Satoshi Akima wrote:

>>  Wie wenig gehort zum Glucke! Der Ton eines Dudelsacks. - Ohne Musik
>>  ware das Leben ein Irrthum. Der Deutsche denkt sich selbst Gott
>>  liedersingend.
>>
>>How little is needed for happiness!  The sound of a bagpipe.  --Without
>>music, life would be a mistake.  The German who sings songs considers
>>himself God.
>
>When I read the translation of the last line, I was surprised - but yes,
>indeed you CAN translate this passage in this way!

No, you cannot.  As a German and teacher of German I have to correct this.
The word order of the sentence makes definitely clear that there is only
one translation: The German even thinks of God as a singer of songs.  If
the sentence was thought to mean something different the word order would
be different, too, e.g.  Der Deutsche, liedersingend, denkt sich selbst
Gott or Der Deutsche denkt sich liedersingend selbst Gott.  (the second
version could be ambivalent).  No German writer (and surely not Nietzsche,
this big boss of writers) would put the word "liedersingend" at the end
to express "The German thinks of himself as a god when he sings songs".
It would be simply wrong and sounds like a beginner in style wrote the
sentence.  No, Walter's (and Matts') translation is a mistake - but an
interesting one.

Robert