Auf Wiedersehen

/ TheDreamGirlWrites

/auf wee-der-zayn/ Goodbye/ Until we see each other again

See what I did there 😉

It’s funny how I am starting my A-Z with goodbye. But somehow it feels right.

German, like Indian languages is a beautiful language with complicated nuances, intense pronunciations and has so so darn many (viel) words.

Suffice to say, it is a pain to learn and through this entire A-Z challenge I will take immense joy in pointing out such complexities.

Coming to the word, Auf Wiedersehen, I love the literal translation/meaning. It just conveys so much more than a plain Goodbye. This is true for Indian languages. We never say goodbye when we leave our home. We always say “I’ll go and come” (English really sucks the essence of it). And it honestly feels so much more romantic. Like you never want to say goodbye cause you will always want to come back and see each other again.

I said, “ಹೋಗ ಬರ್ತೀನಿ” (actually I said the same thing in my mother tongue but Google Translate just sucks) on the 28th of December 2022. Then I spent nearly 3 months away from my bed, my street food, my family and friends obviously xD and it has been an incredible learning experience. This is the longest time I have been away from home.

I am back now for a vacation and it honestly feels so surreal. I am definitely still functioning on German time and apart from that I do miss my life there. I think it really just boils down to freedom. I have had to pull up my socks and really organise my life and I LOVED it. There really is something comforting about planning and having your plans work out.

I now bid thee, Auf Weidersehen und I will Bis Morgen (see you tomorrow)

If you are also participating in A-Z, make sure to drop your post links in my comments 🙂

Update: You can find all posts for this year’s A-Z, listed here

46 thoughts on “Auf Wiedersehen”

  1. Wonderful post from which I’ve learned something new. With English being my first language but having since learned enough Chinese and Japanese to get by, it’s always frustrating trying to back translate to English when so many expressions just lose their passion in translation. Looking forward to more of your posts. I’ll be posting later in the day 🙂

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  9. I knew this one from The Sound of Music, but I didn’t know the literal translation meant “until we see each other again.” That’s really lovely. And it kind of adds a little extra meaning to the song, which I never picked up on before.

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  11. Oh great start to the A to Z. I am 25% German but don’t know anything except Ich Liebe Dich which is something my grandmother used to say to us. Wish I had gotten more information from her but I was young and who knew to ask those questions. You are so brave to have moved away. I couldn’t even get out of our town! Happy A to Z.
    Janet’s Smiles

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  13. I learnt basic German about 25 years ago and I remember Auf Wiedersehen 🙂
    True, saying “I will go and come” like we do here, in most languages, feels so full of warmth than just Good bye!
    Interesting post, Swapna 🙂

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