Okaaay.
I'm German and have been for 22 years. Which is all my life. I've been speaking German nearly that much too.
My English is more or less fluent, but not always elegant or 100% grammatically correct. But at least, I don't make such embarassing mistakes, as giving a story such a completely and in any sense wrong and misunderstandable name.
"Übel Blatt". Written wrong, thus a German would usually unconsciously turn it right, that is, into "Übles Blatt". If that was written in a sentence, it would be "... übles Blatt", with "übles" written small since it's an adjective and "Blatt" written capital since it's a noun.
If a German hears "übel", they'll nearly always think of it in a context, which is: "Mir ist übel!" = "I'm going to puke!". A rather aged use of "übel" is indeed "evil", however that translation as usually too intense and overkill, kind of. A more accurate translation would be "wrong" as in "He does you wrong" and not just by mistake, but intentionally. As you can see, "übel" does change it's meaning ALOT with the context. So a German who is well-read would be able to feel into what the title "Übel Blatt" is meant to express without much difficulty, although there would still be some confusion as the title is obviously grammatically wrong and just
could mean something else.
As for "Blatt", most people will think of a leaf, either from a tree or maybe a flower. Some would think of a sheet of paper, since that's one of the more common uses for "Blatt" as well. Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY would think of a sword blade without a context as to what kind of "Blatt" is meant.
Like "übel", "Blatt" has lots of meanings changing with context too. If you mean a sword's blade, you say "ein Schwertblatt", if you want a saw's blade, you say " ein Sägeblatt", if you want a green leaf you say "ein grünes Blatt", if you wanted a sheet of paper, you'd say "ein Blatt Papier". The "ein" means "one [...]" as in "a/one sheet of paper". Of course, if you were, say, explaining the single components of a sword, you could call the blade first a "Schwertblatt", then either "Klinge" (blade as in weapons' blades, emphasis on the sharp parts of a blade) or "Blatt" after you made clear what kind of "Blatt" you want through the context.
So in the end, there are several versions to correct the missmatched title:
"Üble Klinge" = "Evil Blade" or "Ill Blade" (ill), whereas the blade could be the blade of anything. A knife or a sword. Even a sickle or scythe, anything non blunt usable for attack. Pointed sticks are okay too, as long as they are not too bendable and have a sharp edge. Though that's a pointed stick, not a blade.
"Übles Schwertblatt" = "Evil Swordblade", "Ill Swordblade", this title excludes the sword as a whole and concentrates only on the blade of the
sword.
"Übles Schwert" = "Evil Sword", "Ill Sword"
The whole "Übel Blatt" and all correct versions of it also have a demonic tinge to it, they somehow convey the blade being demonic and having an ill intention. That's probably what the author really wanted to tell us.Last edited by PaterFrog at 6:30 am, Nov 16 2011________________
Get revenge - sh!t on a pigeon!