Lost in translation
Cheryl Unruh
Originally published 02:20 p.m., January 15, 2008
Updated 02:20 p.m., January 15, 2008
I’m one-quarter Danish; one set of great-grandparents came from Denmark.
But I’m not familiar with the language — can’t read it, can’t speak it, and I’m not sure I could pick it out of a foreign language line-up.
I seldom have a need to read Danish, but there are times (like now) when it would come in handy.
In November, a phone call came from Copenhagen with English-speaking journalist Jonas Langvad Nilsson on the line.
Nilsson visited Kansas last June and was writing an article about our state for “Euroman” magazine.
What he wanted from me was to learn about our way of life and way of thinking here in Kansas, how we deal with that endless prairie outside our windows and the fearsome storms that occasionally barrel through.
In late December, Nilsson sent me a copy of the January 2008 issue of “Euroman,” a classy magazine with features on politics, literature and fashion.
Nilsson’s article is titled, “Undskyld, hvor ligger Kansas?” Can’t read a word of it. Well, that’s not true, I can pick out a few words in the eight-page article, such as “Kansas” and other proper names, but that’s about it.
Nilsson e-mailed me the Danish text of his article so I could run it through an online translator, which I did, and the results were, well, somewhat lacking.
“For example, his article mentioned hardships that immigrants may have faced on the Kansas plains.”
The online translation: “ … that pray the teeth between them and survived fetch, chill vintre, the hurricane about the spring, endless months except rain graeshoppervarme, aggressions from indianere and the perpetual wind to the face, that drives they to madness and giving women and kids praeriesyge.”
I get the general idea, but it’s not a great translation.
My friend April Buckman in Garnett came to the rescue. She introduced me to her Danish friend, Niels Rytter, and his wife, Roni. Niels emigrated from Denmark to the U.S. in 1986.
“Ever since I was about his size (nodding toward his 6-year-old son), I wanted to come here, so it’s kind of a dream come true,” Rytter said.
Rytter was raised on a dairy farm in Denmark. People from England and Canada worked on the farm nearly every summer, exposing him to other cultures and giving him a chance to practice his conversational English.
English classes are mandatory in Danish schools; he studied it for five years.
In Denmark, Rytter worked as a carpenter. He also served in the Royal Danish Guard, protecting the Queen of Denmark in her various castles.
At age 24, Rytter found his ticket to America.
“A fellow (originally from Denmark) was starting a furniture business in Kansas City. He was looking for a Danish craftsman to help him and that’s how I got here,” Rytter told me.
One reason he had wanted to come to America was to start his own business. In the U.S., he said, “the possibilities are endless. Here, you’re just a lot more free, able to do what you want.”
Niels Rytter is a master carpenter and now has his own business in Garnett, Rytter Hardwood Floors. He installs solid beech hardwood floors and does other interior remodeling.
The Rytters travel to Denmark occasionally to visit family. On one trip, their son was baptized in the same 1,000-year-old church that Niels was baptized in.
I left the magazine article with Rytter and he has now completed the translation; a cassette tape just arrived in the mail.
In a short time, I’ve become acquainted with two Danes, one of whom put an article about Kansas into a language that I can’t understand, and the other who put it into a language that I can.
“Flyover People” is online at www.flyoverpeople.net. • Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.