond pathetic. It is deeply embarrassing to the nation that he represents.
And then Simon Busuttil said that 36,000 voters can’t be wrong.
The title is coming from a translation quoting Muscat:
DE:
Nun sagte Muscat am Montag in Rom, er habe gar nicht direkt mit Abschiebungen gedroht. Man habe lediglich angekündigt, dass man keine Option ausschließe. „Wir haben nur mit dem Fuß aufgestampft, um zu sagen: Lasst uns nicht allein“, erklärte Muscat.
EN:
Now, on Monday in Rome, Muscat said he did not threathen with push backs. One only announced that no options shall be excluded. “We only put our foot down to say: Don’t leave us alone”, Muscat explained.
Sorry, I only saw Timpana’s post after I had replied to Andrea/Germany. Timpana’s English version is quite correct.