Heimgezahlt (?Paid Home?) By Donna Barr(c)80 Pages 72-80 of the Seventh Black Manuscript.

Or, what I used to do to amuse myself. I want to make perfectly clear that this is what you-all would consider a Sketchbook. In the original, not even I am capable of reading the tiny print. This version is considerably enlarged.

Barrdeutsch is not real German. This is cockeyed and archaic, so if you do speak proper German, you will see how much fun it was to mess with a language. Or, you could accept it as being simply the way they speak in my homeland, The Reich. Borders are imaginary; this is MY Reich, in the Midnight Library, not the other one, which, thank gods, is no longer with us. Well, not in Germany, anyway.

Hauptmann = Captain. Feldwebel = Sergeant. Heer = Army. Leutnant = (Army) Lieutenant. UntersturmfOhrer = (SS) Lieutenant. (Note: This is the first time I used the name ?Stinz,? about a year before my other, better-known character was born.)

?Herr?, while today used as the English ?Mr.,? means ?Lord,? and is used in military titles in reference to officers and N.C.0.s. Because the actual meaning is untranslatable, it has been left in the German.

German text:

"Jahni!?

"Shit! There he is, the showy cock, with his hands on his hips, and his chest thrown out -- ?

"At your command, Herr Krempler.?

"Calls me 'Herr,' without using the rest of my title -- as is usual to call the SS, because of the long titles -- the slit-ear!? ( ?Rogue.? Because of old practice of slitting the ears of outlaws.)

"Battalion has informed me that we neglected to submit the morning report in a timely fashion."

"Impossible."

"For the third time in the present month, Sergeant!"

"Can't be -- "

"Are you calling me a liar?!"

"Of course not, Herr Krempler!"

" 'My Lord Captain,' you skunk!"

"As you will."

"I will!"