If I remember my German correctly (I took it in high school, eee), what that actually means is "ride fast in front of the dead." Vor is "in front of," fur (pretend there's an umlaut over the u) is "for," or "seit" could be used in the sense of "since" the dead travel... However, reiten is the verb "to ride," as a horse. In this case, reiten is used in the imperative case to the reader. Travel is a different verb, which I've totally forgotten, now.

So, still pertinent to the drabble and the line in Dracula, just a slightly different spin.

Sail, tell Bram Stoker, not me. I lifted from the novel itself, not from my German primer. (edit: as well as the translation - it's how Jonathan Harker translated it, not me)

Yo, Bram, you putz!

Nah, I figured you wouldn't be making the mistake if you knew the language, Deb. You have a rep for precision in language. Also, I figured that you remembered what was in the book verbatim, you've got the eye/brain for that or maybe ear. I just thought it was interesting that either translation works, just in a slightly different way.

Aha1 Found it. And Stoker was actually quoting - and, I believe, slightly mistranslating - from Burger's "Lenore". As written:

"Denn die Todten reiten schnell" ("For the dead travel fast")."

So I screwed up on the plural of "dead" - why is that feminine, damn it? Why isn't it "das" for neutral? - but he messed up on "reiten".

And, there you go.

Thanks Deborah. I added the hyphen, and also a comma after "pay in hand".

Thinking hard here (can you smell the gears burning?) I'm forgetting that Stoker was writing much earlier than I'm used to. His sentence is completely correct. I wasn't thinking of "for" as "in front of," but it was used that way even in English. Just not recently. So, yeah, his sentence translates correctly if you look at it in terms of how things were phrased and word usage for the time. And since almost all travel was done by or with horses, then using travel is perfectly fine. It's one of the pitfalls to reading older stories that word usage and phrasing can change so much in just 100 years. Heck, even in 20 years.

eta: Aren't I cute? Talking myself out of being right. AARRGGHH!

Denn die Todten reiten schnell

All plurals of der, die, or das take the "die" form. Der Todten is the dative form of "die," so your misremembrance actually used the correct case! Hee.

why is that feminine, damn it? Why isn't it "das" for neutral?

"die" is used for all plurals regardless of gender - das Kind, die Kinder, etc. I want to say that "Tot" is actually masculine, but I do German noun gender assignation by what sounds right and am therefore often wrong.

I am getting nowhere with this drabble, but it's early, yet.

[link]

I'm going to post this link in "Press". But it is a bit of non-fiction writing. I did catch a typo which I'm too late to correct. (Not my blog). I'd welcome comment here on writing style, what works and what doesn't.

Oh, I know, -t! I used to hate it that "madchen" was a neuter noun! Girls aren't neuter, damn it! Then I found out that any word ending in "chen" takes the neuter form. Still, quit trying to unsex me, you nasty gender-assigning language.