I think this is much better than the two previous versions, but I am still not completely happy. The German original suggests rather more strongly that the milk/ice cubes are formed in the udder, as opposed to a single block of ice in a bucket.

But you use 8/7 syllables instead of 7/7...
A balance in between the 2 parts is desirable.

This doesn't seem important to me at all. Poetry generally isn't as pedantic as that. But if you have an idea how to get the numbers of syllables equal without causing any regressions otherwise, I will happily implement it. E.g. there might be a good one-syllable word to fill in the stars in "When the barn-*** heater fails". But I can't think of any.

That doesn't scan at all: -x---x- / x---x--.

>Poetry generally isn't as pedantic as that

Call it pedantic if you may, but that is the rule of the game with weather lores. Especially since these are fake, respecting the rhyme is the only point of the exercise.
The german original and the dutch and french translations respect this 7/7 principle. The others don't.

Are you sure that isn't just something you have made up? I have never heard of any "7/7 principle" which the German original could be "respecting", and I can see no evidence for it in the actual data of German and English weather lore:
* http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li...r_Bauernregeln
* http://www.cmos.ca/weatherlore.html
It's very implausible anyway, because what everybody notices and considers jarring is when the two lines don't scan. The pattern ---x-x-x/x-x-x-x however, which substitutes -- for x in the first line, is entirely unremarkable.

Maybe you are trying to apply French principles of poetry to German and English? Although Molière for example sounds quite natural to me, I believe I heard somewhere that French poetry has an unusual focus on certain formalities.

>Are you sure that isn't just something you have made up?

Yes, we made it up. These are FAKE RHYMING weather lores...http://tatoeba.org/epo/sentences/show/414335

>Maybe you are trying to apply French principles of poetry to German and English?

The original is GERMAN...

I suggest you consult the history of the chain of translations and read the tags to understand the point before translating...

Actually no, this rule doesn't hold for French weather lore either:
* http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicton
In fact, "Des feuilles dans les arbres qui tournent le dos au vent annonce du mauvais temps" is one of the worst I have seen so far. I think the problem is that an enjambement really requires a relatively pure rhyme and lines that scan. Neither is the case here. -x--x--x--x/-x-x--x-x. While some of this weather lore is pretty good as a poem, much of it is just as chaotic as you would expect from a random peasant.

I still don't get your point. Your supposed rule doesn't hold for German *fake* weather lore either:
* http://www.lustigestories.de/st...uernregeln.php
Where is your supposed rule in "Liegt der Bauer tot im Zimmer, lebt er nimmer" or in the most famous "Wenn der Hahn kräht auf dem Mist, ändert sich's Wetter oder es bleibt wie's ist" (or Muiriel's version: "Kräht der Hahn früh auf dem Mist, ändert sich's Wetter, oder es bleibt wie es ist.")

Your link to http://tatoeba.org/epo/sentences/show/414335 is in no way illuminating.

>I still don't get your point.

I can see this, yes. Forget it...

When such a paragraph I do read, constipation medicine I do need.