A quick translation problem.

[Tuomas]

hiya.

It's time I turn to my loyal mates again. This time in hope for finding some guidance with the German language, as I'm yet again translating a book, only this time it's not from English but from German. Not I'm pretty sure there's a spelling error where I'm stuck at the moment, and I'd really need to figure out what the author meant with the sentence. The text is pretty easy, though the sentence is rather long, but the problem lies only in the first 5 words of it. Here:

In den Auwiesen der Steyr unterhalb des Spitals, gleich hinter der Straße, sah man immer wieder ihre Wagen stehen, bunte Wäsche dazwischen gespannt, nachts den Schein von Feuerstellen, und nur wenige Kilometer weiter westlich, neben der Straße nach Sierning, befindet sich eine Anhöhe, die noch heute Zigeunerberg heisst, weil ihre Mulde fehrendes Volk ein, zwei Nächte lang Station machte, ehe es von den Sierninger Gendarmen wieder verscheucht wurde.

I can't find the word Auwiesen anywhere, of course. In den might suggest to a plural and a dativ form, so I figured it might be Auswiesen, as a plural from of a noun unknown to me. Now it's not Ausweis, which would mean an ID card and would not make sense, and... well. I really don't know what it is. I know Auwiesen is not a word, but what is the word he meant?

The novel is the Abschied von Sidonie by Erich Hackl, and it has come out in English too as Farewell Sidonia

It's a pretty important translation for me, as it's from German, and there's basically no pre-contract on this, as I've got no experience to show on German, except for the 11 years of studies, so they'll be seeing how I do, and then deciding. I'd love to get my foot in the door, if you know what I mean

Well, thanks anyway.

-Tuomas--

[DoorKnobHandle]

Heh, that's a really old term. 'Auwiese' would be the singular of the noun. 'Au-' is a prefix to 'Wiese' meaning it's a 'Wiese' close to water, I think, in any case, you can probably disregard that prefix and regard 'Auwiesen' just as 'Wiesen' (and translate that with 'meadow' I guess).

Hope that helps.

[Tuomas]

Yes! Yes, thank you, that helps a lot. see, you don't find things like these in the dictionaries or the internet. I've been looking for this one word in the internet for at least 3 hours now, and couldn't find it. But that actually makes sense...

Heh. And here I was, completely sure, that there was a typo. You see, in the last text I did, there were quite a few typoes, I understood it had been done in quite a hurry.

[Akatosh]

Nah, that text is just chock full of quite old terms. Spital, Gendarme, Auwiesen... nobody says that anymore.

But yeah, "Auen" or "Auwiesen" are basically grassy areas near a body of water.

(The style is horrible, though. Were periods rationalised or was the author paid by the comma or what?)