Requesting some help - German Toasts

Subject: Requesting some help
From: GUEST,J Fleming
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 02:01 PM

I have a strange request, but with all the great minds, knowledge and experience in this forum, maybe someone can offer suggestions. Does anyone know a short toast in German? It is for a person who's retiring. The only one I seem to find is Prosit. Auf ihr wohl. I think they mean "to your health". Something like "best wishes or good luck" would be more appropriate. Appreciate anything you can offer (with translation).Thank you!

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: Wolfgang
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 02:12 PM

Three short alternatives (short enough or too short)

- Glueck und Gesundheit (happiness and health)

- Glueck und Gesundheit fuer Ihren (or: Deinen) weiteren Lebensweg

(happiness and health for your (the first German word is more formal the second one if you know this person well) further life

- Gesundheit und ein langes Leben (health and a long life)

Not easy to say without knowing the person which is best. I have a slight bias for #3

Wolfgang (do you need pronounciation advice?)

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: JenEllen
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 02:19 PM

Eine Gesundheit zu Ihnen,
A Fülle zu Ihnen,
und das beste, daß das Leben geben kann Ihnen.
Maivermögen ist noch zu Ihnen freundlich,
und Glück ist zu Ihnen zutreffend,
und das Leben ist lang und gut zu Ihnen ist,
der Toast aller Ihrer Freunde zu Ihnen.

(your typical 'good health/ good wealth/ good friends'--hope it helps)

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: JenEllen
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 02:21 PM

Sorry, your translation...

A health to you,
A wealth to you,
And the best that life can give to you.
May fortune still be kind to you,
And happiness be true to you,
And life be long and good to you,
Is the toast of all your friends to you.

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 02:23 PM

Musically speaking,

Hoch soll er leben,
hoch soll er leben,
dreimal hoch!

(rough translation: may he live well, three times well. Actually "hoch" means "high" but not with the same connotations as in English!)

Alex

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: SDShad
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 03:09 PM

Wow. Wolfgang, it sounds like my Nordic forbears kind of pared down on the number of syllables in toast-language after their tribes departed from yours and headed north. We have the short, to the point: sköl!

Must be all the aquavit.

Shad

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: GUEST,J Fleming
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 04:16 PM

Thank you all for your help and quick response. I knew I could depend on you. Have a great weekend!

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 04:27 PM

I just knew there was a good reason to have Wolfgang around...............

Spaw (:<))

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 04:27 PM

I don't remember my German well enough, but there is a neat song called "Die gedanken sind frei" perhaps someome "mit viel besseren Deutsch" can tell you more HansB

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 04:42 PM

Live long and prosper

How would that sound in GHerman?

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: JenEllen
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 05:07 PM

Lebhaftlange und erweitern sich!

or in Italian:
Abbia una vita lunge, e sia prosperoso

~Jen (who thinks everything sounds better in Italian...*bg*)

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 05:55 PM

You'd like my friend from California, Jen: the tagline on her emails is "life is short: drive fast and brake hard" -- in Italian (vita breva est: something rapide something something something...)

Alex

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 07:45 PM

My favourite toast comes from the west coast marshes, an area called Dithmarschen, and goes:
Dat et us wohl gah op us ole Dage!
It is known as Martje Flor's toast. There is a story attached to it. When soldiers occupied the area during the Napoleonic Wars some officers found quarters in a prosperous farm. They expected to be fed etc. and humiliated the people living there. At dinner one night, they called for the owner's ten-year-old daughter, Martje Flor, put a glass of wine in her hand and said, "Give us a toast!", expecting, of course, to be grovelled to. She said, in her native Low German, "Dat et us wohl gah op us ole Dage!" (May we all live well in our old age.)

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: JenEllen
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 07:50 PM

La vita è corta: Guidare rapidamente ed arrestarsi velocemente! LMAO Alex, I'll have to remember that one.

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 09:14 PM

JE, I think in Italian-American, the toast "Live Long and Prosper" is translated:

"Stay da' hell outta' my fockin' sight you rat bastard or I'll play Bocci ball with your nuts, ya' fockin' pissant."

Spaw

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 10:06 PM

It's interesting that the usual German toast is "Prosit" or "Prost" - Latin for "may it go your way" or "may it be good for you." A well-known German drinking song is "Gaudeamus Igitur," written in Latin but never sung by Caesar and his cronies.
And, I mustn't forget the the best-known words of the Latin Mass are "Kyrie eleison" (Greek for "Lord have mercy").
Shoots theories of ethnic purity all to hell, doesn't it?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Requesting some help
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jul 01 - 10:21 PM

LOL Joe.....Good line!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: M.Ted
Date: 21 Jul 01 - 11:18 AM

For those of you who don't recognize the name, "Gaudeamus Igitur" is that song that used to play whenever there was a long shot of the gates to a college campus--You don't happen to have the words,(and a translation), do you, Joe?

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Jul 01 - 01:26 PM

I'm certain he will - but I'll beat him to it. Here's a link with the words in both languages anyway.

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: Amos
Date: 01 Aug 01 - 09:00 PM

Also sung by beerful glee clubs -- I had the pleasure of singing it with the Whiffenpoofs themselves when I was a young lad. Sitting right at one of those tables down at Mory's. Wodda trip.

A

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: mike the knife
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 01:29 PM

Another toast (Learned from Burschenschaft Allemania in Heidelberg):
(with glass on the floor): "Auf dem Boden!" (on the floor)
(with glass on privates): "Auf den Hoden!" (on the balls)
(with glass at navel): "Auf den Nabel!" (on the navel)
(with glass at close ready drinking position): "Auf den Schnabel!" (on the beak)

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 09:26 PM

Mike, I wouldn't use that in polite company! :-)

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: mike the knife
Date: 26 Nov 02 - 08:12 AM

Yeah, I guess it's a tad "gender specific" & meant for a particular type of gathering...

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From:
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 11:08 AM

I need help!! I am going to a wedding in 2 days and the groom is German and I want to write one phrase in German in my card. Here is the phrase I need a translation on:

May you know only happiness and laughter from this day forward.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 05:23 PM

One version could be:

Vom heutigen Tage an sollen Glück und Fröhlichkeit Euren Lebensweg begleiten!

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 07 Oct 05 - 04:33 AM

A not so verbal translation, but sounding good in my native ears:

Möge Euer Leben von heute an nur Glück und Freude sein

(But I'm afraid I'm too late.)

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 07 Oct 05 - 03:38 PM

I'm not sure this fits with the kind of toast envisioned here, but I like this one:

Wer viel trinkt, schlafft gut
Wer gut schlafft, sundigt nicht
Wer nicht sundigt, kommt in den Himmmel!
Also, trink!

I hope my spelling is correct.

For those who are curious, this translates as:

He who drinks a lot, sleeps well.
He who sleeps well, doesn't sin.
He who doesn't sin, goes to Heaven.
Therefore, drink!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: GUEST,sidleslaura
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 12:09 PM

I am trying to come up with some good nbaner ideas for my parents 40th wedding aniversary. We are planning a greman theme becasue they are going to Germany this fall. Can anyone help? I would like to say something like.....Congratulations on your 40th wedding anniversary! or Happy 40th Aniversary! Here's too many more!

Thanks,

Laura

Subject: RE: Requesting some help - German Toasts
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 05:06 PM

Wir gratulieren euch zum 40sten Hochzeitstag!
Viel Glück und alles Gute zum Jubiläum! Auf viele weitere!