AUS
AUS
AUS

(1954)
Alexander Braun

AB:This is from the context of the Germans becoming World Champions in 1954: The Miracle of Bern! All the Germans were at the radio (not TV) and when the referee ended the game, the radio commentator cried, ‘aus, aus, aus!!! Das Spiel ist aus! Deutschland ist Weltmeister!’, which means ‘over, over, over!!! The game is over! Germany are World Champions!’ He did it in an extremly enthusiastic and touching way, not with the tone of a favorite, but in the spirit of an extreme underdog, and with tears in his voice. It's not this Herrenmenschen/Blitzkrieg mentality. He was deeply moved when he cried ‘aus, aus, aus!!!’ We all have this way of saying ‘aus’ in our collective ears.

IT
IS
NOW

(1966)
translated by Ken Cockburn

KC: I think the best way it would work for a British audience is to add the date ‘1954’ to the original, and pair it with the final words of Kenneth Wolstenholme’s commentary from the 1966 final, ‘it is now’, again with the date added afterwards. It then becomes clearer that the German also relates to winning the World Cup, even if the British reader doesn’t get the subtleties (and indeed vice-versa). It also avoids Wostenholme’s better known THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER which, having had a television programme named after it has become clichéd and is now, in contrast to the German, rather triumphalist.

SCHWALBE
GEFAKTE
SCHWALBE

Ulrike Draesner

(A ‘swallow’ is someone who falls over in the penalty-box, in order to get a penalty-kick awarded, A television presenter is supposed once to have used this phrase, ‘fake swallow’ - but what does the faker of a swallow look like?)

PLAYACTING
FAKE
PLAYACTING

translated by Ken Cockburn

KC: In English we don’t talk about the ‘swallow’, but use the word ‘diver’. This can also be a bird, but more often the word refers to someone jumping into water, and that is what ‘fake diver’ would suggest. TV and radio commentators often talk of players ‘playacting’, and the bizarre idea of ‘fake playacting’ appealed to me.

KAHN
IM
BOOT

Arne Rautenberg

AR: ‘Kahn’ also means ‘boat’ - and the colloquialism ‘to be in the boat with someone’ means ‘to be involved’.

Note: Oliver KAHN is the goalkeeper for Bayern Munich and the German national team.

SEAMAN
ON
BOARD

translated by Ken Cockburn

KC: Kahn’s recent English equivalent, David Seaman, has a similarly nautical surname, but given the ignoble ending to his career, the German original could be adapted:

SEAMAN OVER BOARD

SEAMAN SHIPPED OUT