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Question
Helpful replies to my last post, and I would love to learn about the use of the term "Ahnung" in this sentence from Remarque's novel: "Es kann nicht sein, daß es fort ist, das Weiche, das unser Blut unruhig machte, das Ungewisse, Bestürzende, Kommende, die tausend Gesichter der Zukunft, die Melodie aus Träumen und Büchern, das Rauschen und die Ahnung der Frauen, es kann nicht sein, daß es untergegangen ist in Trommelfeuer, Verzweiflung und Mannschaftsbordells."
Does Ahnung refer here to the premonitions of women or to the idea / concept of women. It feels like a strange usage of the term "Ahnung." Thanks for insights.
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I read that shocking book only in English. That is rather poetic, and not easy to turn into English. "...the rustling/bustling sounds and the sensation of [the presence of] the women.."
For "Ahnung" also look up the verb "ahnen", as the definition of Ahnung in DWDS.de, which is normally the go-to dictionary for such things, perhaps falls a bit short in this case.
Thanks. Wow, that now makes sense to me. "A rustling sound and the sensation that women are present" or something like that. The two translators got it wrong with "the idea of women" and "divinations of women."
No, "the idea of women" is pretty spot on in this context.
He's basically talking about the more sensual concepts in life that the war caused them to lose
This seems less a question about translation and more one about interpretation. "Ahnung der Frauen" in itself is simply ambiguous and can be interpreted as both an inkling/hunch that women have or an inkling/hunch about/of women.
The sentence talks about a concept that remains nameless but is identified by a list of qualitities:
das Weiche, das Blut unruhig machende, das Ungewisse, das Bestürzende, das Kommende, die tausend Gesichter der Zukunft, die Melodie aus Träumen und Büchern, das Rauschen und die Ahnung der Frauen
at the end, you have a second, shorter list of things to which the unnamed entity can't have been surrendered:
Trommelfeuer, Verzweiflung, Mannschaftsbordells.
As the two lists are of different length, it can't be that one item in one list corresponds to one item in the other, but I still think you can make out correspondences, which could look like this:
Trommelfeuer - das Weiche, das Ungewisse, das Bestürzende -> callousness opposed to vulnerability
Verzweiflung - das Blut unruhig machende, das Kommende, die tausend Gesichter der Zukunft, die Melodie aus Träumen und Büchern -> surrender versus hope for the future
Mannschaftsbordells - das Rauschen und die Ahnung der Frauen -> ejaculation versus (suspended) erotic love
Especially following the noun "Rauschen" which I would associate with the sounds created by the female garments of the time (perhaps during dancing or even just walking), I would understand "Ahnung der Frauen" to mean: the exiting knowledge of the hidden female body and all the promises associated with that.
Of course, all these concepts intercept: a mutual sexual relationship with a woman is part of the future the drafted young men would have hoped for. Likewise "Ungewissheit" is a word that directly connects to "future" etc.
I never read the novel (I know shame on me) but at least without more context, I would understand that Remarque is simply trying to describe what "youth" means. I was reminded of an attempt Stephen Fry once made, describing the state of mind of teenagers/very young adults as "eternal republic of the adolescent".