Hello all you clever English/German speakers. I'm rather stumped. I'm an official translator at a civil ceremony on Friday (doing it for a friend.)
The most important question of the ceremony is:
"Mr. X, ich frage Sie, ist es Ihr aufrichtiger Wunsch und Ihr freier Wille, heute mit Miss Y die Ehe zu schliessen?"
The thought of asking, "Mr X, do you take Miss Y to be your lawful wedding wife" is so tempting but obviously not the true translation.
Can someone help me make the German question sound natural, important and legal in German?
Good old Google Sprachtools gave me this translation, which has obviously been translated incorrectly. " I ask you, it is your sincere desire and your free will, today with his wife Y to close the marriage?"
Mathnut's sounds better. Maybe "joined with...", rather "joined to".
Olygirl in your version I think legally "wedded wife" not "wedding wife" is correct.
But the Mr X and Miss Y sounds wrong to me. Or does it have to be that formal here in Switzerland?
I am not used to ever having been called Miss- in English. And any wedding (but all outside Switzerland) I've ever been to the question has always been "John do you... Mary...? Or " John Peter X.... Mary Ann Y..."
To be honest at the wedding I went to the registrar provides the text in both languages. It was helpful as the first section of the marraige you have to quote civil codes..... after trying with the first one I noticed after each paragraph it was then translated into english... very helpful when you are under pressure. You should call them before. The only stressful point was when the registrar thought she would throw in a "thoughtful poem" at the end... only thing was she didnt stop every so often so was a little embarrasing to think I had to translate the whole thing from memory right at the end!!! Good luck it is great fun.
Well, thanks for advices above. I will have to go thru this rigmarole soon and luckily we already have our bridesmaid, who btw knows both languages well, appointed.
Don't think so - it's "estate" in the Book of Common Prayer at any rate.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony; which is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church ..."
I think estate is an old-fashioned term but valid as in a holy contract of marriage. State would be referring to the state of marriage, civil status.
(The correct noun when I went to school was innocence. I read a bit and have never seen innocencey written in my life, nor does it appear in my dictionary. Sorry a bit off-topic. No offence intended.)
No matter how they say it in Gemeinde and in which language (cos it sounds good in any language all the same)... As soon as we'll get a certificate, we can live happily ever after and for better and for worse
BTW: Will anyone show up later from Gemeinde police to knock-knock at our door and check if the tooth-brushes are still there ?
Thanks again for your replies. I've received three pages of text that will be read at the ceremony. I'm translating it all and even have a poem at the end by Carmen Sylva to translate. Luckily it's short and I think the translation turned out plausible.
Here it is:
Das Glück ist nicht in einem ewig
lachenden Himmel zu suchen,
sondern in den still kleinigkeiten,
aus denen wir unser Leben zurechtzimmern.
My translation:
Happiness is not found in the eternal laughing sky
but in the small and quiet things that craft our lives.