Bald Eagle, Wolfgang said it was a REtranslation; i.e., he read Steinbeck's words as translated into German. It would be interesting to know what the original quotation was. It reminds me of Mark Twain's brilliantly funny "retranslation" of a French translation of his story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", which may be found here. "And what has a poor foreigner like me done, to be so abused and misrepresented like this? When I say, "Well, I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog," is it kind, is it just, for this Frenchman to try to make it appear that I said, "Eh bien! I no saw not that that frog had nothing of better than each frog"? I have no heart to write more. I never felt so about anything before."

Sorry about the thread creep...

Aloha,
Mark