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Our honour, almost
13 August 2025 05:22 pmAfter over two weeks of burrowing away at it (feels like longer...) I finally have more-or-less usable translations in singable verse for all the various sections of Наша честь, which is something I've had the vaguely-acknowledged ambition to tackle since I first located the Russian lyrics in April, and the frankly pretty bad translation on that page.
However I've just belatedly found a rather better -- probably made by a human rather than a computer! -- literal translation on another page, thanks to the brainwave of searching for the word 'translation' itself in Russian: https://teksti-pesen.ru/9/Igor-Nadjiev/tekst-pesni-Nasha-chest#translate
( Resulting translation worries )
But then some of the line-by line 'literal' translations even in the better version seem to me pretty clearly not right. I'm fairly sure that "Victory pipes are also possible/And give money to pennies" or "Perhaps the pipes are victorious/And give the money to a penny" is a misconstruing of the 'and... and' construction that would apply the verb 'to give out/away' across both lines, to both the 'pipes' (trubi in the context of victory are pretty definitely 'trumpets' and not pipes) and the 'pennies'. So the first line is not "The victory trumpets are possible" but "It is possible to part with the trumpets of victory"/"and with every last penny" (especially since the following couplet is about the corresponding impossibility of parting with one's honour!)
( A hilariously off-the-wall alternative translation )
However I've just belatedly found a rather better -- probably made by a human rather than a computer! -- literal translation on another page, thanks to the brainwave of searching for the word 'translation' itself in Russian: https://teksti-pesen.ru/9/Igor-Nadjiev/tekst-pesni-Nasha-chest#translate
( Resulting translation worries )
But then some of the line-by line 'literal' translations even in the better version seem to me pretty clearly not right. I'm fairly sure that "Victory pipes are also possible/And give money to pennies" or "Perhaps the pipes are victorious/And give the money to a penny" is a misconstruing of the 'and... and' construction that would apply the verb 'to give out/away' across both lines, to both the 'pipes' (trubi in the context of victory are pretty definitely 'trumpets' and not pipes) and the 'pennies'. So the first line is not "The victory trumpets are possible" but "It is possible to part with the trumpets of victory"/"and with every last penny" (especially since the following couplet is about the corresponding impossibility of parting with one's honour!)
( A hilariously off-the-wall alternative translation )
Much cookery
12 August 2025 12:03 amI acquired some more ground-plums (the windfall plums that one picks up from the ground; it beggars belief for me that the general public will happily strip the blackberries from alongside the path before they are properly ready, so that nobody gets to enjoy them properly, and yet is prepared to let ripe plums that fall onto that same path rot, get trodden into the ground, and otherwise go to waste, either because they don't know what they are or because they are terrified of 'dirt') and some windfall apples, and had to spend the evening cooking in order to combat the swarm of fruit-flies that were staggering around the kitchen. (The flies were already there but made a bee-line for any slightly damaged fruit!)
I ended up making a German plum cake (not terribly successful with these small wild plums, as the stones cling to the flesh and they cannot be halved -- in the end I just squeezed most of the stones out of the skins), a plum and apple crumble, and a sponge cake (unrelated), while peeling and chopping the remaining apples to put in the freezer as an emergency measure. It's just as well that I failed to pick any elderberries this year, although rather a shame...
These are the yellow plums from one of the other trees, which may be mirabelles -- but the red plums are the same size. It's because they are so small that they are able to fall from the tree without significant damage; commercial plums would split open after dropping from that height.
I ended up making a German plum cake (not terribly successful with these small wild plums, as the stones cling to the flesh and they cannot be halved -- in the end I just squeezed most of the stones out of the skins), a plum and apple crumble, and a sponge cake (unrelated), while peeling and chopping the remaining apples to put in the freezer as an emergency measure. It's just as well that I failed to pick any elderberries this year, although rather a shame...
These are the yellow plums from one of the other trees, which may be mirabelles -- but the red plums are the same size. It's because they are so small that they are able to fall from the tree without significant damage; commercial plums would split open after dropping from that height.
I did eventually get round to splitting up the beetroot. I also split up the pink Linaria, which had become very tangled together, and gave the plants sticks to stop them flopping everywhere.
I hope they do better than the coriander, where two-thirds of the seedlings I pricked out have simply died -- admittedly I did observe at the time that there wasn't much root on them, and it has meant that the remaining seedlings in the original pot have been less crowded.
( Tomatoes )
I hope they do better than the coriander, where two-thirds of the seedlings I pricked out have simply died -- admittedly I did observe at the time that there wasn't much root on them, and it has meant that the remaining seedlings in the original pot have been less crowded.
( Tomatoes )
The sweet peas are all now finally over, with the plants dried up and no longer green (along with the pods, of which I found three or four in the end; it will be interesting to see if anything grows from them and whether it rivals the first-generation seed!) So I was finally able to clear all the pots, which has freed up a lot of space. The problem was previously that some of the plants had died while at least one was still flowering, but that the stems were so tangled together that I simply couldn't tell which pots could be safely disposed of without killing off the live buds!
( Swan River daisies )
( Basil )
The kale that was pricked out is not doing nearly so well as the seedlings that were left in the original (with no drainage holes, since it was supposed to live on the windowsill) tub, which is mainly because they are being eaten by caterpillars still :-(
The beetroot on the windowsill (of which I now have four plus a runt) badly need potting up as well, but I don't have the energy left for that...
( Swan River daisies )
( Basil )
The kale that was pricked out is not doing nearly so well as the seedlings that were left in the original (with no drainage holes, since it was supposed to live on the windowsill) tub, which is mainly because they are being eaten by caterpillars still :-(
The beetroot on the windowsill (of which I now have four plus a runt) badly need potting up as well, but I don't have the energy left for that...
After finishing this book, I realised that I still have no idea what the "previously undetected central theme" of the painting, as trailed on the back cover, is actually claimed to be! The theorised existence of a set of geometrical figures superimposed on the images? The repeated encoding of a gradient of 1 in 2 in various increasingly esoteric interpretations? The author, John North, is certainly no Dan Brown, and he isn't attempting to make out a code to any world-shaking secrets or hidden treasures; his arguments appear to mainly hinge around geometry and relative angles, but having read them all I find myself unclear as to where they are actually supposed to lead.
And I can't help remembering that this is a picture of two human beings, one of whom presumably paid Holbein to paint it to commemorate his meeting with the other, and without seeking to encode any mystical knowledge (since by the author's own admission neither of the sitters was any sort of expert in the fields with which he is seeking to associate the portrait's content, and moreover neither was Holbein himself). So the whole theory seems to rest on the presumption that a *fourth party* -- identified by the author as the astronomer Nicolaus Kratzer, whom he points out is known to have collaborated with Holbein on at least one previous occasion -- calculated and asked Holbein to insert a lot of extra details into a painting that was already being produced for another purpose, and I don't really see what any of them would have got out of this.( Read more... )
And I can't help remembering that this is a picture of two human beings, one of whom presumably paid Holbein to paint it to commemorate his meeting with the other, and without seeking to encode any mystical knowledge (since by the author's own admission neither of the sitters was any sort of expert in the fields with which he is seeking to associate the portrait's content, and moreover neither was Holbein himself). So the whole theory seems to rest on the presumption that a *fourth party* -- identified by the author as the astronomer Nicolaus Kratzer, whom he points out is known to have collaborated with Holbein on at least one previous occasion -- calculated and asked Holbein to insert a lot of extra details into a painting that was already being produced for another purpose, and I don't really see what any of them would have got out of this.( Read more... )
Grumpy poet's complaint
9 August 2025 05:25 pmHow can it be *this* difficult to translate four lines of poetry? :-(
( Rhyme and reason )
(Meanwhile I'm listening to an interview with the lyricist, Leonid Derbenov, who is cheerfully talking about turning out four or five new songs in appropriate styles on command...)
Translators' humour: https://russievirtuelle.com/textes/humour/traducteurs.htm
(from someone who has translated a *lot* of Russian lyrics, including the entirety of the musical Собака на сене featuring Mikhail Boyarsky's song -- but hasn't attempted this one!)
( Rhyme and reason )
(Meanwhile I'm listening to an interview with the lyricist, Leonid Derbenov, who is cheerfully talking about turning out four or five new songs in appropriate styles on command...)
Translators' humour: https://russievirtuelle.com/textes/humour/traducteurs.htm
(from someone who has translated a *lot* of Russian lyrics, including the entirety of the musical Собака на сене featuring Mikhail Boyarsky's song -- but hasn't attempted this one!)
1. Donne-moi d'abord le contexte.
2. Il me faut le contexte.
3. Non, c'est pas possible de traduire ce mot-là sans le contexte, donne-le moi enfin!
( Read more... )
I stumbled across the Italian comedy film "Moschettieri del re" by accident (in its Russian dub, under the YouTube title "4 Musketeers are miserable leading a boring peaceful life") and actually enjoyed it a good deal; as a piece of cinema I think this is more successful than the Russian "Return of the Musketeers", and in a not dissimilar vein, being set at about the same period of history and painted with an equally broad brush in terms of fantastic improbability. The fact that as a native English-speaker I was watching it in Russian obviously means that I was missing out on any finer points in the script and wasn't in a position to judge the quality or delivery of the original Italian dialogue in any case, but I thought it worked.
( Read more... )
This film doesn't really have a plot -- beyond the opening gambit of "The Musketeers reunite thirty years later" -- but there is a reason for that. Meanwhile it's a series of episodic adventures towards an unknown end, in the spirit of an ongoing serial or soap opera. It has a decent Athos, which is always a selling-point so far as I am concerned, even if he does have a face like Toby Jones :-p The characters are well-defined and remain consistent to the updated versions of themselves that have been established, and I particularly liked the direction in which the older Aramis was developed here. I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did, and even if it wasn't 'real' Russian it was still good practice!
( And I was able to understand large chunks of it on first hearing )
( Read more... )
This film doesn't really have a plot -- beyond the opening gambit of "The Musketeers reunite thirty years later" -- but there is a reason for that. Meanwhile it's a series of episodic adventures towards an unknown end, in the spirit of an ongoing serial or soap opera. It has a decent Athos, which is always a selling-point so far as I am concerned, even if he does have a face like Toby Jones :-p The characters are well-defined and remain consistent to the updated versions of themselves that have been established, and I particularly liked the direction in which the older Aramis was developed here. I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did, and even if it wasn't 'real' Russian it was still good practice!
( And I was able to understand large chunks of it on first hearing )
Pricking out
2 August 2025 06:14 pmI pricked out some of my rocket -- which has just about recovered from the caterpillar, though I found another caterpillar this morning on one of my newly-pricked-out pots of kale -- and coriander, which was getting very crowded even though I have been thinning it for culinary use. I have to say there wasn't a lot of root on the seedlings that I did remove...
I saw a ladybird this afternoon, and hope that it might show some interest in the blackfly, but even if it does produce larvae that will be far too little, too late. I strongly suspect the ants of 'farming' the blackfly on purpose :-(
( Rudbeckia and beetroot )
I am currently on strong antibiotics again due to another infected wound, which means adhering to a six-hour pill schedule -- and, as previously, does wonders for the regularity of my eating habits, since the pills have to be taken "on an empty stomach" at least one hour before food or two hours after. Which means, in effect, no eating between meals, and the meals have to take place at fairly evenly-spaced intervals.( The concerning thing is that it takes an outside imperative... )
I saw a ladybird this afternoon, and hope that it might show some interest in the blackfly, but even if it does produce larvae that will be far too little, too late. I strongly suspect the ants of 'farming' the blackfly on purpose :-(
( Rudbeckia and beetroot )
I am currently on strong antibiotics again due to another infected wound, which means adhering to a six-hour pill schedule -- and, as previously, does wonders for the regularity of my eating habits, since the pills have to be taken "on an empty stomach" at least one hour before food or two hours after. Which means, in effect, no eating between meals, and the meals have to take place at fairly evenly-spaced intervals.( The concerning thing is that it takes an outside imperative... )
Why warn against Mordaunt?
2 August 2025 02:41 pmI had vaguely assumed that Athos and Aramis, having arrived in England at the tail-end of the Civil War, had served for several months in the King's army before the final surrender. But in fact the King describes them on that last morning as deux amis de huit jours que je n’oublierai jamais; apparently they have been in England for only about a week (in which case, to be honest, it is very surprising that he places such trust in them -- and astonishing that Aramis, who speaks English but unlike Athos has not lived there, is able to understand what is said to be the Lowland dialect of the sentry with whom he converses :-p)
The letter that Athos sends to d'Artagnan to say that they are in a very bad situation (and that his friend should assume that he is dead if no further word is heard for a space of two and a half months) must therefore have been written almost immediately when they arrived in England, which seems an improbably swift descent into despair; ( Read more... ) It cannot surely be merely because Mordaunt shouted "See you in England" after their boat as it rowed away?
The letter that Athos sends to d'Artagnan to say that they are in a very bad situation (and that his friend should assume that he is dead if no further word is heard for a space of two and a half months) must therefore have been written almost immediately when they arrived in England, which seems an improbably swift descent into despair; ( Read more... ) It cannot surely be merely because Mordaunt shouted "See you in England" after their boat as it rowed away?
Veg progress
26 July 2025 05:32 pmI pricked out three pots of assorted kale seedlings, and redistributed the remainder a little in the freed space in the pot; they are of course all horribly leggy due to having started life on the kitchen windowsill. The beetroot that I planted at the same time failed to germinate anything but poppies and chickweed, so I emptied the last of the matter remaining in the paper bag into the tub a few days ago, and think I *may* now have something with a reddish stem developing (even if the first thing that came up from the second attempt was undoubtedly a double-fronded California poppy!)
( Tomatoes )
I also repotted the larger chilli, which needed it. Both chillies are noew flowering nicely.
( Tomatoes )
I also repotted the larger chilli, which needed it. Both chillies are noew flowering nicely.
I bought myself a present -- the matching volume to the Oxford English-Russian Dictionary that I purchased from new at the start of the 1990s :-)
At the time they were extremely expensive, and I made do in the Russian-English direction with a couple of free dictionaries that turned up as jumble-sale discards: the invaluable 1970s miniature Pocket Oxford Russian-English Dictionary, a reduced version of the full-size edition containing 'nearly 30,000 words', and an ancient Moscow-printed Русско-английский словарь (presumably brought back by one of my parents' peace-activist friends) of 34,000 words, "not primarily intended for the reader whose native language is English".
However, forty years later I was finally able to treat myself to the missing volume of the full Oxford dictionary at what turned out to be a ridiculously low price, now that all second-hand booksellers are online (no, I didn't buy it from Amazon). ( Read more... )
Meanwhile I have half an uncaptioned documentary remaining to decipher by ear :-)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTu6sH8P9w4
(The first half had auto-generated Russian subtitles, and offered an auto-translation of them at yet another remove of accuracy. But it cut out at the one-hour mark in the middle of the programme. I managed to find an alternative upload with the full broadcast in it, but that one is completely without AI subtitling whatsoever... which is the point at which I'm always grateful that I make a point of listening *without* the subtitles first, so that (a) it doesn't come as so much of a shock when whole sections drop out for technical reasons, and (b) I'm getting practice in Russian audio comprehension without any 'training wheels' at all, which is significantly useful in those (not infrequent) cases where there is no alternative!)
At the time they were extremely expensive, and I made do in the Russian-English direction with a couple of free dictionaries that turned up as jumble-sale discards: the invaluable 1970s miniature Pocket Oxford Russian-English Dictionary, a reduced version of the full-size edition containing 'nearly 30,000 words', and an ancient Moscow-printed Русско-английский словарь (presumably brought back by one of my parents' peace-activist friends) of 34,000 words, "not primarily intended for the reader whose native language is English".
However, forty years later I was finally able to treat myself to the missing volume of the full Oxford dictionary at what turned out to be a ridiculously low price, now that all second-hand booksellers are online (no, I didn't buy it from Amazon). ( Read more... )
Meanwhile I have half an uncaptioned documentary remaining to decipher by ear :-)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTu6sH8P9w4
(The first half had auto-generated Russian subtitles, and offered an auto-translation of them at yet another remove of accuracy. But it cut out at the one-hour mark in the middle of the programme. I managed to find an alternative upload with the full broadcast in it, but that one is completely without AI subtitling whatsoever... which is the point at which I'm always grateful that I make a point of listening *without* the subtitles first, so that (a) it doesn't come as so much of a shock when whole sections drop out for technical reasons, and (b) I'm getting practice in Russian audio comprehension without any 'training wheels' at all, which is significantly useful in those (not infrequent) cases where there is no alternative!)
Finally found the huge fat caterpillar that has been ravaging my new rocket and leaving frass everywhere -- I hope that was the only one, but am not confident. It has put paid to my intention to harvest rocket for my salad today, at any rate.
Something has also eaten the tops off one end of my kale seedlings after I left them outdoors overnight, but I think that may be snails. The very old stump of kale that I harvested the dried seed-pods from to sow this batch resolutely refused to die after being left indoors unwatered for a week or so in the heat in order to dry out the compost so I could empty the pot, and started putting out new feathery leaves, so I have relented, put it back outside, and started watering it again. After the recent downpours it appears to be flourishing! The variety was, I believe, Uncle Bert's Purple Kale, but since this was originally a self-seeded survivor dug out of the border ("rescued") it is clearly extremely vigorous. Just what I like in my 'heritage' plants :-)
Something has also eaten the tops off one end of my kale seedlings after I left them outdoors overnight, but I think that may be snails. The very old stump of kale that I harvested the dried seed-pods from to sow this batch resolutely refused to die after being left indoors unwatered for a week or so in the heat in order to dry out the compost so I could empty the pot, and started putting out new feathery leaves, so I have relented, put it back outside, and started watering it again. After the recent downpours it appears to be flourishing! The variety was, I believe, Uncle Bert's Purple Kale, but since this was originally a self-seeded survivor dug out of the border ("rescued") it is clearly extremely vigorous. Just what I like in my 'heritage' plants :-)
Sweeney Todd: the full narration
20 July 2025 11:40 amI discovered that somebody had very kindly clipped, subtitled and uploaded Venjiamin Smekhov's entire declamatory narration from between the musical numbers of the "Korol' i Shut" musical :-)
NB: "Frant" is, in fact, simply the Russian word for 'dandy' (which I suppose tells you something about the sort of period Russian vocabulary I had acquired even pre-Musketeers, along with words like 'velvet'!) and not the gentleman's actual name, as the subtitles suggest :-p
And the translation 'temple' simply refers to a Protestant church, as in French...
NB: "Frant" is, in fact, simply the Russian word for 'dandy' (which I suppose tells you something about the sort of period Russian vocabulary I had acquired even pre-Musketeers, along with words like 'velvet'!) and not the gentleman's actual name, as the subtitles suggest :-p
And the translation 'temple' simply refers to a Protestant church, as in French...
Plant progress
19 July 2025 09:06 pmIt rained heavily, and despite all my previous efforts at pouring water into them at least twice a day, the ripe tomatoes on a couple of my plants split. They do at least now have seeds in :-)
The Roma tomatoes don't seem to have split, despite being larger, but the first few are pretty much ready to pick now. Small by the standards of your average tinned tomato, but considerably larger than the one-and-a-half-inch towel-tomatoes!
Meanwhile the catch-up towel-tomato has set its first fruit, and the chilli has several, which will now have several months in which to ripen before the autumn ;-) The smaller chilli has its first flower-buds.
We have a couple of tiny plump mesembryanthemum seedlings.
The Roma tomatoes don't seem to have split, despite being larger, but the first few are pretty much ready to pick now. Small by the standards of your average tinned tomato, but considerably larger than the one-and-a-half-inch towel-tomatoes!
Meanwhile the catch-up towel-tomato has set its first fruit, and the chilli has several, which will now have several months in which to ripen before the autumn ;-) The smaller chilli has its first flower-buds.
We have a couple of tiny plump mesembryanthemum seedlings.
Plant update
17 July 2025 09:48 amThe larger chilli is nine and a half inches tall and is now in full flower (and I think has set its first nub of fruit) and the small one is seven inches and growing vigorously, and needs repotting. I have had some tomatoes with seeds in, although there are still coming out seedless; the catch-up towel-tomato is now bushy and flowering, and the others are now looking a bit droopy and past it, though that may be from the weight of fruit having bent down the branches -- the Roma tomatoes are ripening, and that plant is still looking quite perky at the tip. I don't actually know if this is a determinate or indeterminate variety (the others are definitely dwarf bush tomatoes), so that may well be the difference!
( Honesty(?), cornflowers, purple packet, rudbeckia )
The kale on the window sill germinated within only a couple of days, to my surprise; a couple of seedlings came up last night in the beetroot tub, but I rather suspect they are not actually beetroot.
The eating peas have definitely finished and the plant dried up, but I can't actually remove it as its stick is currently supporting the neighbouring towel-tomato... The sweet peas have almost finished likewise, but they were definitely a great success. I have left one pod on, but I am not sure it will actually develop into anything before the parent plant simply dies off.
( Honesty(?), cornflowers, purple packet, rudbeckia )
The kale on the window sill germinated within only a couple of days, to my surprise; a couple of seedlings came up last night in the beetroot tub, but I rather suspect they are not actually beetroot.
The eating peas have definitely finished and the plant dried up, but I can't actually remove it as its stick is currently supporting the neighbouring towel-tomato... The sweet peas have almost finished likewise, but they were definitely a great success. I have left one pod on, but I am not sure it will actually develop into anything before the parent plant simply dies off.
The Red Horse Song
16 July 2025 06:39 pmHere is my best attempt at a literal rendition of the "Рыжий конь" lyric:
( Literal text )
Here is Boyarsky -- who as 'Soviet D'Artagnan' had of course learned to ride, and ride one-handed, for sword-wielding purposes! (Note also that Soviet Woman comes to the rescue of the struggling menfolk in matters of automotive mechanics :-p)
And this is my 'singing translation':
( Notes )
( Literal text )
Here is Boyarsky -- who as 'Soviet D'Artagnan' had of course learned to ride, and ride one-handed, for sword-wielding purposes! (Note also that Soviet Woman comes to the rescue of the struggling menfolk in matters of automotive mechanics :-p)
And this is my 'singing translation':
The motorway stretches as taut as a bow-string
And over the concrete the tyres thrum their song
I race down the road in my roaring steel motor
Where Great-Grandpa's chestnut went trotting along.
CHORUS:
I'm in a rush the whole day long
But all the same the whole day long
I fail to reach, the whole day long
A hundred vital places...
At night I dream about a horse
It comes to me, a chestnut horse
I feel its breath, that chestnut horse
With lilac eyes it gazes!
Great-Grandfather's scent was all minty and herbal
While I leave a reeking blue haze of exhaust -
I've nine dozen horsepower under my bonnet,
But Great-Grandpa managed with only one horse!
CHORUS:
I'm in a rush the whole day long [...]
But please don't conclude that I'm out of my senses -
That horse and that era have both gone for good.
Just take off your shoes, that is all I'm suggesting -
Go barefoot on grass as Great-Grandfather would!
CHORUS (x2):
I'm in a rush the whole day long
But all the same the whole day long
I fail to reach the whole day long
A hundred vital places...
At night I dream about a horse
It comes to me, a chestnut horse
I feel its breath, that chestnut horse
With lilac eyes it gazes!
( Notes )
The wind is in the east
12 July 2025 09:36 pmThe wind has swung round from its prevailing southwesterly direction (about 80-90% of the time) to blow pretty much dead east. Which may mean a welcome change in the weather, although the forecast is for more stiflingly hot days, but unfortunately means that there are now low-flying aircraft making their final landing approach every two to three minutes, which is sufficient to render spoken Russian at least completely unintelligible -- I simply can't fill in the 'missing bits' the way that I automatically do with English. And I can't very well shut the windows, because it's boiling hot indoors and I'm desperately trying to flush the day's accumulated heat out now that the sun has at last gone down outside.
It gives you an insight into the level of educational disruption proverbially experienced by pupils of schools under a regular flightpath :-(
It gives you an insight into the level of educational disruption proverbially experienced by pupils of schools under a regular flightpath :-(
Verse translation
12 July 2025 03:39 pmI'm busy translating Mikhail Boyarsky's "Рыжий конь" (or to be more accurate, the Dobrynin/Derbenov song that happened to be a hit for Boyarsky in 1986) -- backwards, for no entirely good reason other than that I not only started with the chorus but then translated the last verse first :-) (And what *is* it about Russians and running barefoot over the grass? Is it some kind of atavistic folk-memory? At least I now recognise the phrase in question...!)
Naturally one does tend to translate rhyming couplets backwards, because there is no point in getting the perfect rendition of the first half only to then realise that there is no earthly way of getting anything to rhyme with that...( Read more... )
Four more lines to go. Now I remember why I didn't start with the first verse; this is the one where I don't actually know what any of the words mean and shall have to go away and research them first. (My motoring vocabulary is sorely lacking, even if I do know two different words for 'horse' and two for 'sword' respectively :-D)
( Parallel French text and grammar )
The woes of trying to do translation when all you have going for you is a really good command of English and just enough of another language to scratch out the meaning...
Since I now have two long and narrow empty margarine tubs suitable to balance on my windowsill, I have tried planting up some of the kale and beetroot that went to seed, to see if it will grow (and eat as 'baby leaves' if it does). The kale is nice little round black seeds in dry white pods; the beetroot is pretty much invisible among the general black muck in the bottom of the paper bag, if there is any actual seed in there at all. However I did get unexpected germination from my previous attempts to plant from this collected seed-spike...
I also sowed some more mesembryanthemums ( Read more... )
Naturally one does tend to translate rhyming couplets backwards, because there is no point in getting the perfect rendition of the first half only to then realise that there is no earthly way of getting anything to rhyme with that...( Read more... )
Four more lines to go. Now I remember why I didn't start with the first verse; this is the one where I don't actually know what any of the words mean and shall have to go away and research them first. (My motoring vocabulary is sorely lacking, even if I do know two different words for 'horse' and two for 'sword' respectively :-D)
( Parallel French text and grammar )
The woes of trying to do translation when all you have going for you is a really good command of English and just enough of another language to scratch out the meaning...
Since I now have two long and narrow empty margarine tubs suitable to balance on my windowsill, I have tried planting up some of the kale and beetroot that went to seed, to see if it will grow (and eat as 'baby leaves' if it does). The kale is nice little round black seeds in dry white pods; the beetroot is pretty much invisible among the general black muck in the bottom of the paper bag, if there is any actual seed in there at all. However I did get unexpected germination from my previous attempts to plant from this collected seed-spike...
I also sowed some more mesembryanthemums ( Read more... )
I picked this book up halfway through at random (to be precise, at the scene where Stephen is clawing desperately at the hands of Pierre Bussac, who is trying to strangle him), read from there to the end, and found the novel to be very much better than I had remembered. And Stephen, "clever, sensitive, gentle" -- who rejects the role of storybook hero and ends up ignominiously defeated when forced into the thoroughly unromantic business of real-life combat, then solves the problem with his intelligence -- is precisely the type of protagonist who appeals to me, as does his ability to subjugate his own long-held desires to Jennifer's immediate need for fraternal comfort and support, rather than playing the he-man and insisting on sweeping her off her feet. I liked the shift in perceptions of Bussac a lot, as well, from terrifying menace to the lesser of two evils to brave ally (and like Jennifer I was sorry that he died, although obviously it simplified the outcome of the plot!)
Then I went back to the beginning and read the book all the way through in order as intended, and found myself back at my original impression of this as being one of Mary Stewart's less satisfactory books, which is a very odd outcome! ( Read more... )
Then I went back to the beginning and read the book all the way through in order as intended, and found myself back at my original impression of this as being one of Mary Stewart's less satisfactory books, which is a very odd outcome! ( Read more... )
