Mark Twain was rather fond of translations of his books, and he tried to master the one or other European language himself, although he must have realized that languages are not his forte: “I have a prejudice against people who print things in a foreign language and add no translation. When I am the reader, and the author considers me able to do the translating myself, he pays me quite a nice compliment — but if he would do the translating for me, I would try to get along without the compliment.”
– A Tramp Abroad
A Tramp Abroad (1980) contains a a mixture of autobiography and fictional events. As Twain and his travel companion make their way through Germany, the Alps, and Italy, they encounter situations made all the more humorous by their reactions to them. The narrator (Twain) plays the part of the American tourist of the time, believing that he understands all that he sees, but in reality understanding none of it.
The book also contain quite a few humorous examples of the German language (as seen through his English eyes), the most famous one titled The Awful German Language. Elsewhere he sums up his observation as follows:
“Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, “Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions.” He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it.”