Sister Translator

So, I'm working on translating a particular song into ASL.

Said song originates in Germany. I can translate most of it just fine...as long as it's literal. And I have a basic understanding of some cultural distinctions, so I can understand a little more. But I've been stuck on a particular word, and I finally decide, "Okay, if I'm going to be able to sign that, I need to understand what it means."

Literally, it translates to "Deadly Sunday," or perchance, "Dead Sunday." The only thing I can possibly think of in our culture that this might be referring to is Easter Sunday. Somehow, I don't think that's it. So, I call Santas.

Santas is splendid when it comes to German. I've a friend in show choir who could blow her out of the water with it, but he's married. It's after ten, and I don't have a practice of having any contact with him outside of choir. MY cultural distinctions indicate that it would be unacceptable for me to call him now. So. Santas it shall be.

Santas is also just plain fun to talk to, because she's a hoot. The way she delivers her ideas is both brilliant and goofy. My sister is quite simply a genius. To add to this, I have a near-guarantee of learning more information on the topic than I'd even thought to ask. I approve of this.

Admittedly, her first response was unexpected.

"WHAT?!?! Why are you signing THAT?!! It's about a pedophile!!!"
I am somewhat taken aback[1]. "What?? How?? It's about a coma!"
"Spiel mit mir? No it isn't!! What possessed you to choose such a thing?!!"
"Spieluhr. The music box."
*pause* "Oh. Well, you're right. That one's a coma. That one's okay."
I sigh, relieved. "Oh, good. 'cause, I've been going over these lyrics for the past couple days straight, and I was pretty sure I would have noticed that."

Spieluhr is also a rather creepy song, to be honest. But something about it grabbed me and said, "Sign this!" when I needed to pick a song. So, er, I'm going to be rather creepy, perhaps. The story's about a kid who stops his heart, and people think he's dead, so he gets buried with his favorite toy, a music box. When the weather gets cold, the music box starts, and his heart starts, and he sings with the music box. The people hear the song, and are shocked, and go find him in time to save his life.

So, my sister explains the "Deadly Sunday" concept as being something like Funeral Sunday. Then, she starts to teach me about the German approach to dealing with death. Remind me never to die in Germany. Mourning is apparently to be a very quiet affair, and the concept of celebrating one's life (she may have only mentioned this because I frequently mention what a bash I want my friends to have in remembrance of me) would be viewed as very disrespectful of the recently departed. Oh. Okay. Cool.

My sister rocks also because she's not afraid to give me advice. After the chat on German culture, I told her I was trying to get it done in the next few days. She gives me this:

"Don't be scared, don't hesitate, and don't do that thing-um[2] where you look at the sky because you're trying to think of the next sign, because then I look up there too to try to figure out what you're looking at and I get lost because I'm not looking at your hands even though looking at your hands doesn't really help me anyway because I don't understand Sign."

I am indignant. "I'm getting better at that! I make more eye contact now!"
"Good."

She's right, of course. It's tough to understand what a blessing it is to have someone like Santas around, because she sees right through you and identifies the problems. She's also incredibly loving, loyal, and compassionate, but it's usually hard to understand that her problem-identifier is not the contrast to those attributes - it's actually a very, very straightforward expression of them. We just don't like having anyone point out what needs to be fixed.

Until Mom explained to her that this is kind of normal for other people who sign, too, she would get royally ticked off with me whenever I signed something while saying it. (It should be noted that Signscout, in contrast, gets annoyed with me whenever I say something while signing it. :P) Now, she accepts it as another one of Phirefly's weird things.

_{[1]To put it mildly. I work with kids in a few areas of my life. Child abuse is, in my book, the worst crime of all crimes.
[2]"thing-um" is not a hesitation. It's an extra syllable added to "thing" to clarify that it's not a particularly important thing. Santas and I had our own language when we were very small, and she's blended it with high English, lolspeak, German, occasional bits of Russian, other sources I can't even guess at, and made her own alterations.}