I found another "poxleber"

[Koen G]

Rafal: these are the kinds of question to ask when you'd want to publish a critical translation: how do we render "pox" in a way the audience understands?

In Ebendorfer (source mentioned in the overview post) it is absolutely clear that he knows about the God meaning. But it's also clear that he sees the "buck" meaning. So it's really both.

The reason why I choose to translate as "God" is that these phrases have their origin in God-swearing. "Sammer pox" comes from "so mir Gott hilfe", "so help me God".

I could translate by gosh, but that's also awful because of the connotation. For us, saying "gosh" is hardly a curse, it could be done by a very religious person without issues. It's about the tamest thing you could say. But minced oaths in the Middle Ages were extremely offensive. Since they were very much aware of the religious origin of the word, I translate as "God". Translating as anything else would ignore the impact these phrases had for the medieval audience.