"Band of Brothers" in German?

[taikonaut]

How do you say "Band of Brothers" in German?

[Gran Sasso]

Ein Bund von Brüdern

[taikonaut]

Thanks

[charly]

or "waffenbrüder" is good too

[Gran Sasso]

or "waffenbrüder" is good too

That would be the translation for "Brothers in arms".

[Dietrich Maerz]

The original expression is from from Shakespeare's drama "Henry V" - the famous St. Crispen speech (and, No, it is not an invention of Spielberg and Hanks!):

"But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

The nearly perfect translation which captures the essence of Shakespeare's work was done by von Schlegel and is one of the very rare cases where this worked :


"Daß man nicht uns dabei erwähnen sollte,
Uns wen'ge, uns beglücktes Häuflein Brüder:
Denn welcher heut sein Blut mit mir vergießt,
Der wird mein Bruder; sei er noch so niedrig,
Der heutge Tag wird adeln seinen Stand.
Und Edelleut in England, jetzt im Bett,
Verfluchen einst, daß sie nicht hier gewesen,
Und werden kleinlaut, wenn nur jemand spricht,
Der mit uns focht am Sankt Crispinustag."

So he translates with "Häuflein Brüder" which is the diminiutive of "Haufen Brüder" which really would be more like "bunch of brothers" in a direct translation. I really think it is between "Haufen Brüder" and "Bund von Brüdern" with a strong tendency to what was mentioned earlier. "Bund" captures the essence in this case better.

Dietrich