I'm currently reading Erich Maria Remarque's powerful novel Im Westen nichts Neues, known as All Quiet on the Western Front in English. Remarque's anti-war masterpiece centers around the experience of Paul Bäumer and his school classmates while serving in the German Army on the western front in WWI.
Midway through the novel, Paul and the gang run into Corporal Himmelstoss - their sadistic drill instructor from basic training - shortly after Himmelstoss had been posted to the front. During the ensuing exchange, Tjaden calls Himmelstoss an expression that literally translates as a pig/sow-dog. In German:
Weisst du, was du bist? ... Du bist ein Sauhund, das bist du! Das wollt' ich dir schon lange mal sagen.Sauhund was then an extremely vulgar German expression. (It still is, but it has lost a little strength and is not used very frequently these days.) But as a potty-mouthed American, I can't help but think: a pig-dog? Really? That's the worst you can do?
This is pretty typical of German curses. They feel ... weak. Yet they are not weak when said in German to Germans. I often struggle to keep the cultural context in mind - I've on occasion spouted granny-shockers when I wanted was to express mild frustration.
Furthermore, compared to English, German has but a limited variety. Americans are constantly inventing radically new ways to insult each other - whereas many native Germans innovate off a few base words, and then fall back on regional dialects for something truly juicy or to express certain emotional nuances - a handy vocabulary-extender I sadly cannot draw upon.
